Isaiah 20:2

2. Loose the sackcloth An outward garment, and not unfrequently worn as a badge of humiliation, and symbol of unwelcome tidings. It was the habitual covering of the prophet, especially in the dark days of those sieges in the vicinity of Jerusalem on the Philistine plains below. Isaiah, divesting himself of this and of his sandals thus stripped of all clothing save his undergarment or tunic was a symbolic prediction, or picture of some unusual suffering. The “sackcloth” was probably of goats’ hair; it was the covering of Elijah, and usually of other even of false prophets. Zechariah 13:4.