For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.
Parallel translations
- WEB For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;
- BSB Because of this, our hearts are faint; because of these, our eyes grow dim—
- NKJV Because of this our heart is faint; Because of these things our eyes grow dim;
- NASB Because of this our heart is faint, Because of these things our eyes are dim;
- NLT Our hearts are sick and weary, and our eyes grow dim with tears.
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
Because of all this their hearts are faint and their eyes grow dim with sorrow. The weight of grief overwhelms them inwardly.
Overview
The poet describes a heart sickened and eyes dimmed by ceaseless weeping over Zion's ruin—the inner exhaustion that accompanies prolonged suffering. This honest expression of despair is voiced not away from God but toward Him. It models how faith can bring even its faintness to the Lord, who is near to the brokenhearted (Psalm 34:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Isa 1:5Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
- Ps 6:7Mine eye is consumed because of grief; it waxeth old because of all mine enemies.
- Job 17:7Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow, and all my members are as a shadow.
- Lam 2:11Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
- Isa 38:14Like a crane or a swallow, so did I chatter: I did mourn as a dove: mine eyes fail with looking upward: O LORD, I am oppressed; undertake for me.
- Mic 6:13Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee, in making thee desolate because of thy sins.
- Lam 1:22Let all their wickedness come before thee; and do unto them, as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions: for my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.
- Deut 28:65And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:
- Ezek 21:15I have set the point of the sword against all their gates, that their heart may faint, and their ruins be multiplied: ah! it is made bright, it is wrapped up for the slaughter.
- Lev 26:36And upon them that are left alive of you I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall fall when none pursueth.
- Ps 31:9Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.
- Ezek 21:7And it shall be, when they say unto thee, Wherefore sighest thou? that thou shalt answer, For the tidings; because it cometh: and every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water: behold, it cometh, and shall be brought to pass, saith the Lord GOD.
- Ps 69:3I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
- Jer 8:18When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
- Lam 1:13From above hath he sent fire into my bones, and it prevaileth against them: he hath spread a net for my feet, he hath turned me back: he hath made me desolate and faint all the day.
- Jer 46:5Wherefore have I seen them dismayed and turned away back? and their mighty ones are beaten down, and are fled apace, and look not back: for fear was round about, saith the LORD.
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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 5:17 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
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