IYIOURNING (mornIng), (Heb. 5Z?$, aw-bar, la ment, mourn).
This head embraces both the outward expres sions of sorrow for the dead, referred to in the Scriptures, and those expressions which were in tended to exhibit repentance, etc. These subjects will be pursued according to Townsend's chrono logical arrangement, and since they nearly ap proximate, will be pursued together.
(1) Occasions. The earliest reference to any kind of mourning is that of Job, who, being in formed of the destruction of his children as the climax of his calamities, 'arose, rent his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and worshiped' (Job i :20), and uttered senti ments of submission (ver. 21), and sat down among the ashes (ch. ii :8). His friends came to him by an appointment among themselves to mourn with him and comfort him (ver. t) ; they lifted up their voices and wept upon seeing his altered appearance; they rent every man his man tle and sprinkled dust upon their heads towards heaven (ver. 12), and sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, waiting till his grief should subside before they com menced their office as mourners. Job then be wails aloud his unhappy condition (ch. iii). In ch. xvi:t5, 16, reference is made to the customs of placing sackcloth next the skin, defiling the head with dust, and suffering the face to be be grimed with weeping. Clamor in grief is referred to (ii:t2, 13; xix:7); it is considered a wicked man's portion that his widows shall not weep at his death (xxvii :15). Upon Job's recovery from his afflictions all his relatives and acquaintances bemoan and comfort him concerning his past suf ferings; which seems to have been a kind of con gratulatory mourning, indulged in order to heighten the pleasures of prosperity by recalling associations of adversity (ch. xlii itt). Indeed, the expressions of affectionate joy and grief nearly coincide. Joseph fell upon his brother Ben jamin's neck and wept (Gen. xlv ; comp. Acts xx :37, 38, and Gen. I :1). However it is to be accounted for, in the course of the book of Job nearly all the chief characteristics of Eastern mourning arc introduced. This will appear as we
proceed. The next instance is that of Abraham, who came to mourn and weep for Sarah (B. C. 1871), words which denote a formal mourning (Gen. xxiii :2). Days of mourning are referred to in regard to the expected death of Isaac (Gen.
xxvii :0). These appear generally to have con sisted of seven. as for Saul (I Sam. xxxi :13 ; see Judith xvi :24 ; comp. Ecclus. xxii :12).
(2) Modes. NVeeping appears either as one chief expression of mourning or as the general name for it. Hence when Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, was buried at Bethel under an oak, at this period, the tree was called Allon-bachuth, the oak of. weeping (Gen. xxxv :8). The children of Is rael were heard by Moses to weep throughout their families, every tnan in the door of his tent (Num. xi :io; comp. xiv :1 ; xxv :6). So numer ous are the references to tears in the Scriptures as to give the impression that the Orientals had them ever ready at command (comp. Ps. vi :6). The woman washed our Lord's feet with tears (Luke vii :38; comp. Ecclus. xxviii :17). Weep ing, with lifting up of the voice, occurs in Ruth i:9; SaM. Xi:4; 2 Sam. iii :31; xiii :36. Their excitableness appears otherwise; they shout for joy and howl for grief, even the ministers of the altar (Joel i :13; i :8, etc.).
Reuben rends his clothes upon finding Joseph gone (Gen. xxxvii :29) and uttered lamentations (ver. 3o). Jacob rends his clothes and puts sack cloth upon his loins, and mourns for his son many days; his sons and his daughters rise up to com fort him, and he gives utterance to his grief ; 'thus his father wept for him' (Gen. xxxvii :34, 35). Joseph's brothers rend their clothes (Gen. xliv :13) ; and this act, as expressive of grief or horror, occurs in multitudes of passages down to the last age of the Jewish empire (Acts xiv: 14)• Scarcely less numerous are the references to sackcloth on the loins as an expression of mourn ing; we have even lying in sackcloth (i Kings xxi :27), and sackcloth upon both man and beast at Nineveh (Jonah iii :8).