James 4:9
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9 Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection.
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Matthew 5:4
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4 “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.(A)
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2 Corinthians 7:10-11
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10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.(A) 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what punishment! At every point you have proved yourselves guiltless in the matter.
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Proverbs 14:13
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13 Even in laughter the heart is sad,
and the end of joy is grief.(A)
Luke 6:25
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25 “Woe to you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
“Woe to you who are laughing now,
for you will mourn and weep.(A)
James 5:1-2
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Warning to Rich Oppressors
5 Come now, you rich people, weep and wail for the miseries that are coming to you. 2 Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten.(A)
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Ezekiel 16:63
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63 in order that you may remember and be confounded and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I forgive you all that you have done, says the Lord God.(A)
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Jeremiah 31:18-20
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18 Indeed, I heard Ephraim pleading:
“You disciplined me, and I took the discipline;
I was like an untrained calf.
Bring me back; let me come back,
for you are the Lord my God.(A)
19 For after I had turned away I repented,
and after I was discovered, I struck my thigh;
I was ashamed, and I was dismayed
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.”(B)
20 Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he the child in whom I delight?
As often as I speak against him,
I still remember him.
Therefore I am deeply moved for him;
I will surely have mercy on him,
says the Lord.(C)
Psalm 119:67
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67 Before I was humbled I went astray,
but now I keep your word.(A)
Ezekiel 7:16
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16 If any survivors escape,
they shall be found on the mountains
like doves of the valleys,
all of them moaning over their iniquity.(A)
Ecclesiastes 7:2-6
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2 It is better to go to the house of mourning
than to go to the house of feasting,
for this is the end of everyone,
and the living will lay it to heart.(A)
3 Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad.(B)
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning,
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise
than to hear the song of fools.(C)
6 For like the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of fools;
this also is vanity.
Revelation 18:7-8
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7 As she glorified herself and lived luxuriously,
so give her a like measure of torment and grief.
Since in her heart she says,
‘I rule as a queen;
I am no widow,
and I will never see grief,’(A)
8 therefore her plagues will come in a single day—
pestilence and mourning and famine—
and she will be burned with fire,
for mighty is the Lord God who judges her.”(B)
Luke 16:25
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25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.(A)
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Luke 6:21
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21 “Blessed are you who are hungry now,
for you will be filled.
“Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.(A)
Zechariah 12:10-14
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Mourning for the Pierced One
10 And I will pour out a spirit of compassion and supplication on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that, when they look on the one[a] whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him as one mourns for an only child and weep bitterly over him as one weeps over a firstborn.(A) 11 On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.(B) 12 The land shall mourn, each family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; 13 the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; 14 and all the families that are left, each by itself and their wives by themselves.
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- 12.10 Heb on me
Lamentations 5:15
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15 The joy of our hearts has ceased;
our dancing has been turned to mourning.(A)
Jeremiah 31:9
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9 With weeping they shall come,
and with consolations[a] I will lead them back;
I will let them walk by brooks of water,
in a straight path where they shall not stumble,
for I have become a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn.(A)
Footnotes
- 31.9 Gk: Heb supplications
Isaiah 22:12-13
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12 On that day the Lord God of hosts
called for weeping and mourning,
for baldness and putting on sackcloth,(A)
13 but instead there was joy and festivity,
killing oxen and slaughtering sheep,
eating meat and drinking wine.
“Let us eat and drink,
for tomorrow we die.”(B)
Psalm 126:5-6
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5 May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.(A)
6 Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves.
Job 30:31
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31 My lyre is turned to mourning
and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.(A)
Jeremiah 31:13
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13 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.[a]
I will turn their mourning into joy;
I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow.(A)
Footnotes
- 31.13 Cn: Heb old together
Ecclesiastes 2:2
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2 I said of laughter, “It is mad,” and of pleasure, “What use is it?”(A)
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Psalm 119:136
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136 My eyes shed streams of tears
because your law is not kept.(A)
Psalm 119:71
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71 It is good for me that I was humbled,
so that I might learn your statutes.
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.