Again they wept loudly. ¹  Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, ²  but Ruth ³  clung tightly to her. ⁴ 

The people ¹  who did not die were struck with sores; the city’s cry for help went all the way up to heaven.

When the messengers went to Gibeah (where Saul lived) ¹  and informed the people of these matters, all the people wept loudly. ² 

So they buried Abner in Hebron. The king cried loudly ¹  over Abner’s grave and all the people wept too.

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

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.

For my life nears its end in pain; my years draw to a close as I groan. ¹  My strength fails me because of ²  my sin, and my bones become brittle. ³ 

I mourned for them as I would for a friend or my brother. ¹  I bowed down ²  in sorrow as if I were mourning for my mother. ³ 

I am exhausted from shouting for help; my throat is sore; ¹  my eyes grow tired of looking for my God. ² 

Indeed, the cries of distress echo throughout Moabite territory; their wailing can be heard in Eglaim and Beer Elim. ¹ 

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 

These double disasters confronted you. But who feels sorry for you? Destruction and devastation, famine and sword. But who consoles you? ¹ 

So put on sackcloth! Mourn and wail, saying, ‘The fierce anger of the Lord has not turned away from us!’” ¹ 

The Lord who rules over all ¹  told me to say to this people, ²  “Take note of what I say. ³  Call for the women who mourn for the dead! Summon those who are the most skilled at it!” ⁴ 

I said, “Indeed, ¹  let them come quickly and sing a song of mourning for us. Let them wail loudly until tears stream from our own eyes and our eyelids overflow with water.

They will lay it waste. It will lie parched ¹  and empty before me. The whole land will be laid waste. But no one living in it will pay any heed. ² 

“The people of Judah are in mourning. The people in her cities are pining away. They lie on the ground expressing their sorrow. ¹  Cries of distress come up to me ²  from Jerusalem. ³ 

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 

Their survivors will escape to the mountains and become like doves of the valleys; all of them will moan – each one for his iniquity.

As they wail they will lament over you, chanting: “Who was like Tyre, like a tower ¹  in the midst of the sea?”