When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a proverb 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.
- BSB I made sackcloth my clothing, and I was sport to them.
- NKJV I also made sackcloth my garment; I became a byword 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 even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.
- 1 Kgs 9:7then I will cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and I will cast this house, which I have made holy for my name, out of my sight; and Israel will be a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
- Job 17:6“But he has made me a byword of the people. They spit in my face.
- Deut 28:37You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away.
- Isa 22:12In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth:
- Ps 44:13–14You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us.
- Isa 20:2at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, “Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your shoes from off your feet.” He did so, walking naked and barefoot.
- Joel 1:8Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!
- Ps 35:13–14But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom.
- Joel 1:13Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.
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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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