Ezra 9:4-5

9:4 Everyone who held the words of the God of Israel in awe ¹  gathered around me because of the unfaithful acts of the people of the exile. ²  Devastated, I continued to sit there until the evening offering.

9:5 At the time of the evening offering I got up from my self-abasement, ³  with my tunic and robe torn, and then dropped to my knees and spread my hands to the Lord my God.

Nehemiah 1:4

1:4 When I heard these things I sat down abruptly, ⁴  crying and mourning for several days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven.

Psalms 42:9

42:9 I will pray ⁵  to God, my high ridge: ⁶ 

“Why do you ignore ⁷  me?

Why must I walk around mourning ⁸ 

because my enemies oppress me?”

Psalms 43:2

43:2 For you are the God who shelters me. ⁹ 

Why do you reject me? ¹⁰ 

Why must I walk around ¹¹  mourning ¹² 

because my enemies oppress me?

Psalms 137:1-5

Psalm 137 ¹³ 

137:1 By the rivers of Babylon

we sit down and weep ¹⁴ 

when we remember Zion.

137:2 On the poplars in her midst

we hang our harps,

137:3 for there our captors ask us to compose songs; ¹⁵ 

those who mock us demand that we be happy, saying: ¹⁶ 

“Sing for us a song about Zion!” ¹⁷ 

137:4 How can we sing a song to the Lord

in a foreign land?

137:5 If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

may my right hand be crippled! ¹⁸ 

Isaiah 66:10

66:10 Be happy for Jerusalem

and rejoice with her, all you who love her!

Share in her great joy,

all you who have mourned over her!

Jeremiah 9:1

9:1 (8:23) ¹⁹  I wish that my head were a well full of water ²⁰ 

and my eyes were a fountain full of tears!

If they were, I could cry day and night

for those of my dear people ²¹  who have been killed.

Matthew 9:15

9:15 Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests ²²  cannot mourn while the bridegroom ²³  is with them, can they? But the days ²⁴  are coming when the bridegroom will be taken from them, ²⁵  and then they will fast.

Romans 9:2

9:2 I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ²⁶ 

James 4:9

4:9 Grieve, mourn, ²⁷  and weep. Turn your laughter ²⁸  into mourning and your joy into despair.

Revelation 11:5

11:5 If ²⁹  anyone wants to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths ³⁰  and completely consumes ³¹  their enemies. If ³²  anyone wants to harm them, they must be killed this way.

[9:4]  ¹ tn Heb “who trembled at the words of the God of Israel.”

[9:4]  ² tn Heb “the exile”; the words “the people” are not in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:5]  ³ tn The Hebrew word used here is a hapax legomenon. It refers to the self-abasement that accompanies religious sorrow and fasting.

[1:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “sat down.” Context suggests that this was a rather sudden action, resulting from the emotional shock of the unpleasant news, so “abruptly” has been supplied in the present translation.

[42:9]  ⁵ tn The cohortative form indicates the psalmist’s resolve.

[42:9]  ⁶ tn This metaphor pictures God as a rocky, relatively inaccessible summit, where one would be able to find protection from enemies. See 1 Sam 23:25, 28; Pss 18:2; 31:3.

[42:9]  ⁷ tn Or “forget.”

[42:9]  ⁸ sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar idea.

[43:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “God of my place of refuge,” that is, “God who is my place of refuge.” See Ps 31:4.

[43:2]  ¹⁰ tn The question is similar to that of Ps 42:9, but זָנַח (zanakh, “reject”) is a stronger verb than שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”).

[43:2]  ¹¹ tn The language is similar to that of Ps 42:9, but the Hitpael form of the verb הָלַךְ (halakh; as opposed to the Qal form in 42:9) expresses more forcefully the continuing nature of the psalmist’s distress.

[43:2]  ¹² sn Walk around mourning. See Ps 38:6 for a similar statement.

[137:1]  ¹³ sn Psalm 137. The Babylonian exiles lament their condition, vow to remain loyal to Jerusalem, and appeal to God for revenge on their enemies.

[137:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “there we sit down, also we weep.”

[137:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “ask us [for] the words of a song.”

[137:3]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “our [?] joy.” The derivation and meaning of the Hebrew phrase תוֹלָלֵינוּ (tolalenu, “our [?]”) are uncertain. A derivation from תָּלַל (talal, “to mock”) fits contextually, but this root occurs only in the Hiphil stem. For a discussion of various proposals, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 236.

[137:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “from a song of Zion.” Most modern translations read, “one of the songs of Zion,” taking the preposition מִן (min, “from”) as partitive and “song” as collective. The present translation assumes the mem (ם) is enclitic, being misunderstood later as the prefixed preposition.

[137:5]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “may my right hand forget.” In this case one must supply an object, such as “how to move.” The elliptical nature of the text has prompted emendations (see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 [WBC], 236). The translation assumes an emendation to תִּכְשַׁח (tikhshakh), from an otherwise unattested root כשׁח, meaning “to be crippled; to be lame.” See HALOT 502 s.v. כשׁח, which cites Arabic cognate evidence in support of the proposal. The corruption of the MT can be explained as an error of transposition facilitated by the use of שָׁכַח (shakhakh, “forget”) just before this.

[9:1]  ¹⁹ sn Beginning with 9:1, the verse numbers through 9:26 in the English Bible differ from the verse numbers in the Hebrew text (BHS), with 9:1 ET = 8:23 HT, 9:2 ET = 9:1 HT, 9:3 ET = 9:2 HT, etc., through 9:26 ET = 9:25 HT. Beginning with 10:1 the verse numbers in the ET and HT are again the same.

[9:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I wish that my head were water.”

[9:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[9:15]  ²² tn Grk “sons of the wedding hall,” an idiom referring to wedding guests, or more specifically friends of the bridegroom present at the wedding celebration (L&N 11.7).

[9:15]  ²³ sn The expression while the bridegroom is with them is an allusion to messianic times (John 3:29; Isa 54:5-6; 62:4-5; 4 Ezra 2:15, 38).

[9:15]  ²⁴ tn Grk “days.”

[9:15]  ²⁵ sn The statement the bridegroom will be taken from them is a veiled allusion by Jesus to his death, which he did not make explicit until the incident at Caesarea Philippi in 16:13ff.

[9:2]  ²⁶ tn Grk “my sorrow is great and the anguish in my heart is unceasing.”

[4:9]  ²⁷ tn This term and the following one are preceded by καί (kai) in the Greek text, but contemporary English generally uses connectives only between the last two items in such a series.

[4:9]  ²⁸ tn Grk “let your laughter be turned.”

[11:5]  ²⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.

[11:5]  ³⁰ tn This is a collective singular in Greek.

[11:5]  ³¹ tn See L&N 20.45 for the translation of κατεσθίω (katesqiw) as “to destroy utterly, to consume completely.”

[11:5]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.