Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
Parallel Translations
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Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
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Suffre affliccions: sorowe ye and wepe. Let youre laughter be turned to mornynge and youre ioye to hevynes.
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Suffer afflictions, and sorrowe ye, and weepe: let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your ioy into heauinesse.
Cross-references (23)
Passages linked to James 4:9 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Matthew 5:4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
- 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold, this same thing, that you were grieved in a godly way, what earnest care it worked in you. Yes, what defense, indignation, fear, longing, zeal, and vengeance! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be pure in the matter.
- Luke 6:25 Woe to you, you who are full now, for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will mourn and weep.
- Proverbs 14:13 Even in laughter the heart may be sorrowful, and mirth may end in heaviness.
- James 5:1-2 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming on you. Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten.
- Psalms 119:67 Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I observe your word.
- Ecclesiastes 7:2-6 It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter; for by the sadness of the face the heart is made good. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This also is vanity.
- Jeremiah 31:18-20 “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus, ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as an untrained calf. Turn me, and I will be turned; for you are Yahweh my God. Surely after that I was turned. I repented. After that I was instructed. I struck my thigh. I was ashamed, yes, even confounded, because I bore the reproach of my youth.’ Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? For as often as I speak against him, I still earnestly remember him. therefore my heart yearns for him. I will surely have mercy on him,” says Yahweh.
- Ezekiel 16:63 that you may remember, and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of your shame, when I have forgiven you all that you have done,” says the Lord Yahweh.’ ”
- Revelation 18:7-8 However much she glorified herself, and grew wanton, so much give her of torment and mourning. For she says in her heart, ‘I sit a queen, and am no widow, and will in no way see mourning.’ Therefore in one day her plagues will come: death, mourning, and famine; and she will be utterly burned with fire; for the Lord God who has judged her is strong.
- Ezekiel 7:16 But those of those who escape, they will escape and will be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, everyone in his iniquity.
- Job 30:31 Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.
- Psalms 126:5-6 Those who sow in tears will reap in joy. He who goes out weeping, carrying seed for sowing, will certainly come again with joy, carrying his sheaves.
- Isaiah 22:12-13 In that day, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, called to weeping, to mourning, to baldness, and to dressing in sackcloth; and behold, joy and gladness, killing cattle and killing sheep, eating meat and drinking wine: “Let’s eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die.”
- Lamentations 5:15 The joy of our heart has ceased. Our dance is turned into mourning.
- Zechariah 12:10-14 I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn. In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of David’s house apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
- Luke 16:25 “But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But here he is now comforted, and you are in anguish.
- Psalms 119:71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn your statutes.
- Ecclesiastes 2:2 I said of laughter, “It is foolishness;” and of mirth, “What does it accomplish?”
- Jeremiah 31:9 They will come with weeping. I will lead them with petitions. I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way in which they won’t stumble; for I am a father to Israel. Ephraim is my firstborn.
- Jeremiah 31:13 Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance; the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
- Luke 6:21 Blessed are you who hunger now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.
- Psalms 119:136 Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don’t observe your law.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 9 Be afflicted and mourn. Christ denounces mourning on…
9 Be afflicted and mourn. Christ denounces mourning on those who laugh, as a curse, (Luke 6:25;) and James, in what shortly follows, alluding to the same words, threatens the rich with mourning. But here he speaks of that salutary mourning or sorrow which leads us to repentance. He addresses those who, being inebriated in their minds, did not perceive God’s judgment. Thus it happened that they flattered themselves in their vices. That he might shake off from them this deadly torpor, he admonishes them to learn to mourn, that being touched with sorrow of conscience they might cease to flatter themselves and to exult on the verge of destruction. Then laughter is to be taken as signifying the flattering with which the ungodly deceive themselves, while they are infatuated by the sweetness of their sins and forget the judgment of God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain By this word the Greeks meant an heaviness joined…
By this word the Greeks meant an heaviness joined with shamefastness, which is to be seen in a cast down countenance, and settled as it were upon the ground.
He goeth on in the same comparison of contraries, and setteth against those profane joys with an earnest sorrow of mind, and against pride and arrogance, holy modesty.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your…
9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
Ver. 9. Be afflicted] ταλαιπωρησατε. or, Be miserable; ye are so, but see yourselves to be so. Or, afflict yourselves, viz. with voluntary sorrows for your sins. See that ye be active here.
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And mourn] Savourly and soakingly, with a deep and downright sorrow, so as a man would do in the death of his dearest friend. The Greek word, πενθησατε, imports a funeral grief.
And weep] In judgment at least, and then, dry sorrow may go as far as wet, where tears will not come. But if it be possible, look not upon sin with dry eyes; point every sin with a tear.
Let your laughter be turned] Turn all the streams into this one channel, that may drive the mill, that may grind the heart. Meal was offered of old, and not whole corn.
And your joy to heaviness] κατηφεια, {a} such as makes a man hang down his head, and go heavily through grief and shame.
{a} Tristitia cum vultus demissione. Budaeus.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Be afflicted; humble yourselves for your sins, before mentioned,…
Be afflicted; humble yourselves for your sins, before mentioned, and in the sense of wrath approaching, if ye do not.
And mourn, with inward sorrow of heart.
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And weep; show your inward grief by weeping, the usual expression and sign of it.
Let your laughter; your carnal rejoicing in what you get by sinful courses, Jam 4:1,2, lusting, warring, fighting.
Be turned into mourning; exchange your carnal joy for godly sorrow.
And your joy; to the same purpose as laughter, before: by it he means their pleasing themselves in the success of their unrighteousness, the gain of their rapine and violence.
Into heaviness; the same as mourning, or an outward expression of it in the dejection of the countenance, which usually proceeds from shame or sorrow, (and the Greek word signifies both), whereas joy and confidence make men lift up their heads or faces, Ezr 9:6; Job 10:15; Job 11:15; 22:26; Luk 21:28.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain The next duty we are exhorted to by the…
The next duty we are exhorted to by the apostle, is a deep humiliation, and a voluntary affliction of our souls before God for sin, and upon the account of any calamity, either on ourselves or others.
Learn hence, that as the afflicting hand of God does increase upon a person, a family, or a people, so ought the humiliation and mourning of that person, family, or people, to increase; we ought not only to be humbled when God afflicts, but also to be humbled in proportion to what God inflicts; great afflictions call for great humiliations; woe to that person, that family, or that people, who will not afflicted when God afflicts them, nor humble themselves, when God humbles them; who, when God casts them down, will hold up their heads in mirth and jollity: God loves to see us bear our cross, but he cannot endure to see us make sport with it, or slight of it. If God once perceives us driving away our sorrow with harp and viol, or drowning it with wine, he can quickly turn our wine into water, and our laughter into the voice of weeping.
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Now is it not better to turn our mirth into mourning, than to have God turn it into mourning? They who turn their mirth into mourning, shall find comfort after their mourning; but they shall know nothing but mourning, whose mirth God turns into mourning: be afflicted, therefore, and mourn and weep.
Quest. But how comes the apostle to make use of so many words to one purpose, be afflicted, mourn, weep, humble yourselves, &c.?
Ans. All these heaps of expressions do import and imply,
1. The necessity of the duty.
2. The difficulty of the duty.
3. The continuance of the duty,
and accordingly much enforcement is necessary; flesh and blood loves pleasure, but declines sorrow and heaviness; nature loves no bitter draughts, though bitter things are sometimes the best things; therefore the apostle’s call to afflict our souls, and humble ourselves in the sight of God, is repeated; and mark the encouragement given thus to do, humble yourselves in the sight of God, and he shall lift you up:
Submission and humility is the true way to exaltation and glory; the way to rise is to fall: he that humbleth himself shall be exalted, Luk 14:11.
He shall lift thee up in due time, 1Pe 5:6. Wait God’s leisure, and the promise shall surely be fulfilled; the world looketh upon humility as the way to contempt, but God pronounces it the way to honour; before honour is humility.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep,.... Not in a…
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep,.... Not in a bare external way; not by afflicting the body with fastings and scourgings, by renting of garments, and clothing with sackcloth, and putting ashes on the head, and other such outward methods of humiliation; but afflicting the soul is meant, an inward mourning and weeping over the plague of the heart, the impurity of nature, and the various sins of life; after a godly sort, and because contrary to a God of infinite love and grace; in an evangelical way, looking to Jesus, and being affected with the pardoning grace and love of God in Christ.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness; meaning their carnal joy, on account of their friendship with the world, and their enjoyment of the things of it, since they consumed them on their lusts, and which betrayed enmity to God.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Be afflicted - For your past unfaithfulness to God.
Be afflicted - For your past unfaithfulness to God.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 9. Be afflicted, and mourn] Without true and…
Verse 9. Be afflicted, and mourn] Without true and deep repentance ye cannot expect the mercy of God.
Let your laughter be turned to mourning] It appears most evidently that many of those to whom St. James addressed this epistle had lived a very irregular and dissolute life. He had already spoken of their lust, and pleasures, and he had called them adulterers and adulteresses; and perhaps they were so in the grossest sense of the words. He speaks here of their laughter and their joy; and all the terms taken together show that a dissolute life is intended. What a strange view must he have of the nature of primitive Christianity, who can suppose that these words can possibly have been addressed to people professing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who were few in number, without wealth or consequence, and were persecuted and oppressed both by their brethren the Jews and by the Romans!
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep - That is,…
Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep - That is, evidently, on account of your sins. The sins to which the apostle refers are those which he had specified in the previous part of the chapter, and which he had spoken of as so evil in their nature, and so dangerous in their tendency. The word rendered “be afflicted” means, properly, to endure toil or hardship; then to endure affliction or distress; and here means, that they were to afflict themselves - that is, they were to feel distressed and sad on account of their transgressions. Compare Ezr 8:21. The other words in this clause are those which are expressive of deep grief or sorrow. The language here used shows that the apostle supposed that it was possible that those who had done wrong should voluntarily feel sorrow for it, and that, therefore, it was proper to call upon them to do it.
(All who feel true sorrow for sin, do so voluntarily; but it is not intended by this assertion to insinuate that repentance is not the work of the Spirit. He operates on men without destroying their freedom, or doing violence to their will: “in the day of his power they are willing.” Nor is it improper to call on men to do that for which they require the Spirit’s aid. That aid is not withheld in the hour of need; and everywhere the Bible commands sinners to believe and repent.)
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Let your laughter be turned to mourning - It would seem that the persons referred to, instead of suitable sorrow and humiliation on account of sin, gave themselves to joyousness, mirth, and revelry. See a similar instance in Isa 22:12-13. It is often the case, that those for whom the deep sorrows of repentance would be peculiarly appropriate, give themselves to mirth and vanity. The apostle here says that such mirth did not become them. Sorrow, deep and unfeigned, was appropriate on account of their sins, and the sound of laughter and of revelry should be changed to notes of lamentation. To how many of the assemblies of the vain, the gay, and the dissipated, might the exhortation in this passage with propriety be now addressed!
Your joy to heaviness - The word here rendered heaviness occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means dejection, sorrow. It is not gloom, melancholy, or moroseness, but it is sorrow on account of sin. God has so made us that we should feel sorrow when we are conscious that we have done wrong, and it is appropriate that we should do so.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Be afflicted [4] and mourn, and deplore your sins…
Be afflicted [4] and mourn, and deplore your sins against his divine majesty; punish yourselves, and think not that a mere change of life is sufficient after so many sins committed. (Witham)
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Miseri estote, Greek: talaiporesate.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Be afflicted--literally, "Endure misery," that is, mourn over your…
Be afflicted--literally, "Endure misery," that is, mourn over your wretchedness through sin. Repent with deep sorrow instead of your present laughter. A blessed mourning. Contrast Isa 22:12-13; Luk 6:25. James does not add here, as in Jam 5:1, "howl," where he foretells the doom of the impenitent at the coming destruction of Jerusalem.
heaviness--literally, "falling of the countenance," casting down of the eyes.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 9. Be afflicted—Penitence is the way to repentance and…
9. Be afflicted—Penitence is the way to repentance and reformation; penitence in view of past sin and future judgment. The ring of revelry and laughter should give way to the voice of mourning.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 9. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep …] The…
9. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep …] The words are nearly synonymous, the first pointing to the sense of misery (as in “O wretched man that I am” in Rom_7:24), the second to its general effect on demeanour, the last to its special outflow in tears. The two last verbs are frequently joined together, as in Mar_16:10; Luk_6:25; Rev_18:15. The words are an emphatic call to repentance, and the blessedness which follows on repentance. Here, as so often in the Epistle, we trace the direct influence of the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount (Mat_5:4). The contrast between the “laughter” and the “mourning” in the clause that follows, makes the connexion all but absolutely certain. The “laughter” is that of the careless, selfish, luxurious rejoicing of the world, the “sport” of the fool in Pro_10:23.
your joy to heaviness] The Greek for the latter word expresses literally the downcast look of sorrow, and is as old in this sense as Homer,
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“Joy to thy foes, but heavy shame to thee.”
Iliad iii. 51.
It exactly describes the attitude of the publican, who would not “lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven” (Luk_18:13).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (9) Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep.—For wretchedness, sorrow,…
(9) Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep.—For wretchedness, sorrow, and tears are the three steps of the homeward way to peace and God. And in proof of real conversion there must be the outward lamentation, as well as the inward contrition. Grieve, therefore, with a “godly sorrow not to be repented of” (2Co_7:10)—the remorseful anguish of a Peter, and not a Judas. Let the foolish laughter at sin, which was “as the crackling of thorns” before the avenging fire (Ecc_7:6), be turned to mourning; banish the joyous smile for the face cast down to heaviness, and so await the blessedness of those that mourn (Matt. v, 4), even the promised comfort of God.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain St. James"s version of "Blessed are they that mourn:…
St. James"s version of "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted". (Mat_5:4) Be afflicted. Talaipwrhsate: only here in the New Testament, occasionally in the LXX Heaviness. Kathfeia: another apax legomenon, apparently never found in the LXX or in the apostolic Fathers; it is, however, used by Josephus andPhilo. It is equivalent to "dejection," and "exactly describes the attitude of the publican, who would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven,." Luk_18:13 (Plumptre)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 9. Be afflicted, and mourn. Mourn over your sins…
9. Be afflicted, and mourn. Mourn over your sins and sincerely repent of them.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.