Ezekiel 27:29-31

29-31. All those who have charge of other ships (nations) shall “hiss” in dismay (Davidson, compare 1 Kings 9:8) and lament over (not “against”) her, regretting their loss of trade, and perhaps fearing for themselves a like destruction. For the signs of mourning see Ezekiel 7:18; Joshua 7:6; Job 2:12; Jeremiah 6:26; Jeremiah 25:34. Professor Morris Jastrow, Jr., has shown that the custom of putting earth or dust upon the head is a very ancient custom among the Semites and is the survival of an act which originally formed part of the burial rites. He reproduces one of the oldest monuments of Babylon in which the corpses of the enemy are seen lying exposed to the vultures, the greatest misfortune that could befall a dead person (compare Appendix, chap. 32), while the dead soldiers of the victorious army are arranged in symmetrical rows beneath a funeral mound of earth. Those who were building the mound (the mourning comrades or relatives) had thrown off all their clothing, excepting a loin girdle of sackcloth, and carried upon their heads their baskets of earth. This custom led in after ages to the tearing or tearing off the garments of the mourners and the placing dust or earth upon their heads. The ashes so often mentioned were probably from the funeral expiatory sacrifice ( Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 20:1899).