# the twenty-fourth day of the same month

"the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month" This is near the middle of October on Western calendars. (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/translate-hebrewmonths]] and [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/translate-ordinal]])

# the people of Israel were assembled

"the people of Israel came together"

# they were wearing sackcloth, and they put dust on their heads

This was in order to show how sorry they were for the wrong things they and their ancestors had done. (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-explicit]])