023 Ceremonial Mourning

Ceremonial Mourning Genesis 23:2. Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her.

We shall have occasion, in noticing other passages, to refer to the different modes of manifesting grief at times of bereavement; it is only necessary to say here, that there is in this text an evident allusion to a ceremonial mourning. The word “came” indicates this. The passage shows the antiquity of the custom of formal manifestation of sorrow in honor of the dead.