Lamentations 5:17

17 Our hearts are sick and weary, and our eyes grow dim with tears.

Lamentations 5:17 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 5:17

For this our heart is faint
Our spirits sink; we are ready to swoon and die away; either for this, that we have sinned; because of our sins, they are so many, so great, and so aggravated; or for those distresses and calamities they have brought upon us before mentioned; or for the desolation of Zion, more especially, after expressed; and so the Targum,

``for this house of the sanctuary, which is desolate, our heart is weak:''

for these [things] our eyes are dim;
or "darkened" ^F2 almost blinded with weeping; can scarcely see out of them; or as persons in a swoon; for dimness of sight usually attends faintness of spirit.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F2 (wkvx) "contenebrati sunt", V. L. "obtenebrati", Pagninus, Montanus, Calvin, Cocceius.

Lamentations 5:17 In-Context

15 Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.

16 The garlands have fallen from our heads. Weep for us because we have sinned.

17 Our hearts are sick and weary, and our eyes grow dim with tears.

18 For Jerusalem is empty and desolate, a place haunted by jackals.

19 But LORD, you remain the same forever! Your throne continues from generation to generation.