Then I remembered the prophecy of Amos, how he said against Bethel, “Your festivals shall be turned into mourning and all your songs into lamentation.” And I wept.

Then great and general lamentation arose throughout the assembly, and they cried out to the Lord God with a loud voice.

And in every province where the letter had been posted there was crying, lamentation, and great mourning among the Jews, and they put on sackcloth and ashes.

But the discordant cry of their enemies echoed back, and their piteous lament for their children was spread abroad.

For while they were still engaged in mourning and were lamenting at the graves of their dead, they reached another foolish decision and pursued as fugitives those whom they had begged and compelled to leave.

On Mourning for the Dead

My child, let your tears fall for the dead, and as one in great pain begin the lament. Lay out the body according to custom, and do not neglect the burial.

My soul grappled with wisdom, and in my conduct I was strict. I spread out my hands to the heavens and lamented my ignorance of her.

Every bridegroom took up the lament; she who sat in the bridal chamber was mourning.

He died in the one hundred forty-sixth year and was buried in the tomb of his ancestors at Modein. And all Israel mourned for him with great lamentation.

Then they tore their clothes and mourned with great lamentation; they sprinkled themselves with ashes

and wept for him. All Israel made great lamentation for him; they mourned many days and said,

All Israel bewailed him with great lamentation and mourned for him many days.

When Maccabeus and his men got word that Lysias was besieging the strongholds, they and all the people, with lamentations and tears, prayed the Lord to send a good angel to save Israel.

In all Judea they mourned for Josiah. The prophet Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and the principal men, with the women, have made lamentation for him to this day; it was ordained that this should always be done throughout the whole people of Israel.

Young women who had been secluded in their chambers rushed out with their mothers, sprinkled their hair with dust, and filled the streets with groans and lamentations.

But among the Jews there was indescribable mourning, lamentation, and tearful cries and groans; everywhere their hearts were burning, and they groaned because of the unexpected destruction that had suddenly been decreed for them.

And young women who had just entered the bridal chamber to share married life exchanged joy for wailing, their myrrh-perfumed hair sprinkled with ashes, and were carried away unveiled, all together raising a lament instead of a wedding song, as they were torn by the harsh treatment of foreign nations.

Their husbands, in the prime of youth, their necks encircled with ropes instead of garlands, spent the remaining days of their marriage festival in lamentations instead of feasting and youthful revelry, seeing Hades already lying at their feet.

And when this had happened, the king, hearing that the Jews’ compatriots from the city frequently went out in secret to lament bitterly the ignoble misfortune of their kindred,

they thought that this was their last moment of life, the end of their most miserable suspense, and giving way to lamentation and groans they kissed each other, embracing relatives and falling into one another’s arms—parents and children, mothers and daughters, and others with babies at their breasts who were drawing their last milk.

Accordingly, those disgracefully treated and near to Hades, or rather, who stood at its gates, arranged for a banquet of deliverance instead of a bitter and lamentable death, and full of joy they apportioned to groups of revelers the place that had been prepared for their destruction and burial.

Lamentation of Ezra, with Response

I replied and said, “O earth, what have you brought forth, if the mind is made out of the dust like the other created things?

Let the human race lament, but let the wild animals of the field be glad; let all who have been born lament, but let the cattle and the flocks rejoice.

Lamentation over the Fate of Most People

I answered and said, “This is my first and last comment: it would have been better if the earth had not produced Adam or else, when it had produced him, had restrained him from sinning.

and about your inheritance, for whom I lament, and about Israel, for whom I am sad, and about the seed of Jacob, for whom I am troubled.