Though concealed from sight in the upper chamber, the lamentations of the bereaved king could be easily heard by his followers, for he “cried with a loud voice.” These loud exclamations are alluded to in several other places. At Jacob’s funeral there was “a great and very sore lamentation” (Gen. 50:1010And they came to the threshingfloor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days. (Genesis 50:10)). When Jephthah, after his vow, saw his daughter coming, he cried, as if she were already dead, “Alas, my daughter!” (Judg. 11:3535And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the Lord, and I cannot go back. (Judges 11:35)). When the old prophet of Bethel buried in his own grave the disobedient prophet whom he had deceived to his death, he cried out, “Alas, my brother!” (1 Kings 13:3030And he laid his carcase in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother! (1 Kings 13:30)). It was among the curses heaped on Jehoiakim that he should have “the burial of an ass”(Jer. 22:1919He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem. (Jeremiah 22:19)) and not be consigned to the grave with the usual lamentations. “Therefore thus saith 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!” (Jer. 22:1818Therefore thus saith 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! (Jeremiah 22:18)). Somewhat similar to these are the cries of the Egyptian mourners at the present time. When the master of a house dies, the wives, children, and servants cry out, “O my master!” “O my camel!” “O my lion!” “O camel of the house!” “O my glory!” “O my resource!” “O my father!” “O my misfortune!” (Lane's Modern Egyptians, vol. 2, p. 318).
Roberts, in his Oriental Illustrations, pp. 236-241, gives a number of striking specimens of Hindu lamentations over the dead. Among them are the expressions of grief uttered by a husband on the loss of his wife: “What, the apple of my eye gone! my swan, my parrot, my deer, my Lechimy! Her color was like gold; her gait was like the stately swan; her waist was like lightning; her teeth were like pearls; her eyes like the kiyal-fish (oval); her eyebrows like the bow; and her countenance like the full-blown lotus. Yes, she has gone, the mother of my children! No more welcome, no more smiles in the evening when I return. All the world to me is now as the place of burning. Get ready the wood for my pile. O my wife, my wife listen to the voice of your husband.”
A father also says over the body of his son, “My son, my son! art thou gone? What I am, I left in my old age? My lion, my arrow, my blood, my body, my soul, my third eye! Gone, gone, gone!”