Mourning

Mourning in scripture is grief made visible. The Bible records its occasions, names its gestures, regulates them where they touch the sanctuary, prescribes the periods, and calls the surrounding community to comfort. The vocabulary spans several Hebrew and Greek words that the UPDV renders as mourn, lament, weep, wail, and sigh; the practice runs from the patriarchs to the apostolic letters; the prophetic horizon promises an end to it.

Occasions

Mourning fastens first to a specific death. "Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (the same is Hebron), in the land of Canaan. And Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her" (Gen 23:2). Joseph "fell on his father's face, and wept on him, and kissed him … And forty days were fulfilled for him; for so are fulfilled the days of embalming: and the Egyptians wept for him 70 days" (Gen 50:1, 3). When Israel reaches the threshing-floor of Atad they "lamented with a very great and intense lamentation: and he made a mourning for his father seven days" (Gen 50:10). At Aaron's death "all the congregation … wept for Aaron thirty days, even all the house of Israel" (Num 20:29). Jephthah at the sight of his daughter "rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low" (Judg 11:35). Hannah, year after year, "wept, and did not eat" at the house of Yahweh (1 Sam 1:7).

Public catastrophe lifts the same gestures into the national register. "Pharaoh rose up in the night … and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was not a house where there was not one dead" (Exod 12:30). The Amalekite messenger comes to David "with his clothes rent, and earth on his head" (2 Sam 1:2); David and his men at Ziklag "lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep" (1 Sam 30:4). Jeremiah pictures the desolation: "For the mountains I will lift: a weeping and a wailing; and for the pastures of the wilderness: a lamentation; because they are burned up" (Jer 9:10); Tyre's mourners "in their wailing … take up a lamentation for you, and lament over you" (Ezek 27:32). The Maccabean books carry the register into the second-temple period: "And there was great mourning in Israel, And in every place where they were … And the princes, and the ancients mourned, And the virgins and the young men were made feeble … Every bridegroom took up lamentation: And the bride who sat in the marriage bed, mourned" (1 Macc 1:25, 26, 27); under Antiochus "Mattathias and his sons rent their garments, and they covered themselves with sackcloth, and made great lamentation" (1 Macc 2:14); "they fasted that day, and put on sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads. And they rent their garments" (1 Macc 3:47).

Mourning also followed the discovery of grave national sin. Joshua and the elders after Ai "rent his clothes, and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of Yahweh until the evening … and they put dust on their heads" (Josh 7:6). Hezekiah, hearing Rabshakeh's challenge, "rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of Yahweh" (2 Kings 19:1). Josiah "rent his clothes" at the rediscovered Law (2 Kings 22:11), and Yahweh told the prophetess that he had heard him because his "heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before Yahweh … and have rent your clothes, and wept before me" (2 Kings 22:19). Ezra, told of the mixed marriages, "rent my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded" (Ezra 9:3); at the evening oblation he "arose up from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe rent" (Ezra 9:5). When Esther's edict reached the provinces, "there was great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and weeping, and wailing; and many lay in sackcloth and ashes" (Esth 4:3).

Rending the Garments

The first and most frequent gesture is the tearing of the outer garment. The Genesis narratives record it at every loss of a son. Reuben, finding the pit empty, "rent his clothes" (Gen 37:29); Jacob, shown the bloody coat, "rent his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days" (Gen 37:34); the brothers, when Joseph's cup is found in Benjamin's sack, "rent their clothes, and loaded every man his donkey, and returned to the city" (Gen 44:13). Joshua and Caleb at the rebellion of the spies "rent their clothes" (Num 14:6).

In David's life-cycle the gesture recurs at every grief. He and his men, hearing of Saul and Jonathan, "took hold on his clothes, and rent them; and likewise all the men who were with him" (2 Sam 1:11); over Abner he gives the formal command, "Rend your⁺ clothes, and gird you⁺ with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And King David followed the bier" (2 Sam 3:31); at the false report of his sons' deaths he "rent his garments, and lay on the earth; and all his slaves stood by with their clothes rent" (2 Sam 13:31). Tamar, after Amnon, "put ashes on her head, and rent her garment of diverse colors that was on her; and she laid her hand on her head, and went her way, crying aloud as she went" (2 Sam 13:19). Hushai meets David on the ascent "with his coat rent, and earth on his head" (2 Sam 15:32). Elisha at Elijah's ascent cries "My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" and "took hold of his own clothes, and rent them in two pieces" (2 Kings 2:12). The king of Israel under siege, when he rends his clothes, exposes that "he had sackcloth inside on his flesh" (2 Kings 6:30). Job arose, "and rent his robe, and shaved his head, and fell down on the ground, and worshiped" (Job 1:20); his three companions, when they did not recognize him, "lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his robe, and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven" (Job 2:12).

Sackcloth, Ashes, and Dust

Coarse cloth is the mourner's second skin. Jacob "put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his son many days" (Gen 37:34); David orders Joab and his men to "gird you⁺ with sackcloth" (2 Sam 3:31); Hezekiah covers himself with sackcloth (2 Kings 19:1); the besieged king of Israel wears it "inside on his flesh" (2 Kings 6:30); the Jews under Esther "lay in sackcloth and ashes" (Esth 4:3); Mattathias and his sons "covered themselves with sackcloth, and made great lamentation" (1 Macc 2:14). Isaiah, told to "loose the sackcloth from off your loins, and put your sandal from off your foot," walked "naked and barefoot" as a prophetic sign (Isa 20:2). The picture in Isa 15:3 is the same: "In their streets they gird themselves with sackcloth" (Isa 15:3).

Ashes and dust are sprinkled or sat in. Tamar puts "ashes on her head" (2 Sam 13:19); the Amalekite arrives with "earth on his head" (2 Sam 1:2); Hushai with "earth on his head" (2 Sam 15:32); Job's companions sprinkle "dust on their heads toward heaven" (Job 2:12); Joshua and the elders "put dust on their heads" (Josh 7:6); Tyre's mourners "cast up dust on their heads, they will wallow themselves in the ashes" (Ezek 27:30). The Maccabean fast pairs both ("put on sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads. And they rent their garments," 1 Macc 3:47; "rent their garments, and made great lamentation, and put ashes on their heads," 1 Macc 4:39). The psalmist makes the food itself an emblem: "I have eaten ashes like bread, And mingled my drink with weeping" (Ps 102:9). Sirach pairs the height with the depth: "From him who sits upon a throne in exaltation, To him who sits in dust and ashes" (Sir 40:3).

Body and Hair

Mourning leaves marks on the body. Cuttings in the flesh and shaving patches of the head are attested as customary, and Yahweh forbids both: "You⁺ will not make on your⁺ flesh any cuttings for a soul, nor make on you⁺ any tattoo marks" (Lev 19:28); "You⁺ are the sons of Yahweh your⁺ God: you⁺ will not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your⁺ eyes for the dead" (Deut 14:1). The custom persists nonetheless. Jeremiah's coming desolation says of the population, "they will not be buried, neither will men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them" (Jer 16:6); after the fall, eighty men come from Shechem and Shiloh "having their beards shaven and their clothes rent, and having cut themselves, with meal-offerings and frankincense in their hand" (Jer 41:5). The prophet himself can call for the gesture as judgment: "Cut off your hair, [O Jerusalem], and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights" (Jer 7:29); Ezra plucked off "the hair of my head and of my beard" (Ezra 9:3); Job shaved his head (Job 1:20).

Loose hair, covered head, covered lip, bare feet, hand on head — the specific gestures are catalogued. Aaron and his surviving sons are told, "Don't let the hair of your⁺ heads go loose, neither rend your⁺ clothes" (Lev 10:6) precisely because those would be the natural response to Nadab and Abihu's death. Yahweh names the same prohibition for any high priest: "And he who is the high priest among his brothers … will not let the hair of his head go loose, nor rend his clothes" (Lev 21:10). The leper, declared unclean, takes on the mourner's body — clothes rent, hair loose, and "he will cover his upper lip" (Lev 13:45). Ezekiel is told to suspend the gestures for his wife: "Sigh, but not aloud, make no mourning for the dead; bind your headtire on you, and put your sandals on your feet, and don't cover your lips, and don't eat the bread of men" (Ezek 24:17), because the people themselves, when judgment comes, "will not cover your⁺ lips, nor eat the bread of men" (Ezek 24:22). Disgraced seers do the same: "they will all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God" (Mic 3:7).

David ascending the Mount of Olives shows the cluster: "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" (2 Sam 15:30). At the news of Absalom he "covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, O my son Absalom, O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Sam 19:4). Haman after his humiliation "hurried to his house, mourning and having his head covered" (Esth 6:12); Jeremiah's drought-mourners "are put to shame and confounded, and cover their head" (Jer 14:3) and "the plowmen are put to shame, they cover their heads" (Jer 14:4). Hands on the head is the gesture of dejection after rout: "From there also you will go forth, with your hands on your head: for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust" (Jer 2:37). Tamar's hand on her head accompanies her ashes and rent garment (2 Sam 13:19).

Ornaments are stripped. After Yahweh's word at Sinai, "the people heard this evil news, they mourned: and no man put on himself his ornaments" (Exod 33:4); "the sons of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments from mount Horeb onward" (Exod 33:6). Tamar, sister of Amnon, has worn the long-sleeved princess's dress; she rends it (2 Sam 13:19). Conversely, the disguise of mourning is itself a costume: Joab fetches "from there a wise woman, and said to her, I pray you, feign yourself to be a mourner, and put on mourning apparel, I pray you, and don't anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has a long time mourned for the dead" (2 Sam 14:2). Tamar — the elder Tamar — "put off from her the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil" (Gen 38:14), naming a distinct widow's wardrobe. Judah at large "mourns, and its gates languish, they sit in black on the ground" (Jer 14:2); personified Zion will "lament and mourn; and she will sit on the ground emptied" (Isa 3:26).

Lying on the Ground, Fasting

The mourner does not sit on a chair. David "fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the earth" for the child (2 Sam 12:16); at the false report he "rent his garments, and lay on the earth" (2 Sam 13:31); Joshua and the elders "fell to the earth on his face before the ark of Yahweh until the evening" (Josh 7:6).

Fasting accompanies the rest of the gestures and stretches across days. The men of Jabesh-gilead "fasted seven days" after burying Saul's bones (1 Sam 31:13). David and his men "mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of Yahweh, and for the house of Israel; because they fell by the sword" (2 Sam 1:12); over Abner he refuses the daylight meal: "God do so to me, and more also, if I taste bread, or anything else, until the sun is down" (2 Sam 3:35). The Maccabean assemblies do the same: "they fasted that day, and put on sackcloth, and put ashes on their heads" (1 Macc 3:47).

Lamentations

Lamentation is a literary form, not just a noise. David's lament over Saul and Jonathan opens the form: "And David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son … Your glory, O Israel, is slain on your high places! How are the mighty fallen! … Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, And in their death they were not divided … How are the mighty fallen, And the weapons of war perished!" (2 Sam 1:17, 19, 23, 27). Over Abner he turns the same instrument: "Should Abner die as a fool dies? Your hands were not bound, and your feet were not put into fetters: As a man falls before the sons of iniquity, so did you fall. And all the people wept again over him" (2 Sam 3:33-34). Over Absalom no formal poem comes — only the broken cry, "O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! O that I had died for you, O Absalom, my son, my son!" (2 Sam 18:33). For Josiah a lasting memorial: "And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel" (2 Chr 35:25). For Jehoiakim, by contrast, the formula is denied: "they will not lament for him, [saying,] Ah my brother! Ah best brother! They will not lament for him, [saying,] Ah lord! Ah his excellence!" (Jer 22:18). In the Maccabean books the lament continues to be the public mark of an honored death: "all the people of Israel bewailed him with great lamentation, and they mourned for him" (1 Macc 9:20); "they all came peacefully into the land of Judah. And they bewailed Jonathan" (1 Macc 12:52); "all Israel bewailed him with great lamentation: and they mourned for him many days" (1 Macc 13:26).

Hired Mourners and the Sexes Apart

The lament was a profession. "Consider⁺, and call⁺ for the mourning women, that they may come; and send⁺ for the skillful women, that they may come" (Jer 9:17); the funeral procession in Ecclesiastes walks past, "the mourners go about the streets" (Eccl 12:5). At the ruler of the synagogue's house, Jesus and his disciples "come to the house of the ruler of the synagogue; and he sees a tumult, and [many] weeping and wailing greatly" (Mark 5:38). For Josiah it was an institution: "all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel" (2 Chr 35:25).

Zechariah pictures the great future mourning by family and by sex apart: "And the land will mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart … all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart" (Zech 12:12, 14).

Tears and Weeping

Behind the public gestures the inner pressure is recorded as weeping and as tears. Hagar with her child: "she went, and she sat down across from him a good way off, as it were a bowshot" (Gen 21:16). Esau "cried with a very great and bitter cry" for his blessing (Gen 27:34) and answered, "Have you but one blessing, my father? Bless me, even me also" (Gen 27:38). The people at Kadesh "returned and wept before Yahweh; but Yahweh didn't listen to your⁺ voice" (Deut 1:45). Hannah at Shiloh "wept, and did not eat" (1 Sam 1:7); when the messengers from Jabesh-gilead reach Gibeah of Saul, "all the people lifted up their voice, and wept" (1 Sam 11:4). Paltiel followed Michal "weeping as he went, and followed her to Bahurim" (2 Sam 3:16); David wept on the ascent (2 Sam 15:30); Elisha wept before Hazael until he was ashamed (2 Kings 8:11); Hezekiah wept "intensely" on his sickbed (2 Kings 20:3); the older priests and Levites "wept with a loud voice, when the foundation of this house was laid" (Ezra 3:12); the exiles "sat down, yes, we wept, When we remembered Zion" (Ps 137:1). At the crow of the cock, Peter "called to mind the word, how that Jesus said to him" — and wept (Mark 14:72).

Tears themselves become an idiom of suffering. "I am weary with my groaning; Every night I make my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears" (Ps 6:6). "Hear my prayer, O Yahweh, and give ear to my cry; Don't hold your peace at my tears" (Ps 39:12). "My tears have been my food day and night, While they continually say to me, Where is your God?" (Ps 42:3). "You have fed them with the bread of tears, And given them tears to drink in large measure" (Ps 80:5). "I have eaten ashes like bread, And mingled my drink with weeping" (Ps 102:9). Job: "My face is red with weeping, And on my eyelids is the shadow of death" (Job 16:16); "Therefore my harp is [turned] to mourning, And my pipe into the voice of those who weep" (Job 30:31). Sirach: "A wound in the eye makes tears flow, And a wound in the heart severs friendship" (Sir 22:19); "Does not the tear run down upon the cheek?" (Sir 35:18). The psalmist generalizes: "He who goes forth and weeps, bearing seed for sowing, Will doubtless come again with joy, bringing his sheaves [with him]" (Ps 126:6).

The prophet's tears reach beyond his own loss. Jeremiah cries, "Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!" (Jer 9:1); calls for the wailing women so that "our eyes may run down with tears" (Jer 9:18); says "my soul will weep in secret for [your⁺] pride" (Jer 13:17); promises that his eyes will "run down with tears night and day" for the broken virgin daughter (Jer 14:17). Isaiah: "Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; don't labor to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people" (Isa 22:4). The weeping of Israel after the rebellion is seen in Jer 3:21 — "A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping [and] the supplications of the sons of Israel." The Lord himself "saw the city and wept over it" (Luke 19:41), and at the foot of the cross's miracle "Immediately the father of the child cried out, and said, I believe; help my unbelief" (Mark 9:24). Jesus also gave the warning: "Woe to you⁺, you⁺ who are full now! For you⁺ will hunger. Woe [to you⁺], you⁺ who laugh now! For you⁺ will mourn and weep" (Luke 6:25).

Mourning and the Sanctuary

Because contact with the dead defiled, mourning bordered the sanctuary on every side. "He who touches a dead [body] of any soul of man will be unclean seven days … This is the law when man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent, and everyone who is in the tent, will be unclean seven days … And whoever in the open field touches one who is slain with a sword, or a dead body, or a bone of man, or a grave, will be unclean seven days" (Num 19:11, 14, 16). Soldiers after battle keep the same period: "encamp⁺ outside the camp seven days: whoever has killed any soul, and whoever has touched any slain, purify yourselves on the third day and on the seventh day" (Num 31:19).

The priests' mourning was sharply restricted. "None will defile himself for a soul among his relatives; except for his kin, who is near to him, for his mother, and for his father, and for his son, and for his daughter, and for his brother, and for his sister a virgin, who is near to him, that has had no husband; for her he may defile himself … They will not make baldness on their head, neither will they shave off the corner of their beard, nor make any cuttings in their flesh" (Lev 21:1-3, 5); the high priest is barred even from his parents' bodies and forbidden the loosened hair and rent garment (Lev 21:10-11). The original case behind the rule is the Nadab-Abihu prohibition addressed to Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar: "Don't let the hair of your⁺ heads go loose, neither rend your⁺ clothes; that you⁺ will not die … but let your⁺ brothers, the whole house of Israel, bewail the burning which Yahweh has kindled" (Lev 10:6).

The same logic disqualifies what mourning has touched from the altar. The third-year tithe declaration says, "I haven't 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 Speech of] Yahweh my God; I have done according to all that you have commanded me" (Deut 26:14). Hosea pictures the disqualified offering directly: "their sacrifices will be to them as the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted; for their bread will be for their soul; it will not come into the house of Yahweh" (Hos 9:4).

Comfort

Mourning is met by comfort, and the same scriptures that record the gestures record the offices that answer them. Joseph "comforted them, and spoke kindly to them" (Gen 50:21). Job's three companions, when they "heard of all this evil that came upon him," made an appointment together "to come to bemoan him and to comfort him" (Job 2:11); Ephraim "mourned many days, and his brothers came to comfort him" (1 Chr 7:22). Bread and the "cup of consolation" were normally broken for the mourner — Jeremiah pictures their absence as judgment: "neither will men break bread for the mourner, to comfort them for the dead; neither will men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother" (Jer 16:7). At Bethany "the Jews then who were with her in the house, and were consoling her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up quickly and went out, followed her" (John 11:31).

Sirach codifies the practice: "Do not put off those who weep, But mourn with those who mourn" (Sir 7:34); "Mourn for the dead, for [his] light has failed, And mourn for a fool, for understanding has failed [him]" (Sir 22:11); "The mourning for the dead is for seven days, But the mourning for a fool is for all the days of his life" (Sir 22:12); "My son, let tears fall for the dead; Show yourself sorrowful, and mourn with a lamentation" (Sir 38:16); "Make bitter your weeping and passionate your wailing, And make mourning such as befits him, For a day or two to avoid scandal, And be comforted for your sorrow" (Sir 38:17); "Then let your heart be no more occupied with him, Dismiss the remembrance of him" (Sir 38:20); "When the dead is at rest, let his memory rest; And be consoled when his soul departs" (Sir 38:23).

The deeper comfort is theological. Yahweh names himself the comforter: "Comfort⁺, comfort⁺ my people, says your⁺ God" (Isa 40:1); "For Yahweh has comforted Zion; he has comforted all her waste places" (Isa 51:3); "I, even I, am he who comforts you⁺: who are you, that you are afraid of common men" (Isa 51:12); "As one whom his mother comforts, so [my Speech] will comfort you⁺; and you⁺ will be comforted in Jerusalem" (Isa 66:13). The psalmist appeals to the same office: "You will increase my greatness, And turn again and comfort me" (Ps 71:21); "Like a father pities his sons, So Yahweh pities those who fear him" (Ps 103:13); "This is my comfort in my affliction; For your [Speech] has quickened me" (Ps 119:50). And "his anger is but for a moment; His favor is for a lifetime: Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning" (Ps 30:5). Sirach adds Isaiah to the office: "By a spirit of might he saw the latter end, And comforted the mourners of Zion" (Sir 48:24).

The gospel takes up the same verb. To Jairus: "Don't fear, only believe" (Mark 5:36). To the widow of Nain: "Do not weep" (Luke 7:13). To the disciples: "Don't let your⁺ heart be troubled: believe in God, believe also in me" (John 14:1); "I will not leave you⁺ desolate: I come to you⁺" (John 14:18); "in me you⁺ may have peace. In the world you⁺ have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Paul names God "the Father of mercies and God of all comfort" (2 Cor 1:3); "he who comforts the lowly, [even] God, comforted us by the coming of Titus" (2 Cor 7:6); "our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace" (2 Thess 2:16). The comforted are then to comfort: "you⁺ should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with too much sorrow" (2 Cor 2:7); on the death of believers, "we would not have you⁺ ignorant, brothers, concerning those who fall asleep" (1 Thess 4:13), so "comfort one another with these words" (1 Thess 4:18); "exhort one another, and build each other up, even as also you⁺ do … encourage the fainthearted, support the weak, be long-suffering toward all" (1 Thess 5:11, 14).

The End of Mourning

Isaiah promises a covenantal reversal at the end: that to "those who mourn in Zion" Yahweh will "give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness" (Isa 61:3) — a reversal in which each of the named mourning gestures is exchanged for its opposite. Sirach already describes Isaiah by that same office: "By a spirit of might he saw the latter end, And comforted the mourners of Zion" (Sir 48:24). The sequence the comforter scriptures sketch is the one the Bible's mourning literature has been awaiting all along: Yahweh comforts his people, the mourner is exchanged for the celebrant, and the gestures of grief give way to the garment of praise.