Mortal, raise a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: You consider yourself a lion among the nations, but you are like a dragon in the seas; you thrash about in your streams, trouble the water with your feet, and foul your streams.

This is a lamentation; it shall be chanted. The women of the nations shall chant it. Over Egypt and all its hordes they shall chant it, says the Lord God.

A Lament for Israel’s Sin

Hear this word that I take up over you in lamentation, O house of Israel:

Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: In all the squares there shall be wailing, and in all the streets they shall say, “Alas! Alas!” They shall call the farmers to mourning and those skilled in lamentation to wailing;

I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.

The Doom of the Cities of Judah

For this I will lament and wail; I will go barefoot and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals and mourning like the ostriches.

On that day they shall take up a taunt song against you and wail with bitter lamentation and say, “We are utterly ruined; the Lord alters the inheritance of my people; how he removes it from me! Among our captors he parcels out our fields.”

“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”

Devout men buried Stephen and made loud lamentation over him.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

But if you say to me, ‘My lamentation is not like the earth’s, for I have lost the fruit of my womb, which I brought forth in pain and bore in sorrow,