Hugh Nibley notes that "the people came running together with their armor girded about their loins, rending their garments in token, or as a covenant, that they would not forsake the Lord their God; or, in other words, if they should transgress the commandments of God, or fall into transgression, and be ashamed to take upon them the name of Christ, the Lord should rend them even as they had rent their garments" (Alma 46:21). Here [in the 1QM, the Battle Scroll] they do that in column four, line six the same way. . . . When they rush to sign up [and make a covenant to come under the terms on the banner], naturally they put on their armor. They have to be armed. That's also a very important thing, that rending their garments. . . . There was recently an article by Johnathan Z. Smith called "The Garments of Shame" in which he discusses this old Jewish custom of coming and rending your garments, putting them in a pile, and stamping on them. You say, "May we be trampled on if we break our covenants." That's exactly what they do here. You'll find that article in the journal, History of Religions, 1966, p. 224. It's the same custom we have here. Again, it's not described in the Bible, but it's the old Jewish custom. [Hugh W. Nibley, Teachings of the Book of Mormon, Semester 3, p. 59]