Topic
Tears
26 passages cited, from 2 classic reference works.
These works date from 1896–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Psalms 39:12ISBE · Nave General scriptures concerning
Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear unto my cry; hold not thy peace at my tears: for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
- Psalms 42:3ISBE · Nave General scriptures concerning
My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
- Psalms 56:8ISBE · Nave Observed by God
Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
- Psalms 80:5ISBE · Nave FIGURATIVE
Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.
- Revelation 7:17ISBE · Nave Wiped away
For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.
- Revelation 21:4ISBE · Nave None in heaven
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
- Genesis 27:34ISBE
And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
- Joshua 9:4–13ISBE
They did work wilily, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their asses, and wine bottles, old, and rent, and bound up; And old shoes and clouted upon their feet, and old garments upon them; and all the bread of their…
- 2 Kings 20:5ISBE
Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD.
- Psalms 6:6Nave General scriptures concerning
I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
- Psalms 116:8ISBE
For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
- Psalms 119:83ISBE
For I am become like a bottle in the smoke; yet do I not forget thy statutes.
Show 14 more
- Psalms 126:5 ISBE
- Ecclesiastes 4:1 ISBE
- Isaiah 16:9 ISBE
- Isaiah 25:8 ISBE
- Isaiah 38:3–5 Nave Observed by God
- Isaiah 38:5 ISBE
- Jeremiah 9:1 ISBE
- Jeremiah 9:18 ISBE
- Lamentations 1:2 ISBE
- Lamentations 2:11 ISBE
- Lamentations 2:18 ISBE
- Mark 9:24 ISBE
- Luke 7:38 ISBE
- Hebrews 12:17 ISBE
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 26 references
terz (dim`ah; dakrua): In the instances recorded in Scripture weeping is more frequently associated with mental distress than with physical pain. Eastern peoples show none of the restraint of emotion in lamentation which is characteristic of modern Occidentals, and there are many records of this manifestation of woe, even among men accustomed to hardships and warfare, such as David and his soldiers. The flow of tears is the evidence of sorrow in prospect of approaching death in Ps 39:12; 2Ki 20:5; Isa 38:5, and of the suffering consequent on oppression (Ec 4:1), or defeat in battle (Isa 16:9), or hopeless remorse, as with Esau (Heb 12:17, probably referring to Ge 27:34). The Psalmist describes his condition of distress metaphorically as feeding on the bread of tears and having tears to drink (Ps 80:5; 42:3). Tears in the figurative sense of anxiety for the future are referred to in Ps 126:5; Mr 9:24 the King James Version, and the tears accompanying penitence in Lu 7:38 (44 the Revised Version margin). Jeremiah is sometimes called the "weeping prophet" on account of his expressive hyperbole in Jer 9:1,18 (see also 14:7; 31:16; La 1:2; 2:11,18 and ten other passages). Conversely the deliverance from grief or anxiety is described as the wiping away of tears (Ps 116:8; Isa 25:8; Re 7:17; 21:4).
The expression in Ps 56:8 in which the Psalmist desires that God should remember his wanderings and his tears has given rise to a curious mistake. There is a paronomasia in the passage as he pleads that God should record his wanderings (Hebrew, nodh) and that his tears should be put into God's no'-dh (receptacle or bottle). No'dh literally means a leathern or skin bottle, as is evident from Ps 119:83 and Jos 9:4-13. The request is obviously figurative, as there is no evidence that there was even a symbolical collection of tears into a bottle in any Semitic funeral ritual, and there is no foundation whatever for the modern identification of the long, narrow perfume jars so frequently found in late Jewish and Greek-Jewish graves, as "lachrymatories" or tear bottles.
See BOTTLE.
Alexander Macalister
In the topical indexes
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.