John Gill Commentary Lamentations 5:17

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

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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