My eye affects my heart because of all the daughters of my city.
Read Chapter 3
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Wasted. Literally, "robbed. "(Haydock)
I have felt more for my people than they have themselves. Moral writers often produce this text, to show the dangers of an unguarded glance (Calmet) at women.
The compassion of the prophet is here exposed. First is the exterior lamentation: "My eyes will flow without ceasing, without respite." Namely, crying: "without ceasing,": from tears: "without respite": from tribulation for the people. For Jeremiah 9:18-19 asserts: "And our eyelids gush with water. For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion."
There is then a final lamentation: "Until the Lord of heaven looks down and sees." Namely, with his eyes of divine mercy. Since Psalm 102 (101):l9 says: "That he looked down from his holy height, from heaven the Lord looked at the earth."
Second is the compassion of the prophet, due to the sting from interior grief: "My eyes cause me grief at the fate of all the maidens of my city." That is: "my eyes," seeing the depredation upon the earth,"cause me grief". That is, spoiling the earth from delight. Or, lamenting exteriorily, the prophet gives himself up to a total grief within his own heart.
