Jeremias 6:26

26 O daughter of my people, gird thyself with sackcloth: sprinkle with ashes; make for thyself pitiable lamentation, the mourning for a beloved : for misery will come suddenly upon you.

Jeremias 6:26 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 6:26

O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth
Either as a token of repentance for sin; so the king of Nineveh and his subjects did, to show their repentance, ( Jonah 3:6 Jonah 3:8 ) or as a sign of mourning, for the calamities coming on them, ( Genesis 37:34 ) and wallow thyself in ashes;
or roll thyself in them, as a token of the same. The Targum is,

``cover your heads with ashes.''
Make thee mourning as for an only son;
which of all is the most bitter: and therefore it is added, most bitter lamentation;
see ( Zechariah 12:10 ) . For the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us;
namely, Nebuchadnezzar, that would spoil their cities, towns, villages, and houses, and them of all their wealth and substance, and carry it away.

Jeremias 6:26 In-Context

24 We have heard the report of them: our hands are weakened: anguish has seized us, the pangs as of a woman in travail.
25 Go not forth into the field, and walk not in the ways; for the sword of the enemy lingers round about.
26 O daughter of my people, gird thyself with sackcloth: sprinkle with ashes; make for thyself pitiable lamentation, the mourning for a beloved : for misery will come suddenly upon you.
27 I have caused thee to be tried among tried nations, and thou shalt know me when I have tried their way.
28 all disobedient, walking perversely: brass and iron; they are all corrupted.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.