492. 'Clothed in sackcloth' signifies mourning in the meantime on account of there being no reception of truth. By 'clothed in sackcloth' is signified mourning on account of the devastation of truth in the Church, for 'garments' signify truths (n. 166, 212, 328, 378, 379); and therefore 'to be clothed in sackcloth', which is not a garment, signifies mourning that there is no truth, and where there is no truth there is no Church. The mourning of the sons of Israel used to be represented by various means, which by virtue of the correspondences were significative, as that they would put ashes on the head, would roll in the dust, sit silent on the ground a long while, shave themselves, lament and howl, rend their garments, and also put on sackcloth, besides other things; and the separate things used to signify some evil of the Church with them on account of which they were being punished. And when they were being punished, they used to represent penitence by such means, and on account of the representation of penitence, and the humiliation at the same time then, they used to be heard. [2] That mourning on account of the devastation of the truth in the Church was represented by 'putting on sackcloth' can be seen from these passages:-
The lion has come up out of the thicket, he has gone forth out of his place to reduce the land to a waste; for this gird you with sackcloth, lament, howl Jer. iv 7, 8.
O daughter of my people, gird thyself with sackcloth, and roll thyself in ashes, for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us Jer. vi 26.
Woe unto thee Chorazin and Bethsaida, for if the mighty works (virtutes) that have been done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes Matt. xi 21; Luke x 13.
The king of Nineveh, after he heard the words of Jonah, laid off his cloak from him, and covered sackcloth over [him], and sat on ashes, and proclaimed a fast, and that man and beast should be covered with sackcloth Jonah iii 5, 6, 8;
besides elsewhere, as Isa. iii 24; xv 2, 3; xxii 12; xxxvii 1, 2; l 3; Jer. xlviii 37, 38; xlix 3; Lam. ii 10; Ezek. vii 17, 18; xxvii 31; Dan. ix 3; Joel i 8, 13; Amos viii 10; Job xvi 15, 16; Ps. xxx 11 [H.B. 12]; xxxv 13; lxix 10, 11 [H.B. 11, 12]; 2 Sam. iii 31; 1 Kings xxi 27; 2 Kings vi 30; xix 1, 2.
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