And Mordecai understood all that was done, and Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, and cried with a loud and bitter cry.
And in every province, at the place where the king’s word and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping and wailing. Sackcloth and ashes were spread on many.
to appoint to the mourning ones of Zion, to give them beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of the spirit of infirmity, so that one calls them trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, in order to beautify Himself.
O daughter of My people, put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Make mourning for yourself, as for an only son, most bitter mourning; for the one devastating shall suddenly come on us.
And the word touched even to the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he passed his robe from him and covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.
Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the powerful acts which had happened in you had happened in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.