091 Loud Weeping

Loud Weeping Genesis 45:2He wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. In the East emotions of joy as well as of sorrow are expressed by loud cries. Sir John Chardin (cited by Harmer, Observations, vol. 3, p. 17) says, “Their sentiments of joy or of grief are properly transports; and their transports are ungoverned, excessive, and truly outrageous.” He also states that when any one returns from a long journey his family burst into cries that may be heard twenty doors off. In like manner Joseph and his brethren, in their joy at meeting, indulged in excessive weeping.