When Mordecai heard about all that had been done, he tore his clothes, put on rough cloth and ashes, and went out into the city crying loudly and painfully.
If you don’t listen to him, I will cry secretly because of your pride. I will cry painfully, and my eyes will overflow with tears, because the Lord’s people will be captured.
This is what the Lord says: “A voice was heard in Ramah of painful crying and deep sadness: Rachel crying for her children. She refused to be comforted, because her children are dead!”
Oh, how I hurt! How I hurt! I am bent over in pain. Oh, the torture in my heart! My heart is pounding inside me. I cannot keep quiet, because I have heard the sound of the trumpet. I have heard the shouts of war.
My people, put on rough cloth and roll in the ashes to show how sad you are. Cry loudly for those who are dead, as if your only son were dead, because the destroyer will soon come against us.
My eyes have no more tears, and I am sick to my stomach. I feel empty inside, because my people have been destroyed. Children and babies are fainting in the streets of the city.
“A voice was heard in Ramah of painful crying and deep sadness: Rachel crying for her children. She refused to be comforted, because her children are dead.”
And Peter remembered what Jesus had told him: “Before the rooster crows, you will say three times that you don’t know me.” Then Peter went outside and cried painfully.
They have written the same things that we learned from others—the people who saw those things from the beginning and served God by telling people his message.