MOURNING. This head embraces both the outward expressions of sorrow for the dead, re ferred to in the Scriptures, and those exnressions which were intended to exhibit repentance, etc. These subjects will be pursued according to Townsend's chronological arrangement, and since they nearly approximate, will be pursued together. Assuming the propriety of this arrangement, the earliest reference to any kind of mourning is that of Job (B. C. 2130), who being informed of the de struction of his children as the climax of his calamities, arose, rent his mantle, shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground and wor shipped' (Job i. 20)—uttered sentiments of sub mission (ver. 21), and sat down among the ashes (chap. ii. 8). His friends came to him by an ap pointment among themselves to mourn with him and comfort him (ver. ; they lift up their voices and wept upon a view of his altered ap pearance ; they rent every man his mantle 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 commenced their office as mourners. Job then bewails aloud his unhappy condition (chap. iii.) In chap. xvi. Is, 16, refer ence is made to the customs of sewing sackcloth upon the skin, defiling the head with dust, and suffering the face to be begrimed with weeping. Clamour in grief is referred to (xix. 7; xxx. 28) : 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 sufferings ; which seems to have been a kind of congratulatory mourning, indulged in order to heighten the pleasures of prosperity by recalling associations of adversity (chap. xlii. i). Indeed, the expressions of affec tionate joy and grief nearly. coincide. Joseph fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept (Gen. xlv. LI.; comp. Acts xx. 37, and Gen. 1. I). However it is to be accounted for, in the course of the book of Job, nearly all the chief character istics of eastern mourning are introduced. This will appear as we proceed. The next instance is that of Abraham, who can,: to mourn and weep for Sarah (a. c. 1871), words whij: denote a for mal mourning (Gen. xxiii. 2). Days u: mourning are referred to in regard to the expected de..;'" of Isaac (Gen xxvii. 41). These appear generally to have consisted of seven, as for Saul (r Sam. xxxi. 13 ; for Judith, xvi. 24 ; comp. Ecclus. xxii. 12). Weeping appears (B. C. 1729), 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 Israel were heard to weep by Moses throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent (Num. xi. 10 ; comp. xiv. 1; xxv. 6). So numerous are the references to tears in the Scriptures as to give the impression that the Orientals had them nearly at command (comp. Ps. vi. 6). The woman washed our Lord's feet with tears (Luke vii. 38; comp. Ecclus. xxxviii. 17). Weeping, with lifting up of the voice, occurs in Ruth i. 9 ; t Sam. xi. 4 ; 2 Sam. iii. 32 ; xiii. 36). Their excitable ness appears otherwise ; they shout for joy and howl for grief, even the ministers of the altar (Joel L 13 ; Micah i. 8, etc.) Reuben rent his clothes upon finding Joseph gone (Gen. =nil 29), and uttered lamentations (ver. 3o). Jacob rends his siothes, and puts sackcloth upon his loins, and mourns for his son many days ; his sons and his daughters rise up to comfort 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 multi tudes of passages down to the last age of the Jewish empire (Acts xiv. 14). Scarcely less nu merous are the references to sackcloth on the loins as an expression of mourning ; we have even lying in sackcloth (I Kings xxi. 27), and sackcloth upon both man and beast at Nineveh (Jonah iii. 8). Joseph's brethren fell to the ground before him in token of grief (Gen. xliv. 14) ; and this, or lying, or sitting on the ground, was a common token of mourning (comp. Ps. xxxv. 14 ; I Sam. xxv. 24 ; Is. iii. 26 ; xlvii. I ; Ezek, xxvi. 16, etc.) The next incident in the history of the subject is the mourn ing for Jacob by the Egyptians, which was con ducted, no doubt by professional mourners, during threescore and ten days (Gen. 1. 3), called the days of mourning (ver. 4), though most likely that computation includes the process of embalming (Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, v. 454, 459). It seems to have amounted to a royal mourning, doubtless out of regard to Joseph. Herodotus states that the Egyptians mourned for a king seventy-two days. The mourn ing for Joseph's father was renewed by Joseph's command, with a very great and sore lamentation, upon the funeral cavalcade having arrived in Canaan, and continued seven days (ver. so). The vehemency of that mourning seems to have sur prised even the Canaanites, who in consequence named the place where it was held Abel-mizraim, or the mourning of the Egyptians (ver. M. We learn from Diodorus that at the death of a king the Egyptian people tore their garments, every temple was closed, sacrifices were forbidden, and no festi vals celebrated. A procession of two or three hun dred persons wandered through the streets, throwing dust and mud upon their heads, and twice every day sung a funeral dirge in honour of the deceased. In the meantime the people abstained from baths, ointments, every luxury, and even wheaten bread (i. 72, 91). The Egyptians have ever been re nowned for the vociferation of their grief; 'there was a great cry in Egypt at the death of the first born' (Exod. xii. 3o). When the children of Israel (B.c. 1491) mourned under the threat of the divine displeasure, they did not put on their orna ments (Exod. xxxiii. 4 ; comp. Joel ii. 16 ; Ezek. xxiv. 17). At the giving of the law the modes of mourning were regulated by several enactments. It was forbidden the Jews to make cuttings in their flesh for the dead (Lev. xix. 28). The ancient Egyptians, according to Herodotus, did not cut themselves (ii. 61) ; it was a Syrian custom, as appears from the votaries of Baal (I Kings xviii. 28) ; nor were the Jews allowed to make any bald ness between their eyes for the dead (Dent. xiv. i).
The priests were forbidden to uncover the head in mourning (Lex. x. 6), or to rend their clothes, or to contract the ceremonial defilement involved in mourning except for their nearest kindred (Lev. xxi. I, 4) ; but the high-priest was entirely for bidden to do so even for his father or his mother (ver. II), and so was the Nazarite (Num. vi. 7). These prohibitions respecting the head and the beard (Lev. xix. 27) seem to have been restricted to funeral occasions, as the customs referred to were lawfully practised on other sorrowful events (comp. Ezra ix. 3 ; Job i. 20 ; Is. xXii. 12 ; Jer. vii. 29 ; Micah i. 16). Even the food' eaten by mourners was considered unclean (comp. Deut. xxvi. 14, with Hos. ix. 4 ; Ezek. xxiv. 17). The Jews were commanded to afflict their souls on the day of atonement (Lev. xxiii. 27), and at the feast of trumpets (Num. xxix. 7). All the house of Israel mourned for Aaron thirty days (Num. xx. 29). The beautiful captive, whom the law per mitted to marry, was required first to bewail her father and mother a full month, and the requisitions that she should shave her head and pare her nails have been by some considered signs of mourning (Dent. xxi. 1 I, 13). The Israelites wept for Moses thirty days, called the days of weeping and mourn ing for Moses (Deut. xxxiv. 8 ; B.C. 1541). Joshua and the elders of Israel put dust upon their heads at the defeat of Ai, and fasted (Josh. vii. 6), as did the eleven tribes after the defeat at Gibeah, and wept (Judg. xx. 26), as did all the Israelites at the command of Samuel, on which occasion it is said they drew water and poured it out before the Lord' (I Sam. vii. 6; comp. Ps. xxii. 14). The prophet Joel commanded a fast as part of a national mourning. A fast is proclaimed to all the inhabi tants or visitors at Jerusalem (Jer. xxxvi. 9 ; comp. Zech. vii. 5). Fasting is practised at Nineveh as part of a public humiliation (Jonah iii. 5). In our Lord's language, to fast' and to mourn' are the same thing (Matt. ix. 15). Public humiliatiods at tended with religious assemblies and prayers (Joel ii. 16, 17) ; with fasts (Is. lviii. 3) ; see all these united (I Maccab. iii. 44, 47, 48). The first com plete description of mourning for the dead occurs in 2 Sam. iii. 31, 35, where David commands Joab and all the people that were with him to rend their clothes, gird themselves with sackcloth, and mourn for Abner ; and David himself followed the bier, and they buried Abner in Hebron ; and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept, and David fasted two days, and wrote a lamentation for the deceased. Elegies were composed by the prophets on several disas trous occasions (Ezek. xxvi. -18 ; xxvii. 1-36 ; Amos v. 1, etc.) The incident of Jephthah's daughter (B.c. 1187) is too uncertain to afford any index to the modes of mourning at that era. It appears that she was allowed two months to bewail her virginity, with her companions, and that the Jewish women of that country went somewhere yearly to lament or celebrate her (Judg. xi. 37-40) [JEPH THAII]. In Ps. xxxv., which is ascribed to David, there is a description of the humiliations practised by the friends of the sick, in order to procure their recovery : When they were sick my clothing was sackcloth ; I humbled my soul with fasting ; I be haved as if it had been a friend or a brother ; I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother ;' where different modes of mourning seem adverted to for different occasions. Samuel is honoured with a public mourning by the Israelites (I Sam. xxv. 1), B.C. 1058. Upon the death of Saul, David wrote an elegy (2 Sam. i. 17-27). This, like that upon the death of Abner, seems to be a poetical description of the character of the departed, like the dirge for an Egyptian king. Lifting up the hands seems to have been an ex pression of grief (Ps. cxli. 2 ; Lam. i. 17 ; Ezra ix. 5). Messengers were sent to condole with sur vivors ; thus David sent such to Hanun, king of Ammon, upon the death of his father (2 Sam. x. i, 2) • Many of the Jews came to comfort Martha and Mary' (John xi. 19); A great company of When any one died in ancient Egypt the females of his family covered their faces with mud, ran through the streets with their bosoms exposed, striking themselves, and uttering loud lamenta women attended our Lord to the cross, bewailing and lamenting him' (Luke xxiii. 27) ; Much people' were with the widow of Nain (Luke vii. 12). Indeed, if persons met a funeral procession they were expected to join it—a custom which is thought to illustrate St. Paul's words, Weep with them that weep' (Rom. xii. 15). Herodotus re lates that when Cambyses bewailed his calamities, the Persians tore their garments and expressed their grief aloud (iii. 66). The next incident in historical order is the mourning of Bethsheba for Uriah (2 Sam. xi. 26). David, in deprecation of the death of his son by her, prayed to God for the child, fasted, and lay all night upon the earth. Ashes were often laid on the head in token of mourning ; thus Tamar put ashes on her head, rent her gar ment, and laid her hand upon her head, and went on crying' (2 Sam. xiii. 19, 20 ; comp. Is. bd. 3 ; 2 Esdras ix. 38). They even wallowed in ashes (Ezek. xxvii. 3o). Mourning apparel is first men tioned in 2 Sam. xiv. 2, where it appears that the wearer did not anoint himself with oil (comp. Matt. vi. i7). In Egypt the common people allowed their beards to grow when mourning (Herod. ii. 36 ; comp. 2 Sam. xix. 24). The first reference to hired mourners occurs in Eccles. xii. 5, The mourners go about the streets.' (The root of this word, observes Gesenius, signifies a mournful noise,' and he adduces Micah i. 8 ; Jer. xxii. 18 ; xxxiv. 5). They are certainly alluded to in Jer. ix. i 7-2o, the mourning women' (probably widows, comp. Ps. bc.xviii. 64; Acts ix. 39) answer ing to the Prficx of the Romans (comp. Hor. Ars Poet. 429). Another reference to them occurs in 2 Chron. xxxv. 25 ; comp. Joseph. .De Bell. 7ud. iii. 9. 5. The greater number of the mourners in ancient Egypt were women, as in the modern East. In the following cut (No. 375) mourners, all females, are shown casting dust upon their heads before the mummy of a man. Mourning for the dead was conducted in a tumultuous manner ; they also wept and wailed greatly (Mark v. 38). Even devout men made great lamentations (Acts viii. 2).