My eyes overflow with rivers of water For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Parallel translations
- WEB My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- KJV Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- BSB Streams of tears flow from my eyes over the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- NASB My eyes run down with streams of water Because of the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- NLT Tears stream from my eyes because of the destruction of my people!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The poet weeps streams of tears over the destruction of his people.
Overview
The prophet's tears flow ceaselessly at the ruin of 'the daughter of my people.' His grief models compassionate solidarity with the suffering rather than detached observation. This weeping prophet prefigures Christ, who wept over Jerusalem and entered fully into the sorrows of His people (Luke 19:41; John 11:35).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Jer 9:1Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
- Jer 9:18Let 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.
- Lam 2:11My eyes fail with tears, my heart is troubled; My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.
- Ps 119:136Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don’t observe your law. TZADI
- Lam 1:16“For these things I weep. My eye, my eye runs down with water, because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me. My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.”
- Jer 13:17But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride; and my eye shall weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because Yahweh’s flock is taken captive.
- Jer 4:19My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can’t hold my peace; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
- Rom 9:1–3I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit,
- Lam 2:18Their heart cried to the Lord: wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; Give yourself no respite; don’t let the apple of your eye cease.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 3:48 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.