Psalms 6:7

6:7 My eyes ¹  grow dim ²  from suffering;

they grow weak ³  because of all my enemies. ⁴ 

Psalms 88:9

88:9 My eyes grow weak because of oppression.

I call out to you, O Lord, all day long;

I spread out my hands in prayer to you. ⁵ 

Job 17:7

17:7 My eyes have grown dim ⁶  with grief;

my whole frame ⁷  is but a shadow.

Lamentations 4:17

The People of Jerusalem Lament:

ע (Ayin)

4:17 Our eyes continually failed us

as we looked in vain for help. ⁸ 

From our watchtowers we watched

for a nation that could not rescue us.

Lamentations 5:17

5:17 Because of this, our hearts are sick; ⁹ 

because of these things, we can hardly see ¹⁰  through our tears. ¹¹ 

[6:7]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text has the singular “eye” here.

[6:7]  ² tn Or perhaps, “are swollen.”

[6:7]  ³ tn Or perhaps, “grow old.”

[6:7]  ⁴ sn In his weakened condition the psalmist is vulnerable to the taunts and threats of his enemies.

[88:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “I spread out my hands to you.” Spreading out the hands toward God was a prayer gesture (see Exod 9:29, 33; 1 Kgs 8:22, 38; 2 Chr 6:12-13, 29; Ezra 9:15; Job 11:13; Isa 1:15). The words “in prayer” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this.

[17:7]  ⁶ tn See the usage of this verb in Gen 27:1 and Deut 34:7. Usually it is age that causes the failing eyesight, but here it is the grief.

[17:7]  ⁷ tn The word יְצֻרִים (yÿtsurim), here with a suffix, occurs only here in the Bible. The word is related to יָצַר (yatsar, “to form, fashion”). And so Targum Job has “my forms,” and the Vulgate “my members.” The Syriac uses “thoughts” to reflect יֵצֶר (yetser). Some have followed this to interpret, “all my thoughts have dissolved into shadows.” But the parallel with “eye” would suggest “form.” The plural “my forms, all of them” would refer to the whole body.

[4:17]  ⁸ tn Heb “Our eyes failed in vain for help.”

[5:17]  ⁹ tn Heb “are faint” or “are sick.” The adjective דַּוָּי (davvay, “faint”) is used in reference to emotional sorrow (e.g., Isa 1:5; Lam 1:22; Jer 8:18). The related adjective דָּוֶה (daveh) means “(physically) sick” and “(emotionally) sad,” while the related verb דָּוָה (davah) means “to be sad.” The cognate Aramaic term means “sorrow,” and the cognate Syriac term refers to “misery.”

[5:17]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “our eyes are dim.” The physical description of losing sight is metaphorical, perhaps for being blinded by tears or more abstractly for being unable to see (= envision) any hope. The collocation “darkened eyes” is too rare to clarify the nuance.

[5:17]  ¹¹ tn The phrase “through our tears” is added in the translation for the sake of clarification.