Weeping at a temple's foundation

Did other peoples weep and sing when a temple was rebuilt?

What the relationship labels mean

Possible historical contact: The cultures were in contact, so one tradition could have known the other.
Shared literary world: The stories appear to share older roots or a common cultural setting.
Similar human experience: Different peoples responding to similar realities, such as river floods.
Resemblance only: A real similarity worth noticing; no historical connection has been established.
Modern speculative theory: A modern interpretation, not an ancient source. Not supported by authenticated evidence.

Babylonian · Mesopotamia

Temple-renovation rituals with laments (kalû priests)

Resemblance only

Composed: 1st millennium BC
Earliest surviving copy: Cuneiform ritual tablets (Seleucid-period copies of older texts)

When a temple was to be demolished and rebuilt, lamentation priests sang laments (balag, ershemma) to calm the gods while the old foundations were removed and the new ones laid.

Similar

Lament at the foundation of a rebuilt temple
Music by appointed singers

Different

A prescribed ritual to appease the gods; Ezra describes spontaneous grief and praise

Sumerian · Mesopotamia

Lament over the Destruction of Ur

Resemblance only

Composed: c. 2000 BC
Earliest surviving copy: Old Babylonian tablets

A long lament for a destroyed city and temple, ending with prayer for restoration.

Similar

Grief for a destroyed sanctuary

Different

Much earlier; Ningal, not the LORD

Back to the story

The Altar, the Foundation and Mixed Tears →In the seventh month the people gather "as one man" in Jerusalem. Jeshua and Zerubbabel build the altar on its old site, offerings resume, and Booths is kept. Masons and carpenters are paid; cedar comes by sea to Joppa. In the second year, the foundation is laid; priests blow trumpets and Levites sing "for he is good." Old men who had seen the first house weep aloud while others shout for joy.