Subject

Loss

What grief takes, and what cannot be taken.

Also called: bereavement, taken away, what was lost, ruin, stripped, gone

This subject covers what is taken from a person and what cannot be taken. The sorrow that follows belongs to Grief. What God rebuilds afterwards belongs to Restoration.

What Loss covers, and where it stops

This subject covers what is taken from a person and what cannot be taken. The sorrow that follows belongs to Grief. What God rebuilds afterwards belongs to Restoration.

On this page, 7 sections

Across the canon
Where Scripture speaks
The whole account
The voices
The words underneath
The complete list
Subjects beside it

11 passages

Where Scripture speaks

The passages this subject stands on, in canon order.

And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.

Genesis 37:35KJVJacob refuses comfort, grieving a son he believes is dead.

And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.

Ruth 1:20KJVNaomi renames herself Mara — bitterness, after losing husband and sons.

But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

2 Samuel 12:23KJVDavid grieves his child, then trusts he will go to him one day.

And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!

2 Samuel 18:33KJVDavid's raw lament over Absalom, a son who had turned against him.

And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

Job 1:21KJVJob's response to total loss in a single day: blessing God anyway.

My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?

Psalms 42:3KJVTears as daily food — grief given voice, not hidden.

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

Ecclesiastes 3:4KJVA time to weep and a time to mourn, named as part of life's rhythm.

He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Isaiah 53:3KJVThe Servant himself described as a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.

Jesus wept.

John 11:35KJVJesus weeps at a grave he is about to empty — grief inside certain hope.

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.

1 Thessalonians 4:13KJVPaul reshapes grief, not removes it: mourning without hopelessness.

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.

Revelation 21:4KJVThe promise that ends the story: every tear wiped away for good.

Job receives news of his children's death and the loss of all he owned in a single day — grief that refuses easy answers (Job 1:13-21).Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

Loss in Scripture, in full

Loss in Scripture takes many forms — death, exile, displacement, failed harvests, betrayal, the loss of God's sensed presence. The Bible lets each loss speak (Job, Naomi, David, the exilic community) rather than rushing to silence the lament. Habakkuk's closing hymn (3:17–18) is the characteristic biblical posture: the fig tree fails, the harvest fails, and yet I will rejoice.

4 voices

What teachers have said

Thus the gain of life brings death, the loss of life brings salvation; for by the sacrifice of this short life we gain the reward of immortality.

Hilary of Poitiers· Catena Aurea by Aquinas

Written before 367.

Who can grieve because a security especially dear to him has been taken away, when for our comfort the Father delivered his only Son to death for us?

Ambrose of Milan· On the Death of Satyrus 1.4

Written before 397.

What if you come to feel that what we have called a loss is a gain?

Tertullian· On Exhortation to Chastity

Written before 220.

Call me not Naomi - That is, beautiful or pleasant. Call me Mara - That is, bitter; one whose life is grievous to her.

Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible

Written before 1832.

The words underneath

Each card is one Hebrew or Greek word behind loss. It gives the sense, the count across the canon, and the number in Strong's 1890 concordance.

shakol: be bereaved

Hebrew · H7921

שָׁכֹל

Strong's entry: properly, to miscarry, i.e. suffer abortion; by analogy, to bereave (literally or figuratively)

grief named at its rawest

23 times in the Old Testament · shakol, in full →

yathom: orphan

Hebrew · H3490

יָתוֹם

Strong's entry: a bereaved person

loss given a name

42 times in the Old Testament · yathom, in full →

zemia: damage/loss

Greek · G2209

ζημία

Strong's entry: detriment

Paul's word for counting all things loss for Christ

4 times in the New Testament · zemia, in full →

apoleia: destruction

Greek · G684

ἀπώλεια

Strong's entry: ruin or loss (physical, spiritual or eternal)

the New Testament's word for what perishes

18 times in the New Testament · apoleia, in full →

53 verses

The complete list

The King James text uses the language of loss in 53 verses. 0 of them are quoted above and the other 53 stand here, book by book. 11 more verses above show loss without using one of its words, so they are outside that count. Open a book to read the references with a clause of each verse.

Genesis3

Exodus2

Leviticus2

Numbers1