Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 9:18

"and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters." — Jeremiah 9:18 (ASV)

Take up a wailing for us. —There is in all such figures of speech an inevitable blending of metaphors. The mourners wail for the dead nation, and yet the members of the nation are sharers in the funeral rites, and their eyes run down with tears.