Jeremiah 22:18

They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! - These words were no doubt the burden of some funeral dirge. Alas! a brother, who was our lord or governor, is gone. Alas, our sister! his Queen, who has lost her glory in losing her husband. הדה hodah is feminine, and must refer to the glory of the queen.

The mournings in the east, and lamentations for the dead, are loud, vehement, and distressing. For a child or a parent grief is expressed in a variety of impassioned sentences, each ending with a burden like that in the text, "Ah my child!" "Ah my mother!" as the prophet in this place: הוי אחי hoi achi, "Ah my brother!" הוי אחות hoi achoth, "Ah sister!" הוי אדון hoi adon, "Ah lord!" הוי הדה hoi hodah "Ah the glory." Mr. Ward, in his Manners and Customs of the Hindoos, gives two examples of lamentation; one of a mother for the death of her son, one of a daughter for her departed mother. "When a woman," says he, "is overwhelmed with grief for the death of her child, she utters her grief in some such language as the following: -

Ah, my Hureedas, where is he gone? - 'Ah my child, my child!'

My golden image, Hureedas, who has taken? - 'Ah my child, my child!'

I nourished and reared him, where is he gone? - 'Ah my child, my child!'

Take me with thee. - 'Ah my child, my child!'

He played round me like a golden top. - 'Ah my child, my child!'

Like his face I never saw one. - 'Ah my child, my child!'

The infant continually cried, Ma Ma! - 'Ah my child, my child!'

Ah my child, crying, Ma! come into my lap. - 'Ah my child, my child!'

Who shall now drink milk? - 'Ah my child, my child!'

Who shall now stay in my lap? - 'Ah my child, my child!'

Our support is gone! - 'Ah my child, my child!'

"The lamentations for a mother are in some such strains as these: -

continued...

Boldly by name is the judgment at length pronounced upon Jehoiakim. Dreaded by all around him, he shall soon lie an unheeded corpse, with no one to lament. No loving relative shall make such wailing as when a brother or sister is carried to the grave; nor shall he have the respect of his subjects, Ah Lord! or, Ah his glory!