'Weeping' in the Bible

A voice is heard on the barren heights,The weeping and pleading of the children of Israel,Because they have lost their way,They have [deliberately] forgotten the Lord their God.

“I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,And a [funeral] dirge for the pastures of the wilderness,Because they are burned up and desolated so that no one passes through [them];Nor can anyone hear the lowing of cattle.Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they are gone.

“They will come with weeping [in repentance and for joy],And by [their] prayer [for the future] I will lead them;I will make them walk by streams of waters,On a straight path in which they will not stumble,For I am a Father to Israel,And Ephraim (Israel) is My firstborn.”

Thus says the Lord,“A voice is heard in Ramah,Lamentation (songs of mourning) and bitter weeping.Rachel (Israel) is weeping for her children;She refuses to be comforted for her children,Because they are gone.”

Thus says the Lord,“Restrain your voice from weepingAnd your eyes from tears,For your work will be rewarded,” says the Lord;“And your children will return from the enemy’s land.

Then Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping [false tears] as he went. As he met them, he said to them, “Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam!”

“For the Ascent of LuhithWill be climbed by [successive groups of] fugitives with continual weeping;For on the descent of HoronaimThey have heard the distress of the cry of destruction.

“O vines of Sibmah, I will weep for youMore than the weeping of Jazer [over its ruins and wasted vineyards].Your tendrils [of influence] stretched across the sea,Reaching [even] to the sea of Jazer.The destroyer has fallenOn your summer fruits and your [season’s] crop of grapes.

“In those days and at that time,” says the Lord, “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will come up weeping [in repentance] as they come and seek the Lord their God [inquiring for and of Him].