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mourn, sorrow(-ful)
mourn, sorrow(-ful)
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Boyd’s Bible Dictionary
:
Very public and demonstrative
(
Gen. 23:2; 37:29-35
2
And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. (Genesis 23:2)
29
And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes.
30
And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go?
31
And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood;
32
And they sent the coat of many colors, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no.
33
And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces.
34
And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days.
35
And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. (Genesis 37:29‑35)
). Period,
seven
to seventy days (
Gen. 1:3
3
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. (Genesis 1:3)
;
1 Sam. 31:13
13
And they took their bones, and buried them under a tree at Jabesh, and fasted seven days. (1 Samuel 31:13)
). Hired mourners (EccL 12:5;
Matt. 9:23
23
And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, (Matthew 9:23)
). Methods, weeping, tearing clothes, wearing
sackcloth
,
sprinkling
with
ashes
or
dust
, shaving
head
, plucking
beard
,
fasting
, laceration.
Concise Bible Dictionary
:
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-colored
garments
, rend their clothes, wear
sackcloth
, and so forth. For
Asa
and
Zedekiah
there was “great burning” of odors at their
death
, which was most probably copied from the
heathen
(
2 Chron. 16:14
14
And they buried him in his own sepulchres, which he had made for himself in the city of David, and laid him in the bed which was filled with sweet odors and divers kinds of spices prepared by the apothecaries' art: and they made a very great burning for him. (2 Chronicles 16:14)
;
Jer. 34:5
5
But thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of thy fathers, the former kings which were before thee, so shall they burn odors for thee; and they will lament thee, saying, Ah lord! for I have pronounced the word, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 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
17
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:
18
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. (Jeremiah 9:17‑18)
; compare
2 Sam. 14:2
2
And Joab sent to Tekoah, and fetched thence a wise woman, and said unto her, I pray thee, feign thyself to be a mourner, and put on now mourning apparel, and anoint not thyself with oil, but be as a woman that had a long time mourned for the dead: (2 Samuel 14:2)
;
Amos 5:16
16
Therefore the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord, saith thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. (Amos 5:16)
).
Musicians
also attended at deaths, who played mournful strains (
Matt. 9:23
23
And when Jesus came into the ruler's house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise, (Matthew 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” (
Joel 2:13
13
And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil. (Joel 2:13)
).
Strong’s Dictionary of Hebrew Words:
Number:
1669
(
find all occurrences in KJV Bible
)
Transliteration:
da’ab
Phonic:
daw-ab’
Meaning:
a primitive root; to pine
KJV Usage:
mourn, sorrow(-ful)
From
Manners and Customs of the Bible
:
Genesis 37:34
34
And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. (Genesis 37:34)
.
Jacob
rent his clothes, and
put
sackcloth
upon his
loins
, and mourned for his
son
many days.
Rending the clothes as a token of grief is a very ancient
custom
, and is often referred to in the
Bible
. See
Joshua 7:6
6
And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the Lord until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. (Joshua 7:6)
;
1 Samuel 4:12
12
And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head. (1 Samuel 4:12)
;
2 Samuel 1:11; 3:31; 13:31
11
Then David took hold on his clothes, and rent them; and likewise all the men that were with him: (2 Samuel 1:11)
31
And David said to Joab, and to all the people that were with him, Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And king David himself followed the bier. (2 Samuel 3:31)
31
Then the king arose, and tare his garments, and lay on the earth; and all his servants stood by with their clothes rent. (2 Samuel 13:31)
;
2 Kings 2:12; 18:37; 19:1
12
And Elisha saw it, and he cried, My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof. And he saw him no more: and he took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces. (2 Kings 2:12)
37
Then came Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, to Hezekiah with their clothes rent, and told him the words of Rabshakeh. (2 Kings 18:37)
1
And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. (2 Kings 19:1)
;
Ezra 9:3
3
And when I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down astonied. (Ezra 9:3)
;
Job 1:20
20
Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, (Job 1:20)
. A Jewish writer, quoted by Brinier, says that this ceremony was performed in the following mariner: “They take a knife, and holding the blade downward, do give the upper garment a cut on the right side, and then rend it a hand’s breadth. This is done for the five following relations,
brother
, sister, son,
daughter
, or wife; but for
father
or
mother
the rent is on the left side, and in all the
garments
” (
Oriental Customs
, No. 65).
Sackcloth is also frequently mentioned. It was generally made of the
hair
of goats or of camels, and was coarse and
black
. It was used for straining liquids, for sacks, and for
mourning
garments. When used for mourning it was
sometimes
worn next to the skin, which it must have chafed by its harshness, and at other
times
it was hung like a sack over the outer garments, or instead of them. A
girdle
of similar material confined its loose folds.
Ahab
, on one occasion, appears to have worn sackcloth next to his skin all
night
. See
1 Kings 21:27
27
And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. (1 Kings 21:27)
. In
Revelation 6:12
12
And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; (Revelation 6:12)
, in the
darkness
accompanying an
earthquake
, the
sun
is said to have become as “black as sackcloth of hair.”
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