vale of tears
UK/ˈveɪl əv ˈtɪəz/US/ˈveɪl əv ˈtɪɚz/
vale of tears noun: the world, a place where difficulties and the sorrows of life are felt, especially (Christianity) as a place to be left behind when one dies and goes to heaven.
Noun
vale of tears (plural vales of tears)
- The world, a place where difficulties and the sorrows of life are felt, especially (Christianity) as a place to be left behind when one dies and goes to heaven.
- He [Vitus Theodorus] was called to be a Paſtor at Norinberg, his own country, [...] till it pleaſed God to put an end to his labors, by tranſlating him out of this vale of tears into his Everlaſting Kingdom, Anno Chriſti 1549.1654, Samuel Clark[e], “The Life of Vitus Theodorus, who Dyed Anno Christi 1549”, in The Marrow of Ecclesiastical History, Contained in the Lives of One Hundred Forty Eight Fathers, Schoolmen, First...
- While we ſojourn in this vale of Tears and Sorrow, we are detain'd from the bleſſ'd Sight and Enjoyment of God; and kept from the Happineſs of juſt Men made perfect.1708 June 3, [Urith Bunchley], A Funeral Sermon upon the Death of Mrs. Urith Bunchley, Daughter to Sir Austin Palgrave, Bart. who Departed this Life May the 21st. Preached at Clavering in Essex, May...
- A particular place of sorrow or suffering.
- That, in this pilgrimage of ſeventy years, / O'er rocks of perils, and through vales of tears, / Deſtin'd to march, our doubtful ſteps we tend, / Tir'd with the toil, yet fearful of its end: [...]a. 1722, Matthew Prior, “Solomon on the Vanity of the World”, in The Poetical Works of Matthew Prior, Esq. […], Edinburgh: Printed by Mundell and Son, […], published 1793, →OCLC; republished in A...
- If, friendleſs, in a vale of tears I ſtray, / Where briers wound, and thorns perplex my way, / Still let my ſteady ſoul thy goodneſs ſee, / And with ſtrong confidence lay hold on thee; [...]1772, Anna Lætitia Aikin [i.e., Anna Laetitia Barbauld], “An Address to the Deity”, in Poems, 3rd corrected edition, London: Printed for Joseph Johnson, […], published 1773, →OCLC, page 128
vale of tears meaning in Arabic
vale of tears in Arabic
- the world as the place where difficulties and the sorrows of life are felt
- وادِي دُمُوعٍ wādī dumūʕin
Examples of vale of tears in a sentence
- So it was steady as she goes as Sally was hustled into bed, and on the stroke of twelve a fourth Aintree child entered this vale of tears.1999, Dwain Campbell, “Prologue”, in Tales from the Frozen Ocean, St. John’s, Nfld.: Jesperson Publishing, →ISBN, page 10:
- As we devour the Earth's resources and despoil the environment, we are driving ourselves into a metaphoric vale of tears.2005, Daniel Hillel, “Epilogue: The Lasting Relevance of Early Ecological Influences”, in The Natural History of the Bible: An...
- It could not be denied them in a Christian country—and it provided them with solace in their "vale of tears," guiding them through "the valley of the shadow."1992, Kwame Anthony Appiah, “The Invention of Africa”, in In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture, New York, N.Y....
Forms of vale of tears
| plural | vales of tears |
|---|
Origin of vale of tears
Calque of Latin lacrimārum vallis from the “Salve Regina” (a hymn to the Virgin Mary), based on Hebrew עמק הבכא (ʿēmeq habbāḵāʾ) from Psalm 84:6 of the Bible. The Hebrew term may mean “valley of the baka tree”, a tree of uncertain species (compare 2 Samuel 5:23–24 where baka is used to refer to a tree, and is often translated into English as “balsam tree”, “mulberry tree”, or “poplar tree”), but ancient Greek translations assumed the word intended was בָּכָה (bakhá, “to cry, weep”) and so rendered the term as “valley of weeping”, which was then used in Latin and English translations. See, for example, the Douay–Rheims Bible (1610) where the verse is numbered as Psalm 83:6.
Questions about vale of tears
- What does vale of tears mean?
- Vale of tears means the world, a place where difficulties and the sorrows of life are felt, especially (Christianity) as a place to be left behind when one dies and goes to heaven.
- What is vale of tears in Arabic?
- Vale of tears in Arabic is وادِي دُمُوعٍ (wādī dumūʕin). See Vale of tears meaning in Arabic.
- How do you use vale of tears in a sentence?
- So it was steady as she goes as Sally was hustled into bed, and on the stroke of twelve a fourth Aintree child entered this vale of tears.
- What part of speech is vale of tears?
- Vale of tears is a noun.
- How do you pronounce vale of tears?
- Vale of tears is pronounced /ˈveɪl əv ˈtɪəz/ (UK).
- What is the plural of vale of tears?
- The plural of vale of tears is vales of tears.
Words near vale of tears in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: vale of tears (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-vale of tears.ogg.
Cite this entry: “vale of tears.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vale_of_tears. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.