Luke 8:52

bewailed her The word means that they were beating their breasts for her (Nahum 2:7). St Mark gives a graphic picture of the tumult, and loud cries, and wailings (alalai, the Egyptian wilweleh). Even the poorest were obliged to provide for a funeral two flute- players and one wailing woman. See Ecclesiastes 12:5; Jeremiah 9:17; Amo 5:16; 2 Chronicles 35:25. These public mourners were called sappedans.

she. is not dead, but sleepeth To take this literally is to contradict the letter and spirit of the whole narrative. It is true that in "our friend Lazarus sleepeth" the verb used is not katheudeinbut koimasthai;but that is in a different writer (John 11:11), and the word better suits one who had been four days dead. Our Lord's object was to silence this idle uproar.