Then the king stood up and tore his garments and lay down on the ground. All his servants were standing there with torn garments as well.

Then Mordecai again sat at the king’s gate, while Haman hurried away to his home, mournful and with a veil over his head.

Then Job got up ¹  and tore his robe. ²  He shaved his head, ³  and then he threw himself down with his face to the ground. ⁴ 

For the music director; a psalm of David. Listen to me, ²  O God, as I offer my lament! Protect ³  my life from the enemy’s terrifying attacks. ⁴ 

Their insults are painful ¹  and make me lose heart; ²  I look ³  for sympathy, but receive none, ⁴  for comforters, but find none.

My eyes grow weak because of oppression. I call out to you, O Lord, all day long; I spread out my hands in prayer to you. ¹ 

The prayer of an oppressed man, as he grows faint and pours out his lament before the Lord. O Lord, hear my prayer! Pay attention to my cry for help! ² 

When the wicked ¹  see this, they will worry; they will grind their teeth in frustration ²  and melt away; the desire of the wicked will perish. ³ 

The ropes of death tightened around me, ¹  the snares ²  of Sheol confronted me. I was confronted ³  with trouble and sorrow.

Who has woe? ¹  Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has wounds without cause? Who has dullness ²  of the eyes?

I hate your new moon festivals and assemblies; they are a burden that I am tired of carrying.

In their streets they wear sackcloth; on their roofs and in their town squares all of them wail, they fall down weeping.

So Moab wails over its demise ¹  – they all wail! Completely devastated, they moan about what has happened to the raisin cakes of Kir Hareseth. ² 

The fishermen will mourn and lament, all those who cast a fishhook into the river, and those who spread out a net on the water’s surface will grieve. ¹ 

At that time the sovereign master, the Lord who commands armies, called for weeping and mourning, for shaved heads and sackcloth. ¹ 

The earth ¹  dries up ²  and withers, the world shrivels up and withers; the prominent people of the earth ³  fade away.

I will threaten Ariel, and she will mourn intensely and become like an altar hearth ¹  before me.

What can I say? He has decreed and acted. ¹  I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. ² 

We all growl like bears, we coo mournfully like doves; we wait for deliverance, ¹  but there is none, for salvation, but it is far from us.

But they rebelled and offended ¹  his holy Spirit, ²  so he turned into an enemy and fought against them.