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 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.