“The children of Israel wept for Moses...for 30 days.” In biblical Israel it was customary that people were allowed to weep and mourn for 30 days when someone died (cp. Num. 20:29; Deut. 21:13). However, there is a difference between a time of mourning prescribed by custom, usually when normal work would stop, and the time a person would personally mourn the loss of a loved one: there is no time given in the Bible for that, and different people process loss differently (see commentary on Rom. 12:15).