Lamentations 5:17 describes the physical and emotional toll of grief: the writer’s heart feels weak and faint, and their eyes have grown dim from crying and sorrow. The verse is part of a community’s lament over the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple, traditionally attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, who speaks on behalf of the people who survived the Babylonian invasion in the sixth century BC.
For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim.
Lamentations 5:17 (WEB)
What Lamentations 5:17 Means
The verse opens with “For this our heart is faint.” The Hebrew idea of the heart goes beyond feelings to the whole inner life, including thought, will and courage. To say the heart is faint is to say the people have run out of strength to keep going. It names exhaustion that is more than tiredness.
The second line, “For these things our eyes are dim,” moves from the inner person to the outer. Weeping for days can blur sight, and the image also suggests a loss of clear vision, so that the future and even God’s purposes are hard to see. Notice the word “our.” The writer speaks for a whole community, not a single private sorrow.
The verse does not promise that the sadness will lift in this moment, and it does not explain the suffering away. It simply records what grief does to a person. Its honesty is part of its value: the Bible includes a poem like this so that God’s people can say plainly that they are worn out.
The Context of Lamentations 5:17
Lamentations is a collection of five poems mourning the fall of Jerusalem, when the city was besieged and its temple destroyed. Most of the book is written in a sorrowful style, and some chapters are arranged as acrostic poems, following the Hebrew alphabet. The audience is the grieving remnant of Judah, people who have lost home, worship and leadership.
Just before verse 17, verses 15 and 16 describe joy turned to mourning and the crown fallen from the head, with the confession “we have sinned.” Verse 17 follows that admission and shows grief moving from the public loss into personal weariness. Just after it, verses 18 and 19 turn to the desolate mountain of Zion and then to the eternal reign of the LORD, and verse 20 ends with a direct question to God. Read this way, verse 17 is a pause in the middle of a prayer, not a final word.
Key Phrases in Lamentations 5:17
Psalm 34:18
The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit.
(WEB)
This psalm assures the reader that the LORD draws near to the brokenhearted, which speaks to the fainting heart described in Lamentations 5:17. Both passages refuse to hide sorrow and locate God’s closeness within it.
Psalm 42:5
Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.
(WEB)
The psalmist speaks to his own downcast soul and urges it toward hope in God. Reading it alongside Lamentations 5:17 shows how lament can move from describing weakness to turning toward God.
A Short Prayer From Lamentations 5:17
Lord, my heart feels faint and my eyes are dim with tears and tiredness. I do not have the strength I need today, and I cannot see clearly where this road is going. I bring that weakness to you without pretending it is not there. Hold me in the places I cannot hold myself, and help me trust that you remain faithful even when I cannot see your hand. Give me enough strength for the next step, and enough honesty to keep speaking to you. Amen.
