Isaiah 20:2

(2) Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins.—Against these schemes Isaiah was prompted to prophesy in act as well as words. Month by month, for three whole years, he was seen in the streets of Jerusalem as one who was already as a prisoner of war, ready to be led into an ignominious exile. The “sackcloth” was the “rough garment” which, like Elijah (2 Kings 1:8) and John the Baptist, the prophets habitually wore (Zechariah 13:4), and the “nakedness” was confined to the laying aside this outer robe, and appearing in the short tunic worn near the body (1 Samuel 19:24; 2 Samuel 6:14-20; John 21:7). Like instances of prophetic symbolism are the horns of Zedekiah in 1 Kings 22:11, the yokes worn by Jeremiah (Jeremiah 27:2), Ezekiel’s lying on his side (Ezekiel 4:4), and the girdle with which Agabus bound himself (Acts 21:11).