I made sackcloth my clothing, and I was sport to them.
Parallel translations
- WEB When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
- KJV I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb to them.
- NKJV I also made sackcloth my garment; I became a byword to them.
- NASB When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a proverb to them.
- NLT When I dress in burlap to show sorrow, they make fun of me.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
When David wore sackcloth in grief, he became a laughingstock and a byword. It shows public humiliation endured for the sake of devotion.
Overview
David's mourning garments, a sign of humble sorrow before God, made him an object of ridicule and a proverb of contempt. His sincere humility was twisted into a joke by his enemies. Such undeserved scorn for godliness foreshadows the mockery Christ endured, and it reminds the faithful that the world often despises what God honors.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Jer 24:9I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.
- 1 Kgs 9:7then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.
- Job 17:6He has made me a byword among the people, a man in whose face they spit.
- Deut 28:37You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.
- Isa 22:12On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth.
- Ps 44:13–14You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us.
- Isa 20:2the LORD had already spoken through Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go, remove the sackcloth from your waist and the sandals from your feet.” And Isaiah did so, walking around naked and barefoot.
- Joel 1:8Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.
- Ps 35:13–14Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.
- Joel 1:13Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 69:11 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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