18 Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.
Think how great that weeping must be that deserves to be compared with a flood of waters. Whoever so weeps and says with the prophet Jeremiah, “let not the apple of my eye cease,” shall straightway find the words fulfilled of him: “mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.” If righteousness and truth terrify him, mercy and peace may encourage him to seek salvation.
The Savior also wept over the city of Jerusalem because its inhabitants had not repented; and Peter washed out his triple denial with bitter tears, thus fulfilling the words of the prophet: “rivers of waters run down my eyes.” Jeremiah too laments over his impenitent people, saying, “O that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for … my people!” And farther on he gives a reason for his lamentation: “do not weep for the dead,” he writes, “neither bemoan him, but weep bitterly for him that goes away, for he shall return no more.” The Jew and the Gentile therefore are not to be bemoaned, for they have never been in the church and have died once for all (it is of these that the Savior says, “Let the dead bury their dead”15); weep rather for those who by reason of their crimes and sins go away from the church and who, suffering condemnation for their faults, shall no more return to it. It is in this sense that the prophet speaks to ministers of the church, calling them its walls and towers and saying to each in turn, “O wall, let tears run down.” In this way, it is prophetically implied, you will fulfill the apostolic precept: “Rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep.” By your tears you will melt the hard hearts of sinners until they too weep. However, if they persist in evildoing they will find these words applied to them: “I … planted for you a noble vine, wholly a right seed; how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me?” He says again, “saying to a stock, you are my father; and to a stone, you have brought me forth; for they have turned their back to me, and not their face.” He means they would not turn toward God in penitence but in the hardness of their hearts turned their backs on him to insult him. Wherefore also the Lord says to Jeremiah, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She is gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree and there has played the harlot.” And I said after she had played the harlot and “had done all these things, Turn to me, but she returned not.”19How hardhearted we are, and how merciful God is! Even after our many sins, he urges us to seek salvation. Yet not even so are we willing to turn to better things.
Not every kind of shedding of tears is produced by one feeling or one virtue. For in one way does that weeping originate that is caused by the pricks of our sins striking our heart, of which we read, “I have labored in my groaning, every night I will wash my bed; I will water my couch with my tears.” And again, “Let tears run down like a torrent day and night; give yourself no rest, and do not let the apple of your eye cease.” In another, that which arises from the contemplation of eternal good things and the desire of that future glory, owing to which even richer well-springs of tears burst forth from uncontrollable delights and boundless exultation, while our soul is thirsty for the mighty living God, saying, “When shall I come and appear before the presence of God? My tears have been my meat day and night,” declaring with daily crying and lamentation, “Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged,” and, “Too long has my soul been a sojourner.”In another way do the tears flow forth, which without any conscience of deadly sin yet still proceed from the fear of hell and the recollection of that terrible judgment, with the terror of which the prophet was smitten and prayed to God, saying, “Enter not into judgment with your servant, for in your sight shall no one living be justified.” There is too another kind of tears, which are caused not by knowledge of one’s self but by the hardness and sins of others; whereby Samuel is described as having wept for Saul. Both the Lord in the Gospel and Jeremiah in former days wept for the city of Jerusalem, the latter thus saying, “O, that my head were water and my eyes a fountain of tears! And I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people.” Or also such as were those tears of which we hear in Psalm 101: “For I have eaten ashes for my bread and mingled my cup with weeping.” And these were certainly not caused by the same feeling as those that arise in Psalm 6 from the person of the penitent but were due to the anxieties of this life and its distresses and losses, by which the righteous who are living in this world are oppressed. And this is clearly shown not only by the words of the psalm itself but also by its title, which runs as follows in the character of that poor person of whom it is said in the Gospel that “blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” “A prayer of the poor when he was in distress and poured forth his prayer to God.”
From these tears those are vastly different that are squeezed out from dry eyes while the heart is hard, and although we cannot believe that these are altogether fruitless (for the attempt to shed them is made with a good intention, especially by those who have not yet been able to attain to perfect knowledge or to be thoroughly cleansed from the stains of past or present sins), yet certainly the flow of tears ought not to be thus forced out by those who have already advanced to the love of virtue, nor should the weeping of the outward person be with great labor attempted, as even if it is produced it will never attain the rich copiousness of spontaneous tears. For it will rather cast down the soul of the suppliant by his endeavors, and humiliate him, and plunge him in human affairs and draw him away from the celestial heights, wherein the awed mind of one who prays should be steadfastly fixed, and will force it to relax its hold on its prayers and grow sick from barren and forced tears.
Then also: "Cry aloud" like blaspheming the Lord. That is, against the Lord God and against the walls. As if the destruction of the city (Jerusalem) could be an occasion for blasphemy. Also, as if the Lord God was not powerful enough to defend (such walls). As Exodus: 16:8 asserts: "Your murmurings are not against us but against the Lord."
Again: "Cry aloud to the Lord! O daughter of Zion!" Namely, the Jewish people, just like one is taught to set forth their grief of heart in tearful prayer. Like Psalm 119 (118):145 declares: "With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O Lord!"
Second, one is invited to a multitude of tears. As Verse 18 continues: "Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night!" For, Jeremiah 9:1 says: "O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears."
Third, one is invited to a continuance of the struggle. As: "day and night! Give yourself no rest, your eyes no respite!" That is, both within prosperities and adversities. Or, literally, at all times in action, or habit. Since Jeremiah 14:17 states: "You:shall say to them this word: "Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease".
[AD 420] Jerome on Lamentations 2:18