1. Mourning for the dead. a. Abraham mourned for Sarah (Genesis 23:2) b. Jacob for Joseph (Genesis 37:34,35) c. the Egyptians for Jacob (Genesis 50:3-10) d. Israel for 1. Aaron (Numbers 20:29) 2. Moses (Deuteronomy 34:8) 3. Samuel (1 Samuel 25:1) e. David for Abner (2 Samuel 3:31,35) f. Mary and Martha for Lazarus (John 11:1)ff g. devout men for Stephen (Acts 8:2) etc.

2. For calamities, a. Job (Job 1:20,21; 2:8) b. Israel (Exodus 33:4) c. the Ninevites (Jonah 3:5) d. Israel, when defeated by Benjamin (Judges 20:26) etc.

3. Penitential mourning, by the Israelites a. on the day of atonement (Leviticus 23:27; Acts 27:9) b. under Samuel's ministry (1 Samuel 7:6) c. predicted in Zechariah (Zechariah 12:10,11) d. in many of the psalms ( (Psalms 51:1), etc.).

Mourning was expressed,

1. by weeping (Genesis 35:8) marg.; (Luke 7:38) etc.;

2. by loud lamentation (Ruth 1:9; 1 Samuel 6:19; 2 Samuel 3:31)

3. by the disfigurement of the person, as a. rending the clothes (Genesis 37:29,34; Matthew 26:65) b. wearing sackcloth (Genesis 37:34; Psalms 35:13) c. sprinkling dust or ashes on the person (2 Samuel 13:19; Jeremiah 6:26)

(Job 2:12) d. shaving the head and plucking out the hair of the head or beard (Leviticus 10:6; Job 1:20) e. neglect of the person or the removal of ornaments (Exodus 33:4)

(Deuteronomy 21:12,13; 2 Samuel 14:2; 19:24; Matthew 6:16,17) f. fasting (2 Samuel 1:12) g. covering the upper lip (Leviticus 13:45; Micah 3:7) h. cutting the flesh (Jeremiah 16:6,7) i. sitting in silence (Judges 20:26; 2 Samuel 12:16; 13:31; Job 1:20)

In the later times we find a class of mourners who could be hired to give by their loud lamentation the external tokens of sorrow (2 Chronicles 35:25; Jeremiah 9:17; Matthew 9:23) The period of mourning for the dead varied.

1. For Jacob it was seventy days (Genesis 50:3)

2. Thirty days for: a. Aaron (Numbers 20:29) b. Moses (Deuteronomy 34:8)

3. for Saul only seven days (1 Samuel 31:13)

In (2 Samuel 3:31-35) we have a description of the great mourning for the death of Abner.