What Does Lamentations 5:17 Mean?
For this our heart has gone faint; for these our eyes have gone dark.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.THE KEY
Grief is a darkness that drains the heart and dims how the world is seen.
THE MEANING
Grief is not only an inward ache: the heart is sickened and languishing while the eyes darken. Sorrow reaches into the body’s capacity to perceive, and its dimness is named without being dismissed.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The verse undoes the idea that grief stays hidden inside; sorrow can darken perception itself.
THE ROOT
חָשְׁכוּ
ḥāškû
GROWS FROM
חשך
To grow dark or become obscure.
“dark” in this verse is ḥāškû. The Hebrew says the eyes have darkened, giving the phrase more force than ordinary tiredness. The same root names darkness itself, so the verse lets grief reach the light by which the world is seen.
ALSO GROWS
ḥoshekh: Darkness
חֹשֶׁךְ
This noun from the same root shows that the eyes’ dimming carries the language of darkness.
heḥshikh: To darken or make obscure
הֶחְשִׁיךְ
This verbal form makes the change active: what is seen grows dark.
דָּוֶה
dāveh
GROWS FROM
דוה
To be sick, faint, or languishing.
“gone faint” in this verse is dāveh. The heart is described with language of sickness and languishing, not merely low energy. Its weakness belongs to the same grief that darkens the eyes: sorrow reaches both the body’s inward strength and outward perception.
ALSO GROWS
dāwâ: To be sick or faint
דָּוָה
The verb form shows the heart’s faintness as a condition the body undergoes.
dawway: Sickly or faint
דַּוַּי
This related form is used for a faint heart, echoing how grief weakens the heart here.
THE PATTERN
Grief reaches the body and alters perception, showing itself in weakened strength, dim eyes, and tears.
My eye grows dim from grief, and all my limbs are a shadow.Bend toward me, O LORD, for I am in a narrow place; my eye wastes away in grief, my living soul and my belly.Jesus wept.THE THREAD
My eye grows dim with vexation; it wears out because of all who press me.Both verses use עַיִן (ʿayin, eye) for the eye grief changes: here it darkens, and there it is consumed by grief. The shared word makes sorrow’s reach into perception unmistakable.
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