John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 5:17

"For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;" — Lamentations 5:17 (ASV)

He connects sorrow here with the acknowledgment of sin, so that the people under the pressure and agony of sorrow might apply their minds to consider their own sins. At the same time, the Prophet, no doubt, includes here all that we have already observed, as if he were saying that the people were not without reason wearied with sorrow, for they had many and varied reasons for their grief.

For this reason, he says, our sorrow is not excessive. Our afflictions are not ordinary, so our grief cannot be moderate. But since we have reached an extremity, it is inevitable that our minds should be overwhelmed with sorrow.

Since, then, the curse of God appeared everywhere, he says that this was the cause of the fainting heart. He also says, Therefore were our eyes darkened.

This is a common metaphor: that eyes grow dim from sorrow, because sorrow dulls the senses. Consequently, vision is impaired; and David especially uses this expression.

Our Prophet then says that the eyes were darkened because their grief was, as it were, deadly.