Reference: Mourning
American
The Hebrews, at the death of their friends and relations, made striking demonstrations of grief and mourning. They wept, tore their clothes, smote their breasts, threw dust upon their heads, Jos 7:6, and lay upon the ground, went barefooted, pulled their hair and beards, or cut them, Ezr 9:3; Isa 15:2, and made incisions on their breasts, or tore them with their nails, Le 19:28; 21:5; Jer 16:6; 48:37. The time of mourning was commonly seven days, 1Sa 31:11-13; but it was lengthened or shortened according to circumstances, Zec 12:10. That for Moses and Aaron was prolonged to thirty days, Nu 20:29; De 34:8; and that for Jacob to seventy days, Ge 50:3.
During the time of their mourning, the near relations of the deceased continued sitting in their houses, and fasted, 2Sa 12:16, or ate on the ground. The food they took was thought unclean, and even themselves were judged impure. "Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners: all that eat thereof shall be polluted," Ho 9:4. Their faces were covered, and in all that time they could not apply themselves to any occupation, nor read the book of the law, nor offer their usual prayers. They did not dress themselves, nor make their beds, nor uncover their heads, nor shave themselves, nor cut their nails, nor go into the bath, nor salute any body. Nobody spoke to them unless they spoke first, Job 2:11-13. Their friends commonly went to visit and comfort them, Joh 11:19,39, bringing them food, 2Sa 3:35; Jer 16:7. They also went up to the roof, or upon the platform of their houses, to bewail their misfortune: "They shall gird themselves with sackcloth; on the tops of their houses, and in their streets, every one shall howl, weeping abundantly," Isa 15:3; Jer 48:38. The mourning dress among the Hebrews was not fixed either by law or custom. We only find in Scripture that they used to tear their garments, a custom still observed; but now they tear a small part merely, and for form's sake, 2Sa 13:19; 2Ch 34:27; Ezr 9:3; Job 2:12; Joe 2:13. Anciently in times of mourning, they clothed themselves in sackcloth, or haircloth, that is, in clothes of coarse brown or black stuff, 2Sa 3:31; 1Ki 21:27; Es 4:1; Ps 35:13; 69:11.
They hired women to weep and wail, and also persons to play on instruments, at the funerals of the rich or distinguished, Jer 9:17. In Mt 9:23, we observe a company of minstrels or players on the flute, at the funeral of a girl of twelve year of age. All that met a funeral procession were accustomed to join them for a time, to accompany them on their way, sometimes relieving the bearers of the bier, and mingling their tears with those of the mourners, Ro 12:15.
The custom of hiring women to weep and wail has come down to modern times. The following account of such a scene at Nablous, the ancient Shechem, is form Dr. Jowett. The governor of the city had died the very morning of Dr. Jowett's arrival. "On coming within sight of the gate, we perceived a numerous company of females, who were singing in a kind of recitative, far from melancholy, and beating time with their hands. If this be mourning, I thought, it is of a strange kind. It had indeed sometimes more the air of angry defiance. But on our reaching the gate, it was suddenly exchanged for most hideous plaints and shrieks, which, with the feeling that we were entering a city at no time celebrated for its hospitality, struck a very dismal impression upon my mind. They accompanied us a few paces; but it soon appeared that the gate was their station, to which having received nothing from us, they returned. We learned, in the course of the evening, that these were only a small detachment of a very numerous body of 'cunning women' with the design, as of old, to make the eyes of all the inhabitants 'run down with tears, and their eyelids gush out with water,' Jer 9:17-18. For this good service, they would, the next morning wait upon the government and principal persons, to receive some trifling fee."
Some of the Jewish forms of mourning are the appropriate and universal language of grief; others, to our modern and occidental taste, savor of extravagance. None of these were enjoined by their religion, which rather restricted than encouraged them, Le 10:6; 19:27; 21:1-11; Nu 6:7; De 14:1. They were the established customs of the times. Sorrow finds some relief in reversing all the usages of ordinary life. Christianity, however, moderates and assuages our grief; shows us a Father's hand holding the rod, and the dark valley itself penetrated by the heavenly light into which it emerges, 1Co 15:53-55; 1Th 4:14-18; Re 7:13-17; 14:13.
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Forty days were fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.
Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, "Do not let the hair of your heads go loose, neither tear your clothes; that you do not die, and that he not be angry with all the congregation: but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD has kindled.
"'You shall not cut the hair on the sides of your heads, neither shall you clip off the edge of your beard. "'You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am the LORD.
The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, 'A priest shall not defile himself for the dead among his people; except for his relatives that are near to him: for his mother, for his father, for his son, for his daughter, for his brother, read more. and for his virgin sister who is near to him, who has had no husband; for her he may defile himself. He shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself. "'They shall not shave their heads, neither shall they shave off the corners of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh.
"'They shall not shave their heads, neither shall they shave off the corners of their beards, nor make any cuttings in their flesh. They shall be holy to their God, and not profane the name of their God; for they offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy. read more. "'They shall not marry a woman who is a prostitute, or profane; neither shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband: for he is holy to his God. You shall sanctify him therefore; for he offers the bread of your God: he shall be holy to you: for I the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy. "'The daughter of any priest, if she profanes herself by playing the prostitute, she profanes her father: she shall be burned with fire. "'He who is the high priest among his brothers, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose, nor tear his clothes; neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother;
He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die; because his separation to God is on his head.
When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.
You are the children of the LORD your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping in the mourning for Moses were ended.
Joshua tore his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads.
When the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard concerning him that which the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose, and went all night, and took the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth Shan; and they came to Jabesh, and burnt them there. read more. They took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
David said to Joab, and to all the people who were with him, Tear your clothes, and clothe yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. King David followed the bier.
All the people came to cause David to eat bread while it was yet day; but David swore, saying, "God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, until the sun goes down."
David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.
Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore her garment of various colors that was on her; and she laid her hand on her head, and went her way, crying aloud as she went.
When I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded.
When I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded.
Now when Mordecai found out all that was done, Mordecai tore his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and wailed loudly and a bitterly.
Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and did not recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.
When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and did not recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky. So they sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spoke a word to him, for they saw that his grief was very great.
But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth. I afflicted my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into my own bosom.
They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off. In their streets, they dress themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails, weeping abundantly.
Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:"
Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:" "and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them; neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: on all the hands are cuttings, and on the waist sackcloth. On all the housetops of Moab and in its streets there is lamentation every where; for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which none delights,' says the LORD.
They won't pour out wine offerings to the LORD, neither will they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted; for their bread will be for their appetite. It will not come into the house of the LORD.
Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.
And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd in noisy disorder,
Many of the Jewish people had come to Martha and Mary, to console them concerning their brother.
Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days."
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this corruptible will have put on incorruption, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: "Death is swallowed up in victory." read more. "Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?"
One of the elders answered, saying to me, "These who are arrayed in white robes, who are they, and from where did they come?" So I said to him, "My lord, you know." He said to me, "These are the ones who came out of the great tribulation. They washed their robes, and made them white in the Lamb's blood. read more. Therefore they are before the throne of God, they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tabernacle over them. They will hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither will the sun beat on them, nor any heat; for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shepherds them, and leads them to springs of waters of life. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
I heard the voice from heaven saying, "Write, 'Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.'" "Yes," says the Spirit, "that they may rest from their labors; for their works follow with them."
Fausets
Noisy, violent, and demonstrative in the East as it is among the Irish, Highlanders, and Welsh; beating the breast or the thigh (Eze 21:12), cutting the flesh (Jer 16:6), weeping with a loud cry, wearing dark colored garments, hiring women as professional mourners (Ec 12:5; Mt 9:23; Am 5:16),"skillful in lamentation" (Jer 9:17), singing elegies, having funeral feasts and the cup of consolation (Jer 16:7-8). It was an occasion of studied publicity and ceremonial; so Abraham for Sarah (Ge 23:2), Jacob for Joseph (Ge 37:34-35), Joseph and the Egyptians for Jacob 70 days and a further period of seven (Ge 50:3-10), Israel for Aaron 80 days (Nu 20:29), and for Moses (De 34:8). Jabesh Gileadites for Saul fasted seven days (1Sa 31:13); David for Abner with fasting, rent clothes, and sackcloth, and with an elegy (2Sa 3:39).
Job for his calamities, with rent mantle, shaven head, sitting in ashes; so the three friends with dust upon their heads, etc., seven days and nights (Job 1:20-21; 2:8). In the open streets and upon the housetops (Isa 15:2-3); stripping off ornaments (Ex 33:4); stripping the foot and some other part of the body (Isa 20:2). Penitent mourning was often expressed by fasting, so that the words are interchanged as synonymous (Mt 9:15), and the day of atonement, when they "afflicted their souls," is called "the fast" (Ac 27:9; Le 23:27; Israel, 1Sa 7:6; Nineveh, Jon 3:5; the Jews when hereafter turning to Messiah, Zec 12:10-11). Exclusion from share in the sacrificial peace offerings (Le 7:20), Covering the upper lip and the head, in token of silence: Le 13:45, the leper; 2Sa 15:30, David. The high priest and Nazarites were not to go into mourning for even father or mother or children (Le 21:10-11; Nu 6:7).
So Aaron in the case of Nadab and Abihu (Le 10:2-6); Ezekiel for his wife (Eze 24:16-18); "the bread of men" is that usually brought to mourners by friends in sympathy. The lower priests only for nearest relatives (Le 21:1-4). Antitypically, the gospel work is to take precedence of all ties (Lu 9:59-60): "let me first go and bury my father" means, let me wait at home until he die and, I bury him. The food eaten in mourning was considered impure (De 26:14; Ho 9:4). The Jews still wail weekly, each Friday, at Jerusalem, in a spot below the temple wall, where its two courses of masonry (with blocks 30 ft. long) meet. (See JERUSALEM.) On the open flagged place, which they sweep with care as holy ground, taking off their shoes, they bewail the desolation of their holy places (Ps 102:14; 137:5-6; Isa 63:15-19). Mourning shall cease forever to God's people when Christ shall return (Re 7:17; 21:4; Isa 25:8; 35:10).
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Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.
Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. He said, "For I will go down to Sheol to my son mourning." His father wept for him.
Forty days were fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for him for seventy days. When the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the house of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, read more. 'My father made me swear, saying, "Behold, I am dying. Bury me in my grave which I have dug for myself in the land of Canaan." Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, and I will come again.'" Pharaoh said, "Go up, and bury your father, just like he made you swear." Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, all the elders of the land of Egypt, all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house. Only their little ones, their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. There went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sorrowful lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days.
When the people heard this evil news, they mourned: and no one put on his jewelry.
but the soul who eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that belongs to the LORD, having his uncleanness on him, that soul shall be cut off from his people.
And fire came forth from before the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD. Then Moses said to Aaron, "This is what the LORD spoke of, saying, 'I will show myself holy to those who come near me, and before all the people I will be glorified.'" Aaron held his peace. read more. Moses called Mishael and Elzaphan, the sons of Uzziel the uncle of Aaron, and said to them, "Draw near, carry your brothers from before the sanctuary out of the camp." So they drew near, and carried them in their coats out of the camp, as Moses had said. Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, "Do not let the hair of your heads go loose, neither tear your clothes; that you do not die, and that he not be angry with all the congregation: but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD has kindled.
"The leper in whom the plague is shall wear torn clothes, and the hair of his head shall hang loose. He shall cover his upper lip, and shall cry, 'Unclean. Unclean.'
The LORD said to Moses, "Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them, 'A priest shall not defile himself for the dead among his people; except for his relatives that are near to him: for his mother, for his father, for his son, for his daughter, for his brother, read more. and for his virgin sister who is near to him, who has had no husband; for her he may defile himself. He shall not defile himself, being a chief man among his people, to profane himself.
"'He who is the high priest among his brothers, upon whose head the anointing oil is poured, and that is consecrated to put on the garments, shall not let the hair of his head hang loose, nor tear his clothes; neither shall he go in to any dead body, nor defile himself for his father, or for his mother;
"However on the tenth day of this seventh month is the day of atonement: it shall be a holy convocation to you, and you shall afflict yourselves; and you shall offer an offering made by fire to the LORD.
He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die; because his separation to God is on his head.
When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.
I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I put away of it, being unclean, nor given of it for the dead: I have listened to the voice of the LORD my God; I have done according to all that you have commanded me.
The children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days: so the days of weeping in the mourning for Moses were ended.
They gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, "We have sinned against the LORD." Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.
They took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
I am this day weak, though anointed king; and these men the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me. May the LORD reward the evildoer according to his wickedness."
David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot: and all the people who were with him covered every man his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.
Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped. He said, "Naked I came out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD."
He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
If I forget you, Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill. Let my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you; if I do not prefer Jerusalem above my chief joy.
Also, they are afraid of heights, and of terrors in the way; and the almond tree blossoms, and the grasshopper is burdened, and the caper bush fails; because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets:
They have gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep. Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba. Baldness is on all of their heads. Every beard is cut off. In their streets, they dress themselves in sackcloth. In their streets and on their housetops, everyone wails, weeping abundantly.
at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your sandals off your feet." He did so, walking naked and barefoot.
He has swallowed up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces. He will take the reproach of his people away from off all the earth, for the LORD has spoken it.
The LORD's ransomed ones will return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away."
Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of your holiness and of your glory: where are your zeal and your mighty acts? the yearning of your heart and your compassion is restrained toward me. For you are our Father, though Abraham doesn't know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us: you, LORD, are our Father; our Redeemer from everlasting is your name. read more. O LORD, why do you make us to stray from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants' sake, the tribes of your inheritance. Your holy people possessed it but a little while: our adversaries have trodden down your sanctuary. We have become as they over whom you never bear rule, as those who were not called by your name.
Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:"
Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them; neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. read more. You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.
Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people; strike therefore on your thigh.
"Son of man, behold, I will take away from you the desire of your eyes with a stroke: yet you shall neither mourn nor weep, neither shall your tears run down. Sigh, but not aloud, make no mourning for the dead; bind your headdress on you, and put your shoes on your feet, and do not cover your lips, and do not eat men's bread." read more. So I spoke to the people in the morning; and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.
They won't pour out wine offerings to the LORD, neither will they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted; for their bread will be for their appetite. It will not come into the house of the LORD.
Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord: "Wailing will be in all the broad ways; and they will say in all the streets, 'Alas. Alas.' and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them.
I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn. In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
And Jesus said to them, "Can the friends of the bridegroom mourn, as long as the bridegroom is with them? But the days will come when the bridegroom will be taken away from them, and then they will fast.
And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd in noisy disorder,
He said to another, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead, but you go and announce the Kingdom of God."
When much time had passed and the voyage was now dangerous, because the Fast had now already gone by, Paul admonished them,
for the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shepherds them, and leads them to springs of waters of life. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."
He will wipe away from them every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more. The first things have passed away."
Morish
It was the habit of the Hebrews, as it still is in the East, to make a great demonstration of their mourning. They would beat their breasts, cover their heads, fast, put dust and ashes on their heads, neglect their hair, wear dull-coloured garments, rend their clothes, wear sackcloth, etc. For Asa and Zedekiah there was 'great burning' of odours at their death, which was most probably copied from the heathen. 2Ch 16:14; Jer 34:5. At a death professional mourners were hired, mostly women. "Call for the mourning women . . . . let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters." Jer 9:17-18; cf. 2Sa 14:2; Am 5:16. Musicians also attended at deaths, who played mournful strains. Mt 9:23. God does not desire those who are bereaved to be without feeling: the Lord wept at the grave of Lazarus, but He would have reality in all things. He had to say to His people, "Rend your heart, and not your garments." Joe 2:13.
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Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched there a wise woman, and said to her, "Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, please, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead.
They buried him in his own tombs, which he had dug out for himself in the City of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and various kinds of spices prepared by the perfumers' art: and they made a very great burning for him.
Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:" "and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
you shall die in peace; and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so shall they make a burning for you; and they shall lament you, saying, "Ah Lord." for I have spoken the word,' says the LORD."'"
Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord: "Wailing will be in all the broad ways; and they will say in all the streets, 'Alas. Alas.' and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd in noisy disorder,
Smith
Mourning.
One marked feature of Oriental mourning is what may be called its studies publicity and the careful observance of the prescribed ceremonies.
1. Among the particular forms observed the following may be mentioned: (a) Rending the clothes.
etc. (b) Dressing in sackcloth.
etc. (c) Ashes, dust or earth sprinkled on the person.
etc. (d) Black or sad-colored garments.
etc. (e) Removal of ornaments or neglect of person.
De 21:12-13
etc. (f) Shaving the head, plucking out the hair of the head or beard.
etc. (g) Laying bare some part of the body.
etc. (h) Fasting or abstinence in meat and drink.
etc. (i) In the same direction may be mentioned diminution in offerings to God, and prohibition to partake of sacrificial food.
Le 7:20; De 26:14
(k) Covering the "upper lip," i.e. the lower part of the face, and sometimes the head, in token of silence.
(l) Cutting the flesh,
beating the body.
(m) Employment of persons hired for the purpose of mourning.
Ec 12:5; Jer 9:17; Am 5:16; Mt 9:23
(n) Akin to the foregoing usage the custom for friends or passers-by to join in the lamentations of bereaved or afflicted persons.
Ge 50:3; Jg 11:40; Job 2:11; 30:25
etc. (o) The sitting or lying posture in silence indicative of grief.
etc. (p) Mourning feast and cup of consolation.
2. The period of mourning varied. In the case of Jacob it was seventy days,
of Aaron,
and Moses, Deut 34:8 thirty. A further period of seven days in Jacob's case.
Seven days for Saul, which may have been an abridged period in the time of national danger.
With the practices above mentioned, Oriental and other customs, ancient and modern, in great measure agree. Arab men are silent in grief, but the women scream, tear their hair, hands and face, and throw earth or sand on their heads. Both Mohammedans and Christians in Egypt hire wailing-women, and wail at stated times. Burckhardt says the women of Atbara in Nubia shave their heads on the death of their nearest relatives --a custom prevalent also among several of the peasant tribes of upper Egypt. He also mentions wailing-women, and a man in distress besmearing his face with dirt and dust in token of grief. In the "Arabian Nights" are frequent allusions to similar practices. It also mentions ten days and forty days as periods of mourning. Lane, speaking of the modern Egyptians, says, "After death the women of the family raise cries of lamentation called welweleh or wilwal, uttering the most piercing shrieks, and calling upon the name of the deceased, 'Oh, my master! Oh, my resource! Oh, my misfortune! Oh, my glory!" See
The females of the neighborhood come to join with them in this conclamation: generally, also, the family send for two or more neddabehs or public wailing-women. Each brings a tambourine, and beating them they exclaim, 'Alas for him!' The female relatives, domestics and friends, with their hair dishevelled and sometimes with rent clothes, beating their faces, cry in like manner, 'Alas for him!' These make no alteration in dress, but women, in some cases, dye their shirts, head-veils and handkerchiefs of a dark-blue color. They visit the tombs at stated periods." --Mod. Eg. iii. 152,171,195.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Sarah died in Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron), in the land of Canaan. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. Abraham rose up from before his dead, and spoke to the children of Heth, saying,
Reuben returned to the pit; and saw that Joseph wasn't in the pit; and he tore his clothes.
Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
Jacob tore his clothes, and put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days.
Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and returned to the city.
Forty days were fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.
Forty days were fulfilled for him, for that is how many the days it takes to embalm. The Egyptians wept for him for seventy days.
They came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and there they lamented with a very great and sorrowful lamentation. He mourned for his father seven days.
but the soul who eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of peace offerings, that belongs to the LORD, having his uncleanness on him, that soul shall be cut off from his people.
Moses said to Aaron, and to Eleazar and to Ithamar, his sons, "Do not let the hair of your heads go loose, neither tear your clothes; that you do not die, and that he not be angry with all the congregation: but let your brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which the LORD has kindled.
"The leper in whom the plague is shall wear torn clothes, and the hair of his head shall hang loose. He shall cover his upper lip, and shall cry, 'Unclean. Unclean.'
When all the congregation saw that Aaron was dead, they wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel.
then you shall bring her home to your house; and she shall shave her head, and pare her nails; and she shall put the clothing of her captivity from off her, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month: and after that you shall go in to her, and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.
I have not eaten of it in my mourning, neither have I put away of it, being unclean, nor given of it for the dead: I have listened to the voice of the LORD my God; I have done according to all that you have commanded me.
that the daughters of Israel went yearly four days in a year to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.
Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until evening; and they offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
They took their bones, and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh, and fasted seven days.
They mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword.
All the people came to cause David to eat bread while it was yet day; but David swore, saying, "God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, until the sun goes down."
David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.
He said, "While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows whether the LORD will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?'
Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore her garment of various colors that was on her; and she laid her hand on her head, and went her way, crying aloud as she went.
Joab sent to Tekoa, and fetched there a wise woman, and said to her, "Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, please, and do not anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead.
It happened that when David had come to the top, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn, and earth on his head.
Then Job arose, and tore his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped.
Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come on him, they each came from his own place: Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite, and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and to comfort him. When they lifted up their eyes from a distance, and did not recognize him, they raised their voices, and wept; and they each tore his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward the sky.
Did I not weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn't my soul grieved for the needy?
Also, they are afraid of heights, and of terrors in the way; and the almond tree blossoms, and the grasshopper is burdened, and the caper bush fails; because man goes to his eternal home, and the mourners go about the streets:
at that time the LORD spoke by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, "Go, and loosen the sackcloth from off your waist, and take your sandals off your feet." He did so, walking naked and barefoot.
Take the millstones, and grind meal; remove your veil, strip off the train, uncover the leg, pass through the rivers.
For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn; dismay has taken hold on me.
Thus says the LORD of hosts, "Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:"
Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them; neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
neither shall men break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink. read more. For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. It shall happen, when you shall show this people all these words, and they shall tell you, 'Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?' Then you shall tell them, 'Because your fathers have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold, you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you do not listen to me: therefore I will cast you forth out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.' Therefore behold, the days come," says the LORD, "that it shall no more be said, 'As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;' but, 'As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had driven them.' I will bring them again into their land that I gave to their fathers. Behold, I will send for many fishermen," says the LORD, "and they shall fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my face, neither is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations." "LORD, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, 'Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit. Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?'" "Therefore behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is the LORD.
Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: "they shall not lament for him, saying, 'Ah my brother. or, Ah sister.' They shall not lament for him, saying, 'Ah lord.' or, 'Ah his glory.'
Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.'
that there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the LORD.
Cry and wail, son of man; for it is on my people, it is on all the princes of Israel: they are delivered over to the sword with my people; strike therefore on your thigh.
Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Hosts, the Lord: "Wailing will be in all the broad ways; and they will say in all the streets, 'Alas. Alas.' and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.
And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the flute players, and the crowd in noisy disorder,
Watsons
MOURNING. See BURIAL and See DEAD.