The people continued to offer sacrifices at the high places, but only to the Lord their God.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of merrymaking. ¹ 

The new wine dries up, the vines shrivel up, all those who like to celebrate ¹  groan.

They camped by the Jordan, from Beth-jeshimoth as far as Abel-shittim in the plains of Moab.

The king replied to her, “What do you want?” ¹  She answered, “I am a widow; my husband is dead.

Jonathan replied ¹  to Adonijah: “No! ²  Our master ³  King David has made Solomon king.

So he asked Gehazi, ¹  “What can I do for her?” Gehazi replied, “She has no son, and her husband is old.”

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

The land ¹  dries up ²  and withers away; the forest of Lebanon shrivels up ³  and decays. Sharon ⁴  is like the desert; ⁵  Bashan and Carmel ⁶  are parched. ⁷ 

When the Canaanites who lived in the land saw them mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a very sad occasion ¹  for the Egyptians.” That is why its name was called ²  Abel Mizraim, ³  which is beyond the Jordan.

All his sons and daughters stood by ¹  him to console him, but he refused to be consoled. “No,” he said, “I will go to the grave mourning my son.” ²  So Joseph’s ³  father wept for him.

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.

The Israelites mourned for Moses in the deserts of Moab for thirty days; then the days of mourning for Moses ended.

(Now David had brought up the ark of God from Kiriath Jearim to the place he had prepared for it, for he had pitched a tent for it in Jerusalem. ¹ 

Nevertheless you have done some good things; ¹  you removed ²  the Asherah poles from the land and you were determined to follow the Lord.” ³ 

It is better to go to a funeral ¹  than a feast. ²  For death ³  is the destiny ⁴  of every person, ⁵  and the living should ⁶  take this ⁷  to heart.

So I said, ¹  “Oh, my dear people, ²  put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with painful sobs as though you had lost your only child. For any moment now ³  that destructive army ⁴  will come against us.”

No one will take any food to those who mourn for the dead to comfort them. No one will give them any wine to drink to console them for the loss of their father or mother.

However, I will first tell you what is written in a dependable book. ¹  (There is no one who strengthens me against these princes, ²  except Michael your ³  prince.

The inhabitants ¹  of Samaria will lament ²  over the calf idol ³  of Beth Aven. ⁴  Its people will mourn over it; its idolatrous priests will wail ⁵  over it, ⁶  because its splendor will be taken from them ⁷  into exile.