Lamentations 5:17

“For this our heart is faint, etc.] 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” f145 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.”

“(Lam 1:22; Lam 2:11).”

“Is faint ... - Or, has become “faint” - have become “dim.” “For this,” i. e. for the loss of our crown etc. return to 'Top of Page'”

“our heart: Lam 1:13, Lam 1:22; Lev 26:36; Isa 1:5; Jer 8:18, Jer 46:5; Eze 21:7, Eze 21:15; Mic 6:13 our eyes: Lam 2:11; Deu 28:65; Job 17:7; Psa 6:7, Psa 31:9, Psa 69:3; Isa 38:14 Lamentations 5:18”

“The request that the judgment of wrath may be averted, and that the former gracious condition may be restored. Lam 5:17 and Lam 5:18 form the transition to the request in Lam 5:19-22. "Because of this" and "because of these \[things\]" refer mainly to what precedes, yet not in such a way as that the former must be referred to the fact that sin has been committed, and the latter to the suffering. The two halves of the verse are unmistakeably parallel; the sickening of the heart is essentially similar to the dimness coming on the eyes, the former indicating the sorrow of the soul, while the latter is the expression of this sorrow in tears. "Because of this (viz., because of the misery hitherto…”