My Notes
What Does Lamentations 5:17 Mean?
"For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim." The community confesses the physical effects of sustained grief: the heart is FAINT (daveh — sick, weak, ill) and the eyes are DIM (chashkhu — darkened, grown dark). The heart and the eyes — the two organs most associated with vitality and perception — are both failing. The grief has attacked the body's most essential functions: feeling and seeing.
The phrase "our heart is faint" (hayah daveh libbenu — our heart has become sick/faint) describes an internal organ compromised by grief: the heart that should pump strongly, that should sustain life, that should maintain courage — has become sick. The heart is ILL. The grief didn't just sadden the heart. It made it physically unwell. The emotional suffering has become cardiac weakness.
The "our eyes are dim" (chashkhu eynenu — our eyes have become dark) means vision is failing: the eyes that should see clearly have grown dark — dimmed by grief, by crying, by sustained weeping. The darkness in the eyes mirrors the darkness of the situation. The external devastation has become internal blindness. What's outside (desolation) has reproduced itself inside (dim eyes).
Reflection Questions
- 1.What has made your heart faint and your eyes dim — and can you name the cause?
- 2.How does grief becoming physical (sick hearts, dim eyes) describe the body absorbing emotional trauma?
- 3.What does 'for THESE things' teach about connecting internal symptoms to external causes?
- 4.What would healing for a faint heart and dim eyes require in your situation?
Devotional
Our heart is sick. Our eyes have gone dark. The community confesses what grief has done to their bodies: the heart that should sustain life is failing. The eyes that should see are dimming. The grief hasn't stayed emotional. It's become physical. The suffering has moved from the soul into the organs.
The 'heart is faint' is grief becoming illness: the heart — the organ of courage, of resolve, of life-sustaining rhythm — has grown SICK. The faintness isn't tiredness you can sleep off. It's illness — the heart has been compromised by the weight it's been carrying. The grief that should have been emotional has become medical. The suffering has entered the body.
The 'eyes are dim' is grief becoming blindness: the eyes have cried so much, have witnessed so much devastation, have looked at so much destruction that they've gone DARK. The dimness isn't just physical (though it includes that — eyes do dim from sustained weeping). It's perceptual — the ability to SEE clearly, to perceive hope, to spot the future — has been darkened by what the eyes have been forced to look at.
The 'for this... for these things' connects the symptoms to the causes: THIS is why our hearts are sick. THESE THINGS are why our eyes are dim. The poet doesn't attribute the faintness and the dimness to weakness or failure. They attribute them to what happened. The cause is external. The effect is internal. The devastating things that happened PRODUCED the sick hearts and dim eyes.
What has made your heart faint and your eyes dim — and have you named the cause honestly?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
For this our heart is faint,.... Our spirits sink; we are ready to swoon and die away; either for this, that we have…
Is faint ... - Or, has become “faint” - have become “dim.” “For this,” i. e. for the loss of our crown etc.
Here, I. The people of God express the deep concern they had for the ruins of the temple, more than for any other of…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture