³¹ When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there.

¹⁹ and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss.

¹⁶ David begged God to spare the child. He went without food and lay all night on the bare ground. ¹⁷ The elders of his household pleaded with him to get up and eat with them, but he refused.

¹⁸ Then on the seventh day the child died. David’s advisers were afraid to tell him. “He wouldn’t listen to reason while the child was ill,” they said. “What drastic thing will he do when we tell him the child is dead?”

³⁵ His family all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “I will go to my grave^[a] mourning for my son,” he would say, and then he would weep.

¹⁵ Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.