Grief

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.

²⁰ Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.

²¹ A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.

²² So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

⁶ I am weary from groaning; all night I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.

⁷ My eyes fail from grief; they grow dim because of all my foes.

⁸ Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for the LORD has heard my weeping.

²⁶ Please run out now to meet her and ask, ‘Are you all right? Is your husband all right? Is your child all right?’” And she answered, “Everything is all right.”

²⁷ When she reached the man of God at the mountain, she clung to his feet. Gehazi came over to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is in deep distress, and the LORD has hidden it from me and has not told me.”

²⁸ Then she said, “Did I ask you for a son, my lord? Didn’t I say, ‘Do not deceive me?’”

² It is better to enter a house of mourning than a house of feasting, since death is the end of every man, and the living should take this to heart.

³ Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart.

⁴ The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

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.

¹⁸ My sorrow is beyond healing; my heart is faint within me.

¹⁹ Listen to the cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD no longer in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images, with their worthless foreign idols?”

²⁰ “The harvest has passed, the summer has ended, but we have not been saved.”

²¹ For the brokenness of the daughter of my people I am crushed. I mourn; horror has gripped me.

²² Is there no balm in Gilead? Is no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?

Oh, that my head were a spring of water, and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night over the slain daughter of my people.

And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction grip me.

My harp is tuned to mourning and my flute to the sound of weeping.

For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears. For there is no one nearby to comfort me, no one to revive my soul. My children are destitute because the enemy has prevailed.

⁴⁸ Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.

⁴⁹ My eyes overflow unceasingly, without relief,

⁵⁰ until the LORD looks down from heaven and sees.

⁵¹ My eyes bring grief to my soul because of all the daughters of my city.

³ And they told me, “The remnant who survived the exile are there in the province, in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”

⁴ When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

How long must I wrestle in my soul, with sorrow in my heart each day? How long will my enemy dominate me?

¹¹ You turned my mourning into dancing; You peeled off my sackcloth and clothed me with joy,

¹² that my heart may sing Your praises and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks forever.

⁹ Be merciful to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eyes fail from sorrow, my soul and body as well.

¹⁰ For my life is consumed with grief and my years with groaning; my iniquity has drained my strength, and my bones are wasting away.

¹¹ Among all my enemies I am a disgrace, and among my neighbors even more. I am dreaded by my friends— they flee when they see me on the street.

¹² I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind. I am like a broken vessel.

You have taken account of my wanderings. Put my tears in Your bottle— are they not in Your book?

³³ His father recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!”

³⁴ Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.

³⁷ He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.

³⁸ Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with Me.”

³³ He took with Him Peter, James, and John, and began to be deeply troubled and distressed.

³⁴ Then He said to them, “My soul is consumed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch.”

¹⁸ While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house,

¹⁹ when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you!”

²⁰ Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped,

²¹ saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”

³ When David and his men came to the city, they found it burned down and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive.

⁴ So David and the troops with him lifted up their voices and wept until they had no strength left to weep.

⁵ David’s two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail the widow of Nabal of Carmel, had been taken captive.

¹⁹ And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her robe. And putting her hand on her head, she went away crying bitterly.

²⁰ Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has your brother Amnon been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister. He is your brother. Do not take this thing to heart.” So Tamar lived as a desolate woman in the house of her brother Absalom.

¹ When Mordecai learned of all that had happened, he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went out into the middle of the city, wailing loudly and bitterly.

² But he went only as far as the king’s gate, because the law prohibited anyone wearing sackcloth from entering that gate.

³ In every province to which the king’s command and edict came, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and lamented, and many lay in sackcloth and ashes.

⁴ When Esther’s maidens and eunuchs came and told her about Mordecai, the queen was overcome with distress. She sent clothes for Mordecai to wear instead of his sackcloth, but he would not accept them.

³¹ When the Jews who were in the house consoling Mary saw how quickly she got up and went out, they followed her, supposing she was going to the tomb to mourn there.

³² When Mary came to Jesus and saw Him, she fell at His feet and said, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

³³ When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled.

³⁴ “Where have you put him?” He asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they answered.

³⁵ Jesus wept.

⁴¹ As Jesus approached Jerusalem and saw the city, He wept over it

⁴² and said, “If only you had known on this day what would bring you peace! But now it is hidden from your eyes.

And he went outside and wept bitterly.

“A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.

And immediately the rooster crowed a second time. Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times.” And he broke down and wept.

² I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

³ For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood,

⁴ the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises.

Later, the son of the woman who owned the house became ill, and his sickness grew worse and worse, until no breath remained in him.

¹⁷ The messenger answered, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are both dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”

¹⁸ As soon as the ark of God was mentioned, Eli fell backward from his chair by the city gate, and being old and heavy, he broke his neck and died. And Eli had judged Israel forty years.

¹⁹ Now Eli’s daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth. When she heard the news of the capture of God’s ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, she collapsed and gave birth, for her labor pains overtook her.

²⁰ As she was dying, the women attending to her said, “Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son!” But she did not respond or pay any heed.

²¹ And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been captured and her father-in-law and her husband had been killed.

²² “The glory has departed from Israel,” she said, “for the ark of God has been captured.”

³⁴ Then Samuel went to Ramah, but Saul went up to his home in Gibeah of Saul.

³⁵ And to the day of his death, Samuel never again visited Saul. Samuel mourned for Saul, and the LORD regretted that He had made Saul king over Israel.

¹⁹ “My head! My head!” he complained to his father. So his father told a servant, “Carry him to his mother.”

²⁰ After the servant had picked him up and carried him to his mother, the boy sat on her lap until noon, and then he died.

³⁰ While they were on the way, a report reached David: “Absalom has struck down all the sons of the king; not one of them is left!”

³¹ Then the king stood up, tore his clothes, and lay down on the ground; and all his servants stood by with their clothes torn.

³² But Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah, spoke up: “My lord must not think they have killed all the sons of the king, for only Amnon is dead. In fact, Absalom has planned this since the day Amnon violated his sister Tamar.

³³ So now, my lord the king, do not take to heart the report that all the sons of the king are dead. Only Amnon is dead.”

And as he finished speaking, the sons of the king came in, wailing loudly. Then the king and all his servants also wept very bitterly.