Professional Mourners in the Bible

Extra-biblical accounts reveal that the use of professional mourners was very common in the Middle East in Bible times and so Bible scholars are confident in seeing references to them in verses that to us might not be so obvious, for example:

Jeremiah 9:17  . . . call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:

Amos 5:16  . . . and they will call the farmer to mourning, and those who are skillful in lamentation to wailing.

Mark 5:38 He came to the synagogue ruler’s house, and he saw an uproar, weeping, and great wailing.

2 Samuel 14:2 Joab sent to Tekoa, and brought a wise woman from there, and said to her, “Please act like a mourner, and put on mourning clothing, please, and don’t anoint yourself with oil, but be as a woman who has mourned a long time for the dead.

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