Now they were all ¹  wailing and mourning ²  for her, but he said, “Stop your weeping; she is not dead but asleep.”

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

I said, ¹  “So now, ²  you wailing women, hear what the Lord says. ³  Open your ears to the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters this mournful song, and each of you teach your neighbor ⁴  this lament.

I said, ¹  “I will weep and mourn ²  for the grasslands on the mountains, ³  I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness because they are so scorched no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard there. Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fields have fled and are gone.”

Wail ¹  like a young virgin ²  clothed in sackcloth, lamenting the death of ³  her husband-to-be. ⁴ 

Get dressed ¹  and lament, you priests! Wail, you who minister at the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you servants of my God, because no one brings grain offerings or drink offerings to the temple of your God anymore. ² 

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.

“Look! Enemies are gathering in the north like water rising in a river. ¹  They will be like an overflowing stream. They will overwhelm the whole country and everything in it like a flood. They will overwhelm the cities and their inhabitants. People will cry out in alarm. Everyone living in the country will cry out in pain.

My harp is used for ¹  mourning and my flute for the sound of weeping.

They will lament loudly ¹  over you and cry bitterly. They will throw dust on their heads and roll in the ashes; ² 

So my heart moans for Moab like a flute playing a funeral song. Yes, like a flute playing a funeral song, my heart moans for the people of Kir Heres. For the wealth they have gained will perish.

Pharaoh got up ¹  in the night, ²  along with all his servants and all Egypt, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no house ³  in which there was not someone dead.

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 

Violence ¹  has grown into a staff that supports wickedness. Not one of them will be left ²  – not from their crowd, not from their wealth, not from their prominence. ³ 

they will tear out their hair because of you and put on sackcloth, and they will weep bitterly over you with intense mourning. ¹ 

“A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud wailing, ¹  Rachel weeping for her children, and she did not want to be comforted, because they were ²  gone.” ³ 

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

Then ¹  the kings of the earth who committed immoral acts with her and lived in sensual luxury ²  with her will weep and wail for her when they see the smoke from the fire that burns her up. ³ 

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.

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.’