Lamentations 5:17

17 Therefore our heart is made sorrowful, therefore our eyes be made dark.

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 The joy of our heart failed; our song is turned into mourning.

16 The crown of our head fell down (The crowns have fallen from our heads); woe to us! for we (all have) sinned.

17 Therefore our heart is made sorrowful, therefore our eyes be made dark.

18 For the hill of Zion, for it perished; foxes went in it. (For Mount Zion, for it hath perished; and now foxes run all over it.)

19 But thou, Lord, shalt dwell without end; thy seat shall dwell in generation and into generation. (But thou, Lord, shalt live forever; thy throne shall remain for all generations.)