Strong's Number: H56
Original Word: ’abal
Usage Notes: "to mourn, lament." This word is common to both ancient and modern Hebrew. Found in the Hebrew Old Testament 39 times, ’abal is used in the simple, active verbal form primarily in poetry, and usually in a figurative sense. When it is used of mourning for the dead in a literal sense, the word is found in prose sections and in the reflexive form, indicating action back on the subject. It first occurs in Gen 37:34: "And Jacob …mourned for his son many days."
When used in the figurative sense, ’abal expresses "mourning" by gates (Isa 3:26), by the land (Isa 24:4), and by pastures (Amos 1:2). In addition to mourning for the dead, "mourning" may be over Jerusalem (Isa 66:10), over sin (Ezra 10:6), or over God's judgment (Exod 33:4). One may pretend to be a mourner (2Sam 14:2) simply by putting on mourning clothes.
