The People Are Called On To Seek YHWH, And They Face Up To The Situation That They Are In Whilst The Prophet Himself Continues To Plead For Them (Lamentations 3:40-51).
The prophet now calls on the people to examine themselves and to seek YHWH and pray sincerely to Him from the heart, not just by lifting up their hands formally. They are to recognise and acknowledge why He does not hear them. It is because they have rebelled and transgressed against Him. They are also to recognise their present position, that He pursues them, slaying and covering His ears against their cries, while He makes them like refuse among the peoples. This then brings the prophet himself to tears, as he prays on behalf of his people, contemplating their destruction. He is determined to go on praying without stopping until YHWH looks down from Heaven and sees the situation.
(Nun) Let us search and try our ways,
And turn again to YHWH.
(Nun) Let us lift up our heart with our hands,
To God in the heavens.
(Nun) (saying) ‘We have transgressed and have rebelled,
You have not pardoned.'
The prophet calls on the people to seek YHWH, firstly by searching out and putting to the test their own ways, that is by self-examination, and then by turning to YHWH and lifting up not only their hands, but also their hearts to God in the heaven, in other words engaging in genuine and not just formal prayer. They were to admit that they had rebelled and transgressed against Him, and that He had not pardoned them. They were being required to face up to the reality of what they had done. Their hope must be that in spite of the fact that they had transgressed and rebelled God would hear them.
But as we learn from what follows in their view He did not immediately hear. He did not pardon. Their punishment went on. They were acknowledging that He had reached the limits of His patience.
(Samek) You have covered with anger and pursued us,
You have slain, you have not pitied.
(Samek) You have covered yourself with a cloud,
So that no prayer can pass through.
(Samek) You have made us an off-scouring and refuse,
Among the peoples.
They cried out that YHWH had put on anger as a garment and had pursued them, slaying without pity. That He had covered Himself with a cloud so that no prayer could pass through. That He was deaf to their pleas. And that He had made them like dirt and refuse among the peoples. His chastening was severe so that they would learn their lesson.
We can view this either as a cry of despair, or as an admission that they were getting what they deserved. Either way the people were facing up to the realities of their situation. Being honest with God is very often necessary before we can begin to have a new hope.
(Pe) All our enemies have opened their mouth,
Wide against us.
(Pe) Fear and the pit are come upon us,
Devastation and destruction.
(Pe) My eye runs down with streams of water,
For the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Their prayer continues as they continue to face up to the facts about their situation. The opening lines are an acknowledgement that what had been said in Lamentations 2:16 was true. Their enemies were ‘opening their mouths against them', scornfully pointing to what had happened to them, and sneering at them. They also acknowledge why that is. It is because they have been overcome by ‘terror and trap' (in the Hebrew the phrase is alliterative, pachad wa pachath), by ‘devastation and destruction' (hasseth we hassaber). They are experiencing fear, and what it was like to be a trapped animal. They are experiencing total devastation.
The very thought of this destruction of his people causes the prophet to weep, and his eyes run down like streams of water.
(Ayin) My eye pours down, and ceases not,
Without any intermission,
(Ayin) Till YHWH look down,
And behold from heaven.
(Ayin) My eye affects my soul,
Because of all the daughters of my city.
And he declares that they will continue to do so, without any cessation, until YHWH looks down from Heaven and beholds their situation. And it is not only his eye that weeps. His weeping affects him deep inside as he thinks of what has happened to ‘the daughters of my city'. This last almost certainly refers to the women of Jerusalem who would receive cavalier treatment from the invaders both before and after the fall of Jerusalem, especially the young virgins who would have suffered the most. Consider Lamentations 1:4; Lamentations 1:18 and Lamentations 2:20-21, where the sad fate and wretched conditions of the virgins of the city are mentioned as peculiarly deplorable, and Lamentations 5:11 where it was defenceless virgins who were most to be pitied when the city fell. Some, however, refer it to the satellite cities, towns and villages connected with Jerusalem.
‘My eye affects my soul.' Literally ‘my eye inflicts an injury on my inner life', in context referring to the pain he feels as he contemplates the situation. Notice the connection between this and YHWH looking down from Heaven. He is hoping that YHWH will be similarly affected.