What the Bible says about Funeral Dirge
(From Forerunner Commentary)
The chapter begins as a funeral dirge, a lament, for Israel that is in reality a prophecy of what would soon happen to her. It is sung as though it had already happened even though its fulfillment'Israel's fall and captivity to Assyria'was still about forty years off. Clearly, Israel's conduct falls far short of God's requirements.
John W. Ritenbaugh
Amos 5 and the Feast of TabernaclesRelated Topics: Assyrian Captivity | Funeral Dirge | Israel's Faithlessness | Lament for Israel | Lamentation | Prophecies of Israel's Demise
Commentators often suppose that Jesus refers to the sorrow that comes from realizing all the suffering, destruction, and death in the world. This sorrow is a step beyond considering it the result of a personal, emotional wound upon the death of a loved one. This new perspective contemplates all the evils that cause suffering and death on earth. Those who grieve for the terrible wrongs occurring all over the globe have a soft heart for people, even people they do not know. They are often called humanitarians: They see trials and suffering, and they want to give aid if they can. While they care for others, they are heavily weighed down by the sheer amount of woe humanity experiences worldwide.
Lamentations 5:1-15 contains a prayer that describes all that has occurred to Judah and Jerusalem due to its overthrow by Babylon. The author of Lamentations is actually reminding God about what had happened, setting the scene for what he writes toward the end of the chapter. It takes the form of a dirge, a sad song telling us how much death and destruction had befallen God's people. Everything is bad! In the aftermath, life is hard, and there is no hope in sight. Their lives are terrible. All they see ahead of them is drudgery and famine and disease and death. They cannot envision any rescue in their future.
Similarly, Ezekiel 9:3-5 illustrates a more intense and spiritual mourning for the abominations, perversions, cruelties, and sins that cause suffering, destruction, and death in society. We can commiserate with what is written in the passage, seeing the perversity happening in the world, all the things God hates and condemns, calling them abominations. In Ezekiel 9, God says He will spare those who grieve over the depth of sin in the world and the havoc it causes.
These grieving people show empathy for those who suffer from it, but their expectation is that only God can cure society's ills. They express sadness, mourning for the rotten state to which the world has fallen. Yet, they know that the only answer to the problem is for people to repent. They also know human nature and that people cannot repent unless God grants it to them (Romans 2:4). These realizations mean that these evils will go on to affect more people, part of a terrible cycle of horrible things that will continue replaying in this world until God intervenes.
Richard T. Ritenbaugh
Those Who MournRelated Topics: Death | Destruction | Disease | Enduring Suffering | Famine | Funeral Dirge | Grieving | Human Suffering | Mourning | Mourning Motivates Contemplating Mortality | Sighing and Crying for Abominations | Those who Mourn.