vales of tears

Noun

vale of tears (plural vales of tears)

1. (idiomatic, literary, often, poetic, singular) 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...
2. (idiomatic, literary, often, poetic) 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...