שַׂק
sackcloth
also: mesh, sack, sacking fuller range ↓
Full lexicon entry — Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
From Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB)
Where this word appears
See every Absolute-state word in the Hebrew Bible →
Grammar key — what these labels mean
Part of speech
- Noun
- A naming word — a person, place, thing, or idea.
Noun type
- Common
- A common noun — a general class of person, place, or thing (“king,” “city,” “water”), not a specific name.
State
- Absolute
- The independent form of a noun, not bound to a following word.
- Construct
- A noun bound to a following noun in a possessive / “of” relationship (the construct chain).
Gender
- Masculine
- Grammatically masculine.
Number
- Singular
- One.
- Plural
- More than one (in Hebrew, generally three or more).
Grammatical forms
- Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Absolute 26 times (54%)
- Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Absolute 16 times (33%)
- Noun, Common, Masculine, Singular, Construct 5 times (10%)
- Noun, Common, Masculine, Plural, Construct 1 time (2%)
Parsed forms decoded from the imported morphology (morphhb / Westminster Leningrad Codex — WLC text public domain, morphhb tagging CC BY 4.0), counted across 48 parsed occurrences — not distinct verses.
Every verse where H8242 appears — 46 distinct verses across 19 books. Click any verse to open its interlinear word-by-word view. Verse text shown in the World English Bible for context — . Each verse’s Hebrew form is shown with its reference; the English is not keyword-highlighted, since the data carries no word-level English alignment. Use “Compare translations” on any verse to read it across multiple English versions. This concordance covers the Hebrew Bible; Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) occurrences are not indexed here.
Genesis 4 verses
- Genesis 37:34 שַׂ֖ק n c ms Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
- Genesis 42:25 שַׂקּ֔/וֹ n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms Then Joseph commanded to fill their bags with grain, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them food for the way. So it done to them.
- Genesis 42:27 שַׂקּ֗/וֹ n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms As one of them opened his sack to give his donkey food in the lodging-place, he saw his money. Behold, it was in the mouth of his sack.
- Genesis 42:35 שַׂקֵּי/הֶ֔ם בְּ/שַׂקּ֑/וֹ n c mp cs + sfx pers 3mp prep + n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms It happened as they emptied their sacks, that behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. When they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid.
Leviticus 1 verse
Joshua 1 verse
2 Samuel 2 verses
- 2 Samuel 3:31 שַׂקִּ֔ים n c mp David said to Joab, and to all the people who were with him, Tear your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. King David followed the bier.
- 2 Samuel 21:10 הַ/שַּׂ֜ק ptcl def.art + n c ms Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for her on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water was poured on them from the sky; and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.
1 Kings 3 verses
- 1 Kings 20:31 שַׂקִּ֨ים n c mp His servants said to him, See now, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful kings: let us, we pray you, put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel: peradventure he will save your life.
- 1 Kings 20:32 שַׂקִּ֨ים n c mp So they girded sackcloth on their loins, and [put] ropes on their heads, and came to the king of Israel, and said, Your servant Ben Hadad says, please let me live. He said, Is he yet alive? he is my brother.
- 1 Kings 21:27 שַׂ֥ק בַּ/שָּׂ֔ק n c ms prep det + n c ms It happened, when Ahab heard those words, that he tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
2 Kings 3 verses
- 2 Kings 6:30 הַ/שַּׂ֛ק ptcl def.art + n c ms It happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes (now he was passing by on the wall); and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within on his flesh.
- 2 Kings 19:1 בַּ/שָּׂ֔ק prep det + n c ms It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh.
- 2 Kings 19:2 בַּ/שַּׂקִּ֑ים prep det + n c mp He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
1 Chronicles 1 verse
Nehemiah 1 verse
Esther 4 verses
- Esther 4:1 שַׂ֖ק n c ms Now when Mordecai knew all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;
- Esther 4:2 שָֽׂק n c ms and he came even before the king's gate: for none might enter within the king's gate clothed with sackcloth.
- Esther 4:3 שַׂ֣ק n c ms In every province, wherever the king's commandment and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.
- Esther 4:4 שַׂקּ֛/וֹ n c ms cs + sfx pers 3ms Esther's maidens and her chamberlains came and told it her; and the queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent clothing to clothe Mordecai, and to take his sackcloth from off him; but he didn't receive it.
Job 1 verse
Psalms 3 verses
- Psalms 30:11 שַׂקִּ֑/י n c ms cs + sfx pers 1cs You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,
- Psalms 35:13 שָׂ֗ק n c ms But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting. My prayer returned into my own bosom.
- Psalms 69:11 שָׂ֑ק n c ms When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
Isaiah 8 verses
- Isaiah 3:24 שָׂ֑ק n c ms It shall happen that instead of sweet spices, there shall be rottenness; Instead of a belt, a rope; Instead of well set hair, baldness; Instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; And branding instead of beauty.
- Isaiah 15:3 שָׂ֑ק n c ms In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth; on their housetops, and in their broad places, everyone wails, weeping abundantly.
- Isaiah 20:2 הַ/שַּׂק֙ ptcl def.art + n c ms at that time Yahweh spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put your shoe from off your foot. He did so, walking naked and barefoot.
- Isaiah 22:12 שָֽׂק n c ms In that day did the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts, call to weeping, and to mourning, and to baldness, and to girding with sackcloth:
- Isaiah 37:1 בַּ/שָּׂ֔ק prep det + n c ms It happened, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh.
- Isaiah 37:2 בַּ/שַּׂקִּ֑ים prep det + n c mp He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.
- Isaiah 50:3 וְ/שַׂ֖ק conj + n c ms I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
- Isaiah 58:5 וְ/שַׂ֤ק conj + n c ms Is such the fast that I have chosen? the day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a rush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to Yahweh?
Jeremiah 4 verses
- Jeremiah 4:8 שַׂקִּ֖ים n c mp For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of Yahweh hasn't turned back from us.
- Jeremiah 6:26 שָׂק֙ n c ms Daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow yourself in ashes: make you mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us.
- Jeremiah 48:37 שָֽׂק n c ms For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: on all the hands are cuttings, and on the loins sackcloth.
- Jeremiah 49:3 שַׂקִּ֔ים n c mp Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste; cry, you daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth: lament, and run back and forth among the fences; for Malcam shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together.
Lamentations 1 verse
Ezekiel 2 verses
- Ezekiel 7:18 שַׂקִּ֔ים n c mp They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads.
- Ezekiel 27:31 שַׂקִּ֑ים n c mp and they shall make themselves bald for you, and gird them with sackcloth, and they shall weep for you in bitterness of soul with bitter mourning.
Daniel 1 verse
Joel 2 verses
- Joel 1:8 שַׂ֖ק n c ms Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth!
- Joel 1:13 בַ/שַּׂקִּ֔ים prep det + n c mp Put 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.
Amos 1 verse
Jonah 3 verses
- Jonah 3:5 שַׂקִּ֔ים n c mp The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
- Jonah 3:6 שַׂ֔ק n c ms The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
- Jonah 3:8 שַׂקִּ֗ים n c mp but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in his hands.
About this entry
At a glance — auto-summarized from this page’s data, not written by a person. Every figure links to its source below. This summary describes the numbers; it doesn’t interpret them.
שק — transliterated saq — is a Hebrew noun carrying the sense “sackcloth.” Debuting at Genesis 37:34, it then recurs through the corpus. Spanning 46 verses in 19 books, it ranks among the moderately common words of the Hebrew Bible. It also covers “mesh”, “sack”, and “sacking”, alongside “sackcloth” — see its full sense range. From the same root come שקק, משק and σακκος. Each statement above links to its evidence; the full detail follows below.
Gloss history
Strong's 1890 vs modern scholarship
About this word
Strong's H8242 catalogs a Hebrew word from the Hebrew Old Testament.
These counts are not copied from any lexicon or concordance. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged Hebrew Old Testament. What Lemma adds →
- 46
- distinct verses
- The word appears in 46 distinct verses.
- 19 / 39
- OT books
- The word appears in 19 of 39 Old Testament books.
- #767
- by frequency
- Top 1000 most frequent Hebrew words (rank 767 of 8,640 Hebrew words by occurrence).
View all 46 occurrences in the concordance →
By section of the Old Testament
By traditional corpus
Conventional, traditional groupings — biblical authorship is debated, so this is a traditional corpus grouping, not an authorship claim. Each share is this word’s portion of its verses in that division of the Hebrew canon. Each figure is a share of the word’s 46 distinct verses.
- Prophets (Nevi'im) 29 verses · 63%
- Writings (Ketuvim) 12 verses · 26%
- Torah (Pentateuch) 5 verses · 11%
How translations render this word
Counts come from each version’s own published word-to-Strong’s tagging or interlinear alignment — an approximate guide to how each version renders this word, not a word-level alignment the data otherwise carries. Because each total is that version’s own tagged count, the per-version totals vary from one another and need not match the appearance or distinct-verse counts above. These counts may also differ from a printed concordance because Lemma counts each distinctly tagged rendering and does not collapse phrase taggings into a single head-word total. This is a fixed set of word-tagged versions (KJV, ASV, BSB, ULT) and does not change with the reading translation you choose elsewhere. Each version’s license is shown beside its name below (and on Sources).
- King James Version: Sackcloth 30×, Themselves with sackcloth 3×, You with sackcloth 3×
- American Standard Version: Sackcloth 27×, Themselves with sackcloth 3×, You with sackcloth 3×
- Berean Standard Bible: Sackcloth 40×, Sack 3×, Sacks 2×
- unfoldingWord Literal Text: Sackcloth 41×, And 2×, Sack 2×
King James Version Public Domain
Renders H8242 across 48 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 6 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
American Standard Version Public Domain
Renders H8242 across 48 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 9 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Berean Standard Bible Public Domain
Renders H8242 across 47 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 2 renderings that appear only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings. Not rendered by a distinct English word in 1 further occurrence.
unfoldingWord Literal Text CC BY-SA 4.0
Renders H8242 across 48 tagged occurrences — most commonly:
Plus 1 rendering that appears only once — usually multi-word phrases or single function words the recovered tagging swept in, not distinct renderings.
Senses in the full BDB
What do BDB’s symbols mean?
BDB uses these scholarly abbreviations:
| Symbol | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 𝔊 | the Septuagint (the ancient Greek translation, LXX) |
| 𝔙 | the Vulgate (the Latin translation) |
| 𝔖 | the Syriac version (the Peshitta) |
| 𝔗 | the Targum (the Aramaic translation) |
| ψ | the Psalms |
| √ | root (the underlying root or stem) |
| ‖ | parallel passage (a synonymous or contrasted parallel) |
| † | the dagger: every passage where the word occurs is cited |
The 4 senses and sub-senses the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon distinguishes for this word, in lexicon order (not ranked by frequency), with BDB’s own verbatim wording and sub-sense lettering. Shown in Hebrew script with BDB’s own scholarly abbreviations. The condensed entry is in the Lexicon Entry tab. See also the Forms in the corpus table below.
- 1. sack, for grain Gn 42:25, 27 (‖ אַמְתַּחַת), v 35(×2) (E), Jos 9:4 (JE), perhaps also Lv 11:32 (P). e.g. Genesis 42:25
- 2. sackcloth:
- a. worn in mourning and humiliation (v. NowArch. i. 192 f. SACookEncy. Bib. s.v.), either loose garment like sack, or piece of similar material (of rough, dark hair), fastened round body: put (שִׂים) on loins Gn 37:34 (J), 1 K 20:31, on (bare) flesh 21:27 2 K 6:30, cf. Je 48:37 Jb 16:15 (c. תָּפַר); וְהַעֲלֵיתִי עַל־כָּל־מָתְנַיִם שׂ׳ Am 8:10; usually חָגַר שַק 2 S 3:31 Is 15:3; 22:12, cf. 3:24, Je 4:8; 6:26; 49:3 Ez 7:18; 27:31 1 K 20:32 Jo 1:8 La 2:10; כִּסָּה בַּשּׂ׳ 2 K 19:1, 2 = Is 37:1, 2, Jon 3:6, 8 1 Ch 21:16, fig. of heavens (cf. קָדַר), שׂ׳ אָשִׂים כְּסוּתָם Is 50:3; late לָבַשׁ שׂ׳ put on sackcloth Jon 3:5 Est 4:1, cf. v:2 ψ 35:13; 69:12; בְּצוֹם וְשׂ׳ Ne 9:1, cf. Dn 9:3; פִּתַּח שׂ׳ loosen sackcloth Is 20:2 (+ מֵעַל), ψ 30:12 (opp. שִׂמְחָה), הֵסִיר שׂ׳ מֵעַל Est 4:4. e.g. Genesis 37:34
- b. same garment (or material) spread out (to lie on), 2 S 21:10 (c. הִטָּה), Is 58:5 (c. הִצִּיעַ), cf. Est 4:3; וַיִּשְׁכַּב בַּשׂ׳ 1 K 21:27, לִינוּ בַּשּׂ׳ Jo 1:13. e.g. 2 Samuel 21:10
Senses from the full Brown-Driver-Briggs lexicon (Brown, Driver, Briggs; Oxford 1906 — public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). Full attribution on Sources.
Word origin
n.m. Jos 9:4 sack sackcloth (v. SchwallyZAW xi (1891), 173 who conj. Egyptian origin; NH סַק sackcloth (rare); Assyrian šaḳḳu, sack (DlHWB 687 a), sackcloth (WklAltor. Forsch. vi. 44); Ethiopic ሠቅ = BH; Aramaic סַקָּא, ܣܰܩܳܐ; Gk. σάκκος LewyFremdw. 87);—abs. שׂ׳ Gn 37:34 +, שָׂ֑ק Je 48:37 +; sf. שַׂקִּי ψ 30:12, etc.; pl. שַׂקִּים Jos 9:4 +, sf. שַׂקֵּיהֶם Gn 42:35;—
— Brown-Driver-Briggs (Oxford 1906, public domain), digitized via Sefaria, supplemented by the OpenScriptures HebrewLexicon (CC BY 4.0). See Sources.
Derived from שקק (shâqaq) (H8264) — to run.
Jastrow Dictionary
A second Hebrew/Aramaic lexicon for comparison, covering Aramaic and post-biblical (Talmudic, Targumic, Midrashic) usage that the biblical-Hebrew BDB does not. Matched by lemma rather than by Strong’s number, so a lemma may carry more than one Jastrow headword (shown separately below), and the entries cover usage well beyond the Bible.
שֹׁק
- , v. שׁוֹק
שַׂק
- (b. h.) sack, sackcloth. Sifra Sh’mini, Par. 6, ch. VIII (ref. to Lev. XI, 32) מה שק מיוחד וכ׳ as sack, which is specified, is something spun and woven &c.; Sabb. 64ᵃ. Sifra l. c. אין לי אלא שק העשוי וכ׳ I may think that only sackcloth made of goats’ hair is meant. Succ. 20ᵇ; Tosef. Kel. B. Bath. IV, 14 של שק a mat made of sackcloth. Snh. 101ᵃ התורה חוגרת שק וכ׳ the Torah, girt with sackcloth, stands before the Lord &c.; a. fr.—Pl. שַׂקִּים, שַׂקִּין. Sabb. 62ᵃ, v. סַק II; a. e. e.g. Leviticus 11:32
שַׂק ²
- ch., v. סַק, סַקָּא.
A Dictionary of the Targumim, the Talmud Babli and Yerushalmi, and the Midrashic Literature (Marcus Jastrow; London, Luzac, 1903) — Public Domain. Digitized via Sefaria. Digitized via Sefaria. Full attribution on Sources.
Forms in the corpus
The 32 distinct written forms H8242 takes in the Hebrew Bible, most frequent first — each parse links to that state’s occurrences in the concordance. Hebrew forms include their vowel points and cantillation, so a single lemma takes many written forms.
Same root — word family
Other BDB entries built from the same root as H8242, grouped by Strong’s listed origin. These share a root / origin per the lexicon — not necessarily a shared meaning. Each links to that word’s own entry.
Derives from
Shares the same root
Derived from this word
Compare all same-root words → They share a root, not necessarily a meaning.
Septuagint verse parallels
This word appears in 40 verses that also exist in the Greek Old Testament (Septuagint), out of the 46 Hebrew verses it occurs in. You can read those verses in Greek by switching the Old Testament edition to the Septuagint.
Read these verses in the Septuagint
- Genesis 37:34
- Leviticus 11:32
- Joshua 9:4
- 2 Samuel 3:31
- 1 Kings 21:27
- 2 Kings 6:30
- 1 Chronicles 21:16
- Esther 4:1
- Job 16:15
- Psalms 30:11
- Isaiah 3:24
- Jeremiah 4:8
This is a verse-level parallel only — the same verses exist in both the Hebrew and Greek Old Testaments. No word-level Hebrew↔Greek correspondence is claimed: the data carries no such alignment, so no Greek word is shown as this Hebrew word’s translation. Coverage is not total — the Septuagint omits the deuterocanon and renumbers the Psalms, so some Hebrew verses have no direct Greek parallel.
