Lamentations 1:16
For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed. For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water, because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me: my children are desolate, because the enemy prevailed.
Lamentations 1:16 belongs to Israel's funeral song, sung in a strange land after the nation's former glory had ended, expressing the sorrow and desolation of a people whose enemy had prevailed. Jeremiah is the speaker, weeping and mourning with profound grief over Jerusalem's desolation, suffering, and defeat after the enemy prevailed. His weeping is the profound grief of Jerusalem's people over their suffering and desolation.
The grief is intensified because the comforter that should relieve is far away, leaving no comfort, while the children are left desolate. The soul that needs comfort and relief is the person as the seat of sorrow and emotional distress, the self in need. The desolation was brought by sin and the enemy's victory, and Jeremiah's weeping exemplifies serious sorrow for his people's suffering and spiritual loss.
The weeping shows a haughty people humbled so they will welcome the Word. After grievously rebelling and departing from the living God, darkness covered them, strength was made to fail, mighty men were trodden down, young men were crushed by a called assembly, and they were delivered into hands from which there is no rising up. Then the nation mourns with flowing eyes and confesses distress and vileness so that the Lord may arise upon it and Gentiles come to its light, because its relieving comforter is distant and its offspring are left desolate by a prevailing enemy.