Sackcloth, which was made of goat’s hair, was dark in color and coarse in texture. Traditionally it was worn by those in mourning and thus it becomes an appropriate symbol for the godly sorrow and contrition of soul that must be a part of true repentance. The strewing of ashes upon oneself was also a symbolic gesture representing the depth of humility and the fulness of penitence. (See 1 Kings 20:31-32; Matthew 11:21.)
“And Except They Repent in Sackcloth and Ashes”
As disobedience brings bondage and sorrow to nations, so it does to individuals. How often have we seen enacted the story of Israel’s wayward remnants repeated in the life of some young man (or woman) so consumed with his own desires that he refuses the counsel of wise and loving parents, later finding himself in a position in which only that which he originally rejected can save him, and then only with the greatest of difficulty.