Psalms 35:13-14

35:13 When they were sick, I wore sackcloth, ¹ 

and refrained from eating food. ² 

(If I am lying, may my prayers go unanswered!) ³ 

35:14 I mourned for them as I would for a friend or my brother. ⁴ 

I bowed down ⁵  in sorrow as if I were mourning for my mother. ⁶ 

Jeremiah 13:17

13:17 But if you will not pay attention to this warning, ⁷ 

I will weep alone because of your arrogant pride.

I will weep bitterly and my eyes will overflow with tears ⁸ 

because you, the Lord’s flock, ⁹  will be carried ¹⁰  into exile.”

Jeremiah 18:20

18:20 Should good be paid back with evil?

Yet they are virtually digging a pit to kill me. ¹¹ 

Just remember how I stood before you

pleading on their behalf ¹² 

to keep you from venting your anger on them. ¹³ 

Luke 19:41

Jesus Weeps for Jerusalem under Judgment

19:41 Now ¹⁴  when Jesus ¹⁵  approached ¹⁶  and saw the city, he wept over it,

John 11:35

11:35 Jesus wept. ¹⁷ 

Romans 12:15

12:15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

[35:13]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “like a friend, like a brother to me I walked about.”

[35:14]  ⁵ sn I bowed down. Bowing down was a posture for mourning. See Ps 38:6.

[35:14]  ⁶ tn Heb “like mourning for a mother [in] sorrow I bowed down.”

[13:17]  ⁷ tn Heb “If you will not listen to it.” For the use of the feminine singular pronoun to refer to the idea(s) expressed in the preceding verse(s), see GKC 440-41 §135.p.

[13:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “Tearing [my eye] will tear and my eye will run down [= flow] with tears.”

[13:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “because the Lord’s flock will…” The pronoun “you” is supplied in the translation to avoid the shift in English from the second person address at the beginning to the third person affirmation at the end. It also helps explain the metaphor of the people of Israel as God’s flock for some readers who may be unfamiliar with that metaphor.

[13:17]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is once again in the form of “as good as done” (the Hebrew prophetic perfect).

[18:20]  ¹¹ tn Or “They are plotting to kill me”; Heb “They have dug a pit for my soul.” This is a common metaphor for plotting against someone. See BDB 500 s.v. כָּרָה Qal and for an example see Pss 7:16 (7:15 HT) in its context.

[18:20]  ¹² tn Heb “to speak good concerning them” going back to the concept of “good” being paid back with evil.

[18:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “to turn back your anger from them.”

[19:41]  ¹⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[19:41]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “he.”

[19:41]  ¹⁶ sn When Jesus approached and saw the city. This is the last travel note in Luke’s account (the so-called Jerusalem journey), as Jesus approached and saw the city before entering it.

[11:35]  ¹⁷ 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.