The month was Tishrei. The feast of tabernacles began on the fourteenth day of the month, and ended on the twenty-second, "all which time mourning had been forbidden, as contrary to the nature of the feast, which was to be kept with joy". Methodist commentator Joseph Benson reflects that "now, on the twenty-fourth, the next day but one after the feast, their consciences having been fully awakened, and their hearts filled with grief for their sins, which they were not allowed to express in that time of public joy, they resume their former thoughts, and, recalling their sins to mind, set apart a day for solemn fasting and humiliation".Benson, J., Benson Commentary on Nehemiah 9, accessed 11 September 2020 "Sackclothes" were made of "dark, coarse material associated with sorrow and repentance".
