Then David chanted this lament over Saul and his son Jonathan.

The king chanted the following lament for Abner: “Should Abner have died like a fool?

It was quite a long time – some twenty years in all – that the ark stayed at Kiriath Jearim. All the people ¹  of Israel longed for ²  the Lord.

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

Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented over him and had buried him in Ramah, his hometown. ¹  In the meantime Saul had removed the mediums ²  and magicians ³  from the land.

They will die of deadly diseases. No one will mourn for them. They will not be buried. Their dead bodies will lie like manure spread on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation. Their corpses will be food for the birds and wild animals.

Those who have been killed by the Lord at that time will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned over, gathered up, or buried. ¹  Their dead bodies will lie scattered over the ground like manure.

When they came to the threshing floor of Atad ¹  on the other side of the Jordan, they mourned there with very great and bitter sorrow. ²  There Joseph observed a seven day period of mourning for his father.

Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned him. They buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David left and went down to the desert of Paran. ¹ 

Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah which all the male and female singers use to mourn Josiah to this very day. It has become customary in Israel to sing these; they are recorded in the Book of Laments.

“Speak to all the people and priests of the land as follows: ‘When you fasted and lamented in the fifth and seventh ¹  months through all these seventy years, did you truly fast for me – for me, indeed?

returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy isn’t there! And I, where can I go?”

When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband Uriah was dead, she mourned for him. ¹ 

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

The king covered his face and cried out loudly, ¹  “My son, Absalom! Absalom, my son, my son!”

Rich and poor alike will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned. People will not cut their bodies or shave off their hair to show their grief for them. ¹ 

But the Lord ¹  struck down some of the people of Beth Shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord; he struck down 50,070 ²  of the men. The people grieved because the Lord had struck the people with a hard blow.

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?’

They lamented and wept and fasted until evening because Saul, his son Jonathan, the Lord’s people, and the house of Israel had fallen by the sword.

So I thought to myself, “The fate of the fool will happen even to me! ¹  Then what did I gain by becoming so excessively ²  wise?” ³  So I lamented to myself, ⁴  “The benefits of wisdom ⁵  are ultimately ⁶  meaningless!”