What does “Mourn” mean?

Strong

• Πενθέω; pentheō (pen-theh’-o)
• From G3997; to grieve (the feeling or the act): – mourn, (be-) wail.

Thayer

• Πενθέω; pentheō
• 1) to mourn
• 2) to mourn for, lament one

New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance (NASEC)

• Πενθέω; pentheō;
• from 3997; to mourn, lament:—
• mourn(6), mourned(1), mourning(3).

Mounce

• Πενθέω pentheō
• 10x: trans. to lament over, 2 Corinthians 12:21; absol. to lament, be sad, mourn, Matthew 5:4; Matthew 9:15; Mark 16:10; mid. to bewail one’s self, to feel guilt, 1 Corinthians 5:2.

Vines New Testament Dictionary

• pentheo (G3996), “to mourn for, lament,” is used (a) of mourning in general, Matthew 5:4; Matthew 9:15; Luke 6:25; (b) of sorrow for the death of a loved one, Mark 16:10; (c) of “mourning” for the overthrow of Babylon and the Babylonish system, Revelation 18:11, Revelation 18:15, RV, “mourning” (KJV, “wailing”); Revelation 18:19 (ditto); (d) of sorrow for sin or for condoning it, James 4:9; 1 Corinthians 5:2; (e) of grief for those in a local church who show no repentance for evil committed, 2 Corinthians 12:21, RV, “mourn” (KJV, “bewail”).

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Cyclopedia

• Mourn
• (represented by numerous Heb. and several Gr. words). Orientals are much more demonstrative in the signs of grief than natives of Western countries, as is evinced especially by two marked features:
  • What may be called its studied publicity, and the careful observance of the prescribed ceremonies. Thus Abraham, after the death of Sarah, came, as it were in state, to mourn and weep for her (Genesis 23:2). Job, after his misfortunes, “arose, and rent his mantle (meil), and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground on the ashes” (Job 1:20); and in like manner his friends “rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads, and sat down with him on the ground seven days and seven nights” without speaking (Job 2:12-13). We read also of high places, streets, and house-tops as places especially chosen for mourning, not only by Jews, but by other nations (Isaiah 15:3; Jeremiah 3:21; Jeremiah 48:38; 1 Samuel 11:4; 1 Samuel 30:4; 2 Samuel 15:30).
  • The comparative violence of Oriental mourning — oftentimes, indeed, assumed for effect, and even at times artificial or venal, is evident in several of the forms which Eastern grief assumes. Many of these acts, of course, as being natural, are common to all times and countries, but others are somewhat peculiar. Most of them are spontaneous, being simply the uncontrollable language of emotion; others are purely matters of habit. Yet both these classes of manifestation have their significance and uses, and are not therefore altogether arbitrary. …Although, no doubt, many modes of mourning are conventional, and originated in caprice, yet there would seem to be physical reasons for certain forms which have so widely and permanently prevailed. …

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• Occasions. —
  • Instances of mourning for the dead are most numerous in Scripture.
    • Abraham mourns for Sarah (Genesis 23:2);
    • Jacob for Joseph (Genesis 37:34-35);
    • the Egyptians for Jacob (Genesis 1, 3-10);
    • the house of Israel for Aaron (Numbers 20:29),
    • for Moses (Deuteronomy 34:8),
    • and for Samuel (1 Samuel 25:1);
    • David for Abner (2 Samuel 3:31; 2 Samuel 3:35);
    • Mary and Martha for their brother Lazarus (John 11);
    • and “devout men” for Stephen (Acts 8:2).
  • Instances of mourning on account of calamities are not few; for example.
    • Job under his multiplied afflictions (Job 1:20-21);
    • Israel under the threatening of the divine displeasure (Exodus 33:4);
    • the Ninevites in view of menaced destruction (Jonah 3:5);
    • the tribes of Israel when defeated by Benjamin (Judges 20:26),
    • and many others.
    • The Lamentations of Jeremiah are illustrative of this point.
  • Mourning in repentance is illustrated
    • by the case of the Ninevites adduced above;
    • by the Israelites on the day of atonement, latterly called the fast (Leviticus 23:27; Acts 27:9), and under the faithful preaching of Samuel (1 Samuel 7:6);
    • by many references in the Psalms,
    • and the predicted mourning in Zechariah (Zechariah 12:10-11).

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• Modes. —
  • Weeping appears either as one chief expression of mourning, or as the general name for it.
    • Hence when Deborah, Rebecca’s nurse, was buried at Bethel under an oak, the tree was then at least called Allon-bachuth, the oak of weeping (Genesis 35:8).
    • The children of Israel were heard to weep by Moses throughout their families, every man in the door of his tent (Numbers 11:10).
    • So numerous are the references to tears in the Scriptures as to give the impression that the Orientals had them nearly at command (comp. Psalms 6:6).
    • The woman washed our Lord’s feet with her tears (Luke 7:38).
    • Men, as well as women, wept freely, and even aloud. “Lifted up his voice and wept” is an ordinary mode of expression. Giving vent to them is well known to be one of the physical alleviations of profound sorrow. It is so universal a sign of mourning that we need not detain the reader with further instances or illustrations, except to remark that the Egyptian monuments have not failed to depict the tears upon the faces of mourners.

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• • 2. Loud lamentation is usually and naturally associated with weeping as a sign of grief (Ruth 1:9; 2 Samuel 13:36). Nor are Orientals content with mere sobs: their excitableness appears in howls for grief, even amid the solemnities of worship (Joel 1:13; Micah 1:8, etc.). The Egyptians have ever been renowned for the vociferation of their grief; “there was a great cry in Egypt at the death of the first-born” (Exodus 12:30). Crying aloud certainly diverts the attention from anguish of mind or body, and the value of moans and shrieks is well known in severe surgical .operations. But in addition to the wail of woe by the immediate bereaved, hired performers were often engaged to swell the lamentation with screams and noisy utterances; and this not merely at the funeral, but immediately after the decease. The first reference to professional mourners occurs in Ecclesiastes 12:5 : “The mourners (הִסּוֹפְדַים) go about the streets.” (The root of this word, observes Gesenius, signifies “a mournful noise,” and he adduces Micah 1:8; Jeremiah 22:18; Jeremiah 34:5). They are certainly alluded to in Jeremiah 9:17-20 : “the mourning women” (probably widows; comp. Psalms 78:64; Acts 9:39). Another reference to them occurs in 2 Chronicles 35:25 (comp. Josephus, War, 3:9, 5). The greater number of the mourners in ancient Egypt were women, as in the modern East. Mourning for the dead in the East was conducted in a tumultuous manner (Mark  5:38). Even devout men made great lamentations (Acts 8:2). Akin to this usage was the custom for friends or passers-by to join in the lamentations of bereaved or afflicted persons (Judges 11:40; Job 2:11; Job 30:25; Job 27:15; Psalms 78:64; Jeremiah 9:1; Jeremiah 22:18; 1 Kings 14:13; 1 Kings 14:18; 1 Chronicles 7:22; 2 Chronicles 35:24-25; Zechariah 12:11; Luke 7:12; John 11:31; Acts 8:2; Acts 9:39; Romans 12:15). So also in times of general sorrow we find large numbers of persons joining in passionate expressions of grief (Judges 2:4; Judges 20:26; 1 Samuel 28:3; 1 Samuel 30:4; 2 Samuel 1:12; Ezra 3:13; Ezekiel 7:16; and the like is mentioned of the priests Joel 2:17; Malachi 2:13). …Upon Job’s recovery from his afflictions, all his relatives and acquaintances bemoan and comfort him concerning his past sufferings; which seems to have been a kind of congratulatory mourning, indulged in order to heighten the pleasures of prosperity by recalling associations of adversity (Job 42:11).

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• • Personal Disfigurement. — In all the other acts expressive of grief the idea of self-mortification seems to prevail, whether by injuries to the person or neglect of it, by mean clothing, by unusual and humiliating attitudes, or other marks of individual abasement, intended chiefly for the public eye. Some of the more violent forms have perhaps a natural, if not a remedial or alleviating character. Shaving the head may be a dictate of nature to relieve the excited brain. Plucking the hair is well calculated to assuage the action of some particular organs, to which the sensations of the individual may be a sufficient guide. Beating the breast may relieve the heart, oppressed with a tumultuous circulation. Cutting may be the effect of nature’s indication of bleeding. Tearing and rending seem to palliate nervous irritation, etc. But the greater part of the practices under this head have their origin in custom, or some supposed fitness to a state of grief. Among the particular forms observed the following may be mentioned:
    • Rending the clothes (Genesis 37:29; Genesis 37:34; Genesis 44:13; 2 Chronicles 34:27; Isaiah 36:22; Jeremiah 36:24 [where the absence of the form is to be noted]; 2 Samuel 3:31; 2 Samuel 15:32; Joshua 7:6; Joel 2:13; Ezra 9:5; 2 Kings 5:7; 2 Kings 11:14; Matthew 26:65, ἱμάτιον; Mark 14:63, χιτών).
    • Dressing in sackcloth (Genesis 37:34; 2 Samuel 3:31; 2 Samuel 21:10; Psalms 35:13; Isaiah 37:1; Joel 1:8; Joel 1:13; Amos 8:10; Jonah 3:8, man and beast; Job 16:15; Esther 4:3-4; Jeremiah 6:26; Lamentations 2:10; 1 Kings 21:27).
    • Ashes, dust, or earth sprinkled on the person (2 Samuel 13:19; 2 Samuel 15:32; Joshua 7:6; Esther 4:1; Esther 4:3; Jeremiah 6:26; Job 2:12; Job 16:15; Job 42:6; Isaiah 61:3; Revelation 18:19).
    • Black or sad-colored garments (2 Samuel 14:2).
    • Removal of ornaments or neglect of person (Deuteronomy 21:12-13; Exodus 33:4; 2 Samuel 14:2; 2 Samuel 19:24; Ezekiel 26:16; Daniel 10:3; Matthew 6:16-17).
    • Shaving the head, plucking out the hair of the head or, beard (Leviticus 10:6; 2 Samuel 19:24; Ezra 9:3; Job 1:20; Jeremiah 7:29; Jeremiah 16:6).
    • Laying bare some part of the body: Isaiah himself naked and barefoot (Isaiah 20:2), the Egyptian and Ethiopian captives (ib. Isaiah 20:4; Isaiah 47:2; Jeremiah 13:22; Jeremiah 13:26; Nahum 3:5; Micah 1:11; Amos 8:10).
    • Fasting or abstinence in meat and drink (2 Samuel 1:12; 2 Samuel 3:35; 2 Samuel 12:16; 2 Samuel 12:22; 1 Samuel 31:13; Ezra 10:6; Nehemiah 1:4; Daniel 10:3; Daniel 6:18; Joel 1:14; Joel 2:12; Ezekiel 24:17; Zechariah 7:5, a periodical fast during captivity; 1 Kings 21:9; 1 Kings 21:12; Isaiah 58:3-5; Isaiah 24:9; Jeremiah 36:9; Jonah 3:5; Jonah 3:7 [of Nineveh]; Judges 20:26; 2 Chronicles 20:3; Ezra 8:21; Matthew 9:14-15).
    • In the same direction, diminution in offerings to God, and prohibition to partake in sacrificial food (Leviticus 7:20; Deuteronomy 26:14; Hosea 9:4; Joel 1:9; Joel 1:13).
    • Covering the ” upper lip,” i.e., the lower part of the face, and sometimes the head, in token of silence; specially in the case of the leper (Leviticus 13:45; 2 Samuel 15:30; 2 Samuel 19:4; Jeremiah 14:4; Ezekiel 24:17; Micah 3:7).
    • Cutting the flesh (Jeremiah 16:6-7; Jeremiah 41:5).

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• • Some of these outward expressions of mourning were usual among the heathen, but forbidden to the Israelits, e.g. making cuttings in the flesh (Leviticus 19:28), which seems to have been a custom of the votaries of Baal (1 Kings 18:28); “making baldness between the eyes for the dead” (Deuteronomy 14:1), i.e., shaving the eyebrows and eyelids, and the fore-part of the head, which was, no doubt, an idolatrous custom. The priests were forbidden to “defile themselves for the dead” by any outward expression of mourning, except for their near relatives (Leviticus 21:1); and the high-priest even for these (Leviticus 21:10-11), under which restriction Nazarites also came (Numbers 6:7).
  • Formal Celebrations. — Besides and in connection with the funeral there were certain still more public usages indicative of grief, as noticed in the Scriptures:
    • (1.) Mourning for the dead in the earliest times was confined to the relatives and friends of the deceased; but in later times hired mourners, both men and women, were employed. Thus we are told that the “singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations” (2 Chronicles 35:25). In accordance with this the Lord says to the JeWs, when threatening heavy judgments for their sins-judgments calling for universal mourning: “Call for the mourning women that they may come,… let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us” (Jeremiah 9:17). At first, most probably, hired mourners were called in to help to swell the tide of real sorrow. but afterwards they became a mere formal pageant, demanded by pride and custom rather than sorrow. (See above.) Mourning for the dead became a profession, learned and paid for, like any other; and the practice of it often became very boisterous and tumultuous. Hence we read of the “minstrels and people making a noise” in the house of Jairus (Matthew 9:23), giving one the idea of a scene resembling an “Irish wake.”
    • (2.) On such occasions neighbors and friends provided food for the mourners (2 Samuel 3:35; Jeremiah 16:7…); this was called “the bread of bitterness,” “the cup of consolation.” …Women went to tombs to indulge their grief (John 11:31).
  • The first complete description of mourning for the dead occurs in 2 Samuel 3:31-35, where David commands Joab and all the people that were with him to rend their clothes, gird themselves with sackcloth; and mourn for Abner; and David himself followed the bier, and they buried Abner in Hebron; and the king lifted up his voice and wept at the grave of Abner, and all the people wept, and David fasted two days, and wrote a lamentation for the deceased. Elegies were composed by the prophets on several disastrous occasions (Ezekiel 26:1-18; Ezekiel 27:1-36; Amos 5:1, etc.). The incident of Jephthah’s daughter is too uncertain to afford any index to the modes of mourning at that aera. It appears that she was allowed two months to bewail her virginity with her companions, and that the Jewish women of that country went somewhere yearly to lament or celebrate her (Judges 11:37-40).

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