WEEPING. The ancient Hebrews wept, and made their Trouble to appear openly, in Mourning and Affliction. They were not of opinion, that Courage and Greatness of Soul consisted in seeming to be insensible in Adversity, or in restraining their Tears. They surrender’d themselves up to those natural Movements, and were not ashamed to testify their Grief by their Tears. This is every where evident in Scripture. The Heroes in Homer do the same thing. It was even looked upon as a great Misfortune for any one not to be bewailed at his Funeral. Job says of the wicked Man, His widows shall not weep. Job xxvii. 15.And the Psalmist, speaking of the Death of Hophni and Phinehas, Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.Psalm lxxviii. 64. God forbids Ezekiel to weep, or to express any Sorrow for the Death of his Wife, to shew that the Jews should be reduced to Ezek. xxiv. 16.so great Misfortunes, that they should not have the Liberty even to mourn or bewail themselves.
Jerem. ix. 17, 18.Weeping Men, and weeping Women. The ancient Hebrews used to hire Men and Women to weep at Funerals. So says Jeremiah, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and send for cunning women, that they may come. And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, a Thalmod. tit. Cethuboth. c. 4.
Amos v. 16. Jerem. xxxv. 25.and our eye-lids gush out with waters. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Sion. And Amos, Wailing shall be in all streets, and they shall say in all the high-ways, Alas! Alas! And they shall call the husbandman to mourning, and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing. All the weeping Men and Women of Israel heretofore sung the Lamentations that Jeremiah composed for the Death of the pious King Josiah. The Jewish Doctors teach,1 that at the burying of the Mother of a Family, the Husband must have at least two Players upon Instruments, besides an hired Weeping Woman.
Luke vii. 32.It appears by the Gospel, that when any one met a Funeral Procession, it was expected he should mingle his Tears and mournful Songs with those that bewailed. We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. Jesus, the Son of Sirach, insinuates, that the Ecclus. xii. 5.Company attending the Corps, and the Weeper, took a circuit round the Place. ” Man shall go to the House of his Eternity, or the Grave, and the Mourners ” shall go about the Place.” And the Prophet Zechariah describing a famous Mourning, says, that the Families shall go separately in Troops to make their Lamentation; the Men on one side, and the Women on the other. The Prophets had a Custom, after having proclaimed the Calamities of a Nation or Country, to compose a Song of Mourning, as if it were to be sung by the Weeping Men and Women on the Day that the Event came to pass. See Jerem. ix. 10, 18, 20. Ezek. xxvi. 17. xxvii. 2. xxxii. 2.
The Valley of Tears, Vallis Lacrymarum, of which mention is made, Psal. lxxxiv. 7. in the moral Sense of it, signifies this World, which, to good Men, presents only an occasion of Grief and Tears, because of the Disorders that prevail therein, of the continual Dangers to which we are exposed, and for the absence of those eternal good things which we ought to long after. But in the literal Sense, this Valley of Tears, or, according to the Hebrew, the Vale of Bocha, or Bochim, was not far from Jerusalem, and remarkable for its Barrenness and Dryness. The Psalmist says therefore, Blessed is the Man whose strength is in thee, in whose heart are the ways of them, who passing through the valley of Baca, or Tears, make it a Well, and the rain also filleth the pools.
The Place of Tears, Locus flentium, which is spoken of in the Book of Judges, ii. 5. Vocatum est nomen loci illius, locus flentium, sive lachrymarum. This is the same we have now mentioned, under the Title of Vallis Lacrymarum, and which is also taken notice of, 2 Sam. v. 23. under the Name of the Place of Mulberry-trees, ex adverso pyrorum, or according to the Hebrew, ex adverso Bochim.
The Bread of Affliction or Tears, cibabis nos pane Lacrymarum, Psal. lxxx. 6. And my Tears have served me for Food Day and Night, Psal. xlii. 4. Fuerunt mihi lacrymæ meæ panes die ac nocte. These Expressions admirably represent the Temper of a Soul overwhelmed with Trouble, and which being sensible of the Outrages committed against God, is in a manner fed with Tears, and finds a kind of Comfort in them.
The Prophet Isaiah,2 speaking of the Troubles of Moab, thus expresses himself, I will water thee with my tears, O Heshbon and Elealeh. The Hebrew says, literally, I will make thee drunk with my Tears: I foretel that you shall be drunk with Tears. My Tears, are the Tears that I foretel to you. I will make you drunk, is as much as to say, I declare to you, that you shall be made drunk. I imagine here, that the Prophet plays upon the Words, and instead of Medeba, a City of Moab, near to Heshbon, and Elealeh, he has purposely put Dimeath, which signifies Tears, and has some Affinity with Medeba. I shall intoxicate Dimeath, the City of Tears, as also Heshbon and Elealeh.
Mal.ii. 13.Malachi upbraids the Jews with having covered the Altar of the Lord with Tears. Operuistis lacrymis altare Domini. You are the Reason that my Altar is bathed in the Tears of your Wives, whom you have put away without any just Reason. You have in some measure drowned it with Tears, and made it resound with Cries and Weeping. Covering the Altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping, and with crying out, insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with good will at your hand. Because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously, yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.
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