Jeremiah 9:18
And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
Jeremiah 9:18 belongs to the prophet's lament over Israel's desperate condition of sin and the people's failure to respond to God's messages. It expresses deep grief caused by the people's transgression and by the judgments announced against them. It urgently calls for mourners to come quickly and take up a wailing until eyes run down with tears and eyelids gush with waters. The mourners called are the mourning women, urged to hurry and wail so deeply that tears pour freely from their eyes.
The verse draws on the ancient practice of the howling women of ancient days, whose loud grief is invoked as a comparison for lamenting over distress. Its image of mourners being summoned shows the incongruity of hiring people to mourn, just as paying people to appear religious makes religion a pretense.