# Grieve, mourn, and cry

These three words have similar meanings. James uses them together to emphasize that the people should be truly sorry for not obeying God. (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-doublet]] and [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-exclamations]])

# Let your laughter turn into sadness and your joy into gloom

This is saying the same thing in different ways for emphasis. The abstract nouns "laughter," "sadness," "joy," and "gloom" can be translated as verbs or adjectives. Alternate translation: "Stop laughing and be sad. Stop being joyful and be gloomy" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-parallelism]] and [[rc://en/ta/man/jit/figs-abstractnouns]])

