Mourn

[mawrn, mohrn] /mɔrn, moʊrn/

verb (used without object)
1.
to feel or express sorrow or grief.
2.
to grieve or lament for the dead.
3.
to show the conventional or usual signs of sorrow over a person’s death.
verb (used with object)
4.
to feel or express sorrow or grief over (misfortune, loss, or anything regretted); deplore.
5.
to grieve or lament over (the dead).
6.
to utter in a sorrowful manner.
/mɔːn/
verb
1.
to feel or express sadness for the death or loss of (someone or something)
2.
(intransitive) to observe the customs of mourning, as by wearing black
3.
(transitive) to grieve over (loss or misfortune)
v.

Old English murnan “to mourn, bemoan, long after,” also “be anxious about, be careful” (class III strong verb; past tense mearn, past participle murnen), from Proto-Germanic *murnan “to remember sorrowfully” (cf. Old Saxon mornon, Old High German mornen, Gothic maurnan “to mourn,” Old Norse morna “to pine away”), probably from PIE root *(s)mer- “to remember” (see memory); or, if the Old Norse sense is the base one, from *mer- “to die, wither.” Related: Mourned; mourning.

Frequent references are found in Scripture to, (1.) Mourning for the dead. Abraham mourned for Sarah (Gen. 23:2); Jacob for Joseph (37:34, 35); the Egyptians for Jacob (50:3-10); Israel for Aaron (Num. 20:29), for Moses (Deut. 34:8), and for Samuel (1 Sam. 25:1); David for Abner (2 Sam. 3:31, 35); Mary and Martha for Lazarus (John 11); devout men for Stephen (Acts 8:2), etc. (2.) For calamities, Job (1:20, 21; 2:8); Israel (Ex. 33:4); the Ninevites (Jonah 3:5); Israel, when defeated by Benjamin (Judg. 20:26), etc. (3.) Penitential mourning, by the Israelites on the day of atonement (Lev. 23:27; Acts 27:9); under Samuel’s ministry (1 Sam. 7:6); predicted in Zechariah (Zech. 12:10, 11); in many of the psalms (51, etc.). Mourning was expressed, (1) by weeping (Gen. 35:8, marg.; Luke 7:38, etc.); (2) by loud lamentation (Ruth 1:9; 1 Sam. 6:19; 2 Sam. 3:31); (3) by the disfigurement of the person, as rending the clothes (Gen. 37:29, 34; Matt. 26:65), wearing sackcloth (Gen. 37:34; Ps. 35:13), sprinkling dust or ashes on the person (2 Sam. 13:19; Jer. 6:26; Job 2:12), shaving the head and plucking out the hair of the head or beard (Lev. 10:6; Job 1:20), neglect of the person or the removal of ornaments (Ex. 33:4; Deut. 21:12, 13; 2 Sam. 14:2; 19:24; Matt. 6:16, 17), fasting (2 Sam. 1:12), covering the upper lip (Lev. 13:45; Micah 3:7), cutting the flesh (Jer. 16:6, 7), and sitting in silence (Judg. 20:26; 2 Sam. 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 Chr. 35:25; Jer. 9:17; Matt. 9:23). The period of mourning for the dead varied. For Jacob it was seventy days (Gen. 50:3); for Aaron (Num. 20:29) and Moses (Deut. 34:8) thirty days; and for Saul only seven days (1 Sam. 31:13). In 2 Sam. 3:31-35, we have a description of the great mourning for the death of Abner.