Properly, a mesh (as allowing a liquid to run through), i.e. coarse loose cloth or sacking (used in mourning and for bagging); hence, a bag (for grain, etc.)
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through the Connect page. Screenshots are helpful.
שַׂק (śaq) is the Hebrew noun for a sack or coarse cloth. Leviticus can refer to an ordinary sack-like object, while narratives, poetry, and prophecy describe people wearing or spreading the material in grief, distress, humiliation, repentance, or a prophetic sign.
Reader summary
Full entry for שַׂק (H8242) · Open the biblical lexicon
שַׂק (śaq) is the Hebrew noun for a sack or coarse cloth. Leviticus can refer to an ordinary sack-like object, while narratives, poetry, and prophecy describe people wearing or spreading the material in grief, distress, humiliation, repentance, or a prophetic sign.
The BSB source-word alignment has 48 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include sackcloth (25), in sackcloth (6), his sack (2), the sackcloth (2), with sackcloth (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 37:34. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (8), Genesis (5), 1 Kings (4), Esther (4).
שַׂק (śaq) is the Hebrew noun for a sack or coarse cloth. Leviticus can refer to an ordinary sack-like object, while narratives, poetry, and prophecy describe people wearing or spreading the material in grief, distress, humiliation, repentance, or a prophetic sign. Its precise fiber, color, and manufacture should not be asserted uniformly from the lexeme alone.
Jacob wears sackcloth while mourning Joseph; communities use it under threat; Isaiah performs a prophetic sign; Rizpah spreads it during a long vigil over exposed bodies; and Psalm 30 remembers sackcloth being replaced by joy. Nineveh's people and ruler wear it while calling for a turn from violence. Jonah says that God sees what they do, that they turn from their evil way, so the cloth is a sign within the response rather than a mechanism that compels mercy.
Isaiah 58 directly challenges a fast marked by sackcloth while exploitation continues. Outward lament or penitence can be sincere, partial, politically staged, or empty, and only its context and fruit permit responsible assessment. Scripture does not require a contemporary mourner or penitent to wear rough cloth, fast, harm the body, involve animals, or display grief publicly. Communities should make room for culturally varied, voluntary expressions without policing emotion or replacing repair, restitution, justice, nutrition, hygiene, medication, or clinical care.
H8242 names ordinary sack material and cloth used in individual or communal mourning, crisis, humiliation, repentance, royal response, prophetic sign, protest, and poetic reversal.
Jacob puts sackcloth around his waist and mourns Joseph for many days after accepting the false report of his death.
The term refers to a sack or article made from the material in purity instruction, demonstrating an ordinary object use rather than mourning.
Isaiah removes the sackcloth from his body as part of a commanded prophetic sign concerning Egypt and Cush.
The prophet rejects sackcloth and ashes as an acceptable fast when people continue exploitation and strife.
Nineveh's people proclaim a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least after Jonah's warning.
The royal decree joins sackcloth and urgent prayer to a demand that everyone turn from evil and violence; the narrative later emphasizes that turning.
The singer describes sackcloth being removed and replaced with joy, portraying reversal after distress.
Rizpah spreads sackcloth on a rock and keeps vigil over the bodies, a scene of maternal grief amid political violence and denied burial.
Ahab fasts, wears sackcloth, and humbles himself after Elijah's judgment; the delay of disaster acknowledges the humbling without declaring his whole reign righteous.
Jewish communities respond to the extermination decree with mourning, fasting, weeping, sackcloth, and ashes.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Coarse fabric embodying mourning ritual; shifts from garment to container, grief to practicality.
Coarse fabric embodying mourning ritual; shifts from garment to container, grief to practicality.
properly, a mesh (as allowing a liquid to run through), i.e. coarse loose cloth or sacking (used in mourning and for bagging); hence, a bag (for grain, etc.) BDB: sack Usage: sack(-cloth, -clothes).
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 48 lexical occurrence verses.
שַׂק is built from this root:
Greek words that correspond to or develop the meaning of this Hebrew word in the New Testament.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H8242 can help communities recover embodied lament without romanticizing pain or turning a cultural sign into a rule. Jacob's grief, Rizpah's vigil, Esther's threatened communities, Isaiah's sign, Nineveh's response, and Isaiah 58's critique show different functions. Jonah does not say that cloth purchases mercy; God sees the people's turning from violence. Ahab's humbling affects the announced timing but does not erase Naboth's murder, restore the stolen vineyard, or validate Ahab's reign.
Rizpah's sackcloth belongs to prolonged grief and protest over bodies exposed by state violence, so the passage should not be reduced to a generic devotional posture. Contemporary mourners may need silence, food, sleep, medicine, therapy, legal advocacy, memorial practices, or private space. No leader should compel rough clothing, fasting, public confession, sleep deprivation, exposure, or self-punishment.
Grief has no uniform appearance or timetable, and a lack of visible emotion is not proof of hardness.
Gen.37.34
H8242 names a material or item before it names any spiritual condition. Wearing, girding, spreading, or lying in sackcloth supplies context for mourning or humiliation. Material descriptions beyond coarse sackcloth require historical evidence and should not be inferred as fixed lexical features.
New Testament sackcloth language uses Greek sakkos in warnings, repentance comparisons, and apocalyptic imagery. Those passages preserve the recognizable sign while requiring their own interpretation; they do not impose literal sackcloth as a universal Christian discipline.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain