whose house Lazarus died, may have been a man of considera* tion, and that the Jews may have come out of respect to him. At any rate it is clear that those who saw the stupendous mira- cle of this chapter were Jerusalem Jews, and were " many," and not few. — The expression, " Those around Martha and Mary," is a form of language not uncommon in Greek, and is probably rightly translated in our version. It can hardly mean, " the women who had come to mourn with Martha and Mary," though it is well known that women were the chief mourners at funer- als. It is, however, only fair to say that Beza decidedly holds that the women and female friends who had come to mourn with Mary and Martha are meant in this verse.
\_To comfort them concerning their brother.'] This appears to have been a common practice among the Jews. When any one died, friends and neighbours assembled for several days at the house of the deceased, to mourn with and comfort the relatives. Lightfoot specially mentions it. The same custom prevails in many parts of the world at the present day : Hindostan and Ireland are instances.
We cannot doubt that many of these Jews came to Martha and Mary from form and custom, and not from any genuine sympathy or kind feeliug, much less from any unity of spiritual taste. Yet it is striking to observe how God blesses even the semblance of sympathy. By coming they saw Christ's greatest miracle. If unbelief can sympathize, how much more should grace.
One thing at any rate seems very clearly proved by this verse. Whatever was the rank or position of Martha, Marj^, and Lazarus, they were well-known people, and anything that happened in their house at Bethany was soon public news in Jerusalem. Had they been strangers from Galilee, the thing named in this verse would not have been written.
Chrysostom thinks the Evangelist mentioned the Jews coming to comfort Martha and Mary, as one of the many cir- cumstances proving that Lazarus was really dead. They evi- dently thought him dead, or they would not have come.
Lightfoot gives a long and curious account of the customs of the Jews about comforting mourners. He says that "thirty days were allotted for the time of mourning. The three first days were for weeping; seven clays for lamentation; and thirty days for intermission from washing or shaving. The beds in the house of mourning were all taken down and laid on the ground, as soon as the coffin left the house. The comforter sat on the floor ; the bereaved sat chief. The comforter might not say a word till the chief mourner broke silence."
Poole observes that the mourning for Jacob was forty days, for Aaron and Moses, thirty days. (Gen. 1. 3; Num. xx. 29; Deut. xxxiv. 8.)