Nehemiah 1:4

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

Job 2:11

The Visit of Job’s Friends ² 

2:11 When Job’s three friends heard about all this calamity that had happened to him, each of them came from his own country ³  – Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. ⁴  They met together ⁵  to come to show sympathy ⁶  for him and to console ⁷  him.

Psalms 35:13-14

35:13 When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, ⁸ 

and refrained from eating food. ⁹ 

(If I am lying, may my prayers go unanswered!) ¹⁰ 

35:14 I mourned for them as I would for a friend or my brother. ¹¹ 

I bowed down ¹²  in sorrow as if I were mourning for my mother. ¹³ 

Jeremiah 9:1

9:1 (8:23) ¹⁴  I wish that my head were a well full of water ¹⁵ 

and my eyes were a fountain full of tears!

If they were, I could cry day and night

for those of my dear people ¹⁶  who have been killed.

John 11:19

11:19 so many of the Jewish people of the region ¹⁷  had come to Martha and Mary to console them ¹⁸  over the loss of their brother.) ¹⁹ 

John 11:33-36

11:33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the people ²⁰  who had come with her weeping, he was intensely moved ²¹  in spirit and greatly distressed. ²²  11:34 He asked, ²³  “Where have you laid him?” ²⁴  They replied, ²⁵  “Lord, come and see.” 11:35 Jesus wept. ²⁶  11:36 Thus the people who had come to mourn ²⁷  said, “Look how much he loved him!”

John 11:2

11:2 (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil ²⁸  and wiped his feet dry with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) ²⁹ 

Colossians 1:29

1:29 Toward this goal ³⁰  I also labor, struggling according to his power that powerfully ³¹  works in me.

Philippians 2:26

2:26 Indeed, he greatly missed all of you and was distressed because you heard that he had been ill.

Hebrews 13:3

13:3 Remember those in prison as though you were in prison with them, ³²  and those ill-treated as though you too felt their torment. ³³ 

[1:4]  ¹ 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.

[2:11]  ² sn See N. C. Habel, “‘Only the Jackal is My Friend,’ On Friends and Redeemers in Job,” Int 31 (1977): 227-36.

[2:11]  ³ tn Heb “a man from his place”; this is the distributive use, meaning “each man came from his place.”

[2:11]  ⁴ sn Commentators have tried to analyze the meanings of the names of the friends and their locations. Not only has this proven to be difficult (Teman is the only place that is known), it is not necessary for the study of the book. The names are probably not symbolic of the things they say.

[2:11]  ⁵ tn The verb can mean that they “agreed together”; but it also (and more likely) means that they came together at a meeting point to go visit Job together.

[2:11]  ⁶ tn The verb “to show grief” is נוּד (nud), and literally signifies “to shake the head.” It may be that his friends came to show the proper sympathy and express the appropriate feelings. They were not ready for what they found.

[2:11]  ⁷ tn The second infinitive is from נָחָם (nakham, “to comfort, console” in the Piel). This word may be derived from a word with a meaning of sighing deeply.

[35:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth.” Sackcloth was worn by mourners. When the psalmist’s enemies were sick, he was sorry for their misfortune and mourned for them.

[35:13]  ⁹ sn Fasting was also a practice of mourners. By refraining from normal activities, such as eating food, the mourner demonstrated the sincerity of his sorrow.

[35:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and my prayer upon my chest will return.” One could translate, “but my prayer was returning upon my chest,” but the use of the imperfect verbal form sets this line apart from the preceding and following lines (vv. 13a, 14), which use the perfect to describe the psalmist’s past actions.

[35:14]  ¹¹ tn Heb “like a friend, like a brother to me I walked about.”

[35:14]  ¹² sn I bowed down. Bowing down was a posture for mourning. See Ps 38:6.

[35:14]  ¹³ tn Heb “like mourning for a mother [in] sorrow I bowed down.”

[9:1]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “I wish that my head were water.”

[9:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “daughter of my people.” For the translation given here see 4:11 and the note on the phrase “dear people” there.

[11:19]  ¹⁷ tn Or “many of the Judeans” (cf. BDAG 479 s.v. ᾿Ιουδαῖος 2.e); Grk “many of the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the residents of Jerusalem and the surrounding area in general (those who had been friends or relatives of Lazarus or his sisters would mainly be in view) since the Jewish religious authorities (“the chief priests and the Pharisees”) are specifically mentioned as a separate group in John 11:46-47. See also the note on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 8.

[11:19]  ¹⁸ tn Or “to comfort them” or “to offer them sympathy.”

[11:19]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “to comfort them concerning their brother”; the words “loss of” are not in the Greek text but are implied.

[11:33]  ²⁰ tn Or “the Judeans”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the friends, acquaintances, and relatives of Lazarus or his sisters who had come to mourn, since the Jewish religious authorities are specifically mentioned as a separate group in John 11:46-47. See also the notes on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 8, “the Jewish people of the region” in v. 19, and the word “people” in v. 31.

[11:33]  ²¹ tn Or (perhaps) “he was deeply indignant.” The verb ἐνεβριμήσατο (enebrimhsato), which is repeated in John 11:38, indicates a strong display of emotion, somewhat difficult to translate – “shuddered, moved with the deepest emotions.” In the LXX, the verb and its cognates are used to describe a display of indignation (Dan 11:30, for example – see also Mark 14:5). Jesus displayed this reaction to the afflicted in Mark 1:43, Matt 9:30. Was he angry at the afflicted? No, but he was angry because he found himself face-to-face with the manifestations of Satan’s kingdom of evil. Here, the realm of Satan was represented by death.

[11:33]  ²² tn Or “greatly troubled.” The verb ταράσσω (tarassw) also occurs in similar contexts to those of ἐνεβριμήσατο (enebrimhsato). John uses it in 14:1 and 27 to describe the reaction of the disciples to the imminent death of Jesus, and in 13:21 the verb describes how Jesus reacted to the thought of being betrayed by Judas, into whose heart Satan had entered.

[11:34]  ²³ tn Grk “And he said.” Because of the difference between Greek style, which often begins sentences or clauses with “and,” and English style, which generally does not, καί (kai) has not been translated here.

[11:34]  ²⁴ tn Or “Where have you placed him?”

[11:34]  ²⁵ tn Grk “They said to him.” The indirect object αὐτῷ (autw) has not been translated here for stylistic reasons.

[11:35]  ²⁶ sn Jesus wept. The Greek word used here for Jesus’ weeping (ἐδάκρυσεν, edakrusen) is different from the one used to describe the weeping of Mary and the Jews in v. 33 which indicated loud wailing and cries of lament. This word simply means “to shed tears” and has more the idea of quiet grief. But why did Jesus do this? Not out of grief for Lazarus, since he was about to be raised to life again. L. Morris (John [NICNT], 558) thinks it was grief over the misconception of those round about. But it seems that in the context the weeping is triggered by the thought of Lazarus in the tomb: This was not personal grief over the loss of a friend (since Lazarus was about to be restored to life) but grief over the effects of sin, death, and the realm of Satan. It was a natural complement to the previous emotional expression of anger (11:33). It is also possible that Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus because he knew there was also a tomb for himself ahead.

[11:36]  ²⁷ tn Or “the Judeans”; Grk “the Jews.” Here the phrase refers to the friends, acquaintances, and relatives of Lazarus or his sisters who had come to mourn, since the Jewish religious authorities are specifically mentioned as a separate group in John 11:46-47. See also the notes on the phrase “the Jewish leaders” in v. 8 and “the Jewish people of the region” in v. 19, as well as the notes on the word “people” in vv. 31, 33.

[11:2]  ²⁸ tn Or “perfume,” “ointment.”

[11:2]  ²⁹ sn This is a parenthetical note by the author. It is a bit surprising that the author here identifies Mary as the one who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet dry with her hair, since this event is not mentioned until later, in 12:3. Many see this “proleptic” reference as an indication that the author expected his readers to be familiar with the story already, and go on to assume that in general the author in writing the Fourth Gospel assumed his readers were familiar with the other three gospels. Whether the author assumed actual familiarity with the synoptic gospels or not, it is probable that he did assume some familiarity with Mary’s anointing activity.

[1:29]  ³⁰ tn The Greek phrase εἴς ὅ (eis Jo, “toward which”) implies “movement toward a goal” and has been rendered by the English phrase “Toward this goal.”

[1:29]  ³¹ tn The prepositional phrase ἐν δυνάμει (en dunamei) seems to be functioning adverbially, related to the participle, and has therefore been translated “powerfully.”

[13:3]  ³² tn Grk “as being imprisoned together.”

[13:3]  ³³ tn Or “since you too are vulnerable”; Grk “you also being in the body.”