‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; ¹  we wailed in mourning, ²  yet you did not weep.’

They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another, ¹  ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; ²  we wailed in mourning, ³  yet you did not weep.’

They came to the house of the synagogue ruler where ¹  he saw noisy confusion and people weeping and wailing loudly. ² 

Through the window she looked; Sisera’s mother cried out through the lattice: ‘Why is his chariot so slow to return? Why are the hoofbeats of his chariot-horses ¹  delayed?’

A great number of the people followed him, among them women ¹  who were mourning ²  and wailing for him.

“And say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves ¹  for tomorrow, and you will eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing ²  of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat, ³  for life ⁴  was good for us in Egypt?” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat.

but a whole month, ¹  until it comes out your nostrils and makes you sick, ²  because you have despised ³  the Lord who is among you and have wept before him, saying, “Why ⁴  did we ever come out of Egypt?”’”

When Esau heard ¹  his father’s words, he wailed loudly and bitterly. ²  He said to his father, “Bless me too, my father!”

And all the Israelites murmured ¹  against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died ²  in the land of Egypt, or if only we had perished ³  in this wilderness!

Now when Mordecai became aware of all that had been done, he ¹  tore his garments and put on sackcloth and ashes. He went out into the city, crying out in a loud ²  and bitter voice.

Throughout each and every province where the king’s edict and law were announced ¹  there was considerable ²  mourning among the Jews, along with fasting, weeping, and sorrow. ³  Sackcloth and ashes were characteristic ⁴  of many.

Oh, how shattered Moab will be! Oh, how her people will wail! Oh, how she will turn away ¹  in shame! Moab will become an object of ridicule, a terrifying sight to all the nations that surround her.”

They do not pray to me, ¹  but howl in distress on their beds; They slash themselves ²  for grain and new wine, but turn away from me.