When you grieve

The king was shaken and went up to the gate chamber and wept. And as he walked, he cried out, “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! If only I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

⁷ On this mountain He will swallow up the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;

⁸ He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.

I will rejoice in Jerusalem and take delight in My people. The sounds of weeping and crying will no longer be heard in her.

¹³ Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into joy, and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow.

¹⁴ I will fill the souls of the priests abundantly, and will fill My people with My goodness,” declares the LORD.

¹⁵ This is what the LORD says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, mourning and great weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

¹⁶ This is what the LORD says: “Keep your voice from weeping and your eyes from tears, for the reward for your work will come, declares the LORD. Then your children will return from the land of the enemy.

⁷ On this mountain He will swallow up the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations;

⁸ He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

But now that he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

² It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.

³ This is an evil in everything that is done under the sun: There is one fate for everyone. Furthermore, the hearts of men are full of evil and madness while they are alive, and afterward they join the dead.

⁴ There is hope, however, for anyone who is among the living; for even a live dog is better than a dead lion.

⁵ For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, because the memory of them is forgotten.

⁶ Their love, their hate, and their envy have already vanished, and they will never again have a share in all that is done under the sun.

He will swallow up death forever. The Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from every face and remove the disgrace of His people from the whole earth. For the LORD has spoken.

¹ “Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.

² “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.”

¹¹ So the redeemed of the LORD will return and enter Zion with singing, crowned with everlasting joy. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee.

¹² “I, even I, am He who comforts you. Why should you be afraid of mortal man, of a son of man who withers like grass?

¹⁸ I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will guide him and restore comfort to him and his mourners,

¹⁹ bringing praise to their lips. Peace, peace to those far and near,” says the LORD, “and I will heal them.”