We piped to you (Good News Translation “We played wedding music for you”): the “pipe” was in all likelihood a type of primitive clarinet, though it is impossible to define with precision what instrument is meant. Therefore it may be best to follow the example of those translations which generalize with a verb construction: “We played you a happy tune” (Barclay) and “we played at weddings for you” (Phillips). In those languages that cannot say “played” without indicating the instrument, translators can say “played on our flutes” or “played our instruments for weddings.”

Dance would be the round dance, performed by men on the occasion of the wedding.

We wailed (New English Bible “wept and wailed”) is translated “We sang dirges” by New Jerusalem Bible, “We sang you a dirge” by New American Bible, and “We played at funerals” by Phillips. The Greek verb may mean either “sing a funeral song” or “mourn.” This activity was the responsibility of the women at the funeral. To say “we sang funeral songs” for we wailed will probably be a good solution in many languages. The custom is widely enough practiced that even cultures that do not do it will often understand the meaning of the expression.

And you did not mourn is translated “but you wouldn’t cry” by Good News Translation and Phillips. New Jerusalem Bible attempts to reproduce the funeral scene: “and you wouldn’t be mourners.” Whatever is appropriate behavior at a funeral can be used here, as in “and you wouldn’t cry like you should at funerals” or “… wouldn’t cry like mourners.”

This verse will probably be in direct speech, although there will be languages where the most natural way is to say “one group shouts to the other that they played wedding music for them but the others didn’t dance, and they sang funeral songs but the others wouldn’t cry like mourners.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on the Gospel of Matthew. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1988. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .