Whether we accept the textual adjustment of Revised Standard Version or take the Hebrew form, the word Cry in the first half-line is matched in the first half-line of the next unit by a particular and picturable form of crying (tears stream down like a torrent). The first half-line of the third unit is a general command to continue without rest, and so has a continuity of thought with day and night in the previous half-line. The final half-line returns to the thought of crying, and thus all three units share a common theme.
In Cry aloud to the Lord, Revised Standard Version has changed the Hebrew, which says “Their heart cried to the Lord.” It is not at all clear to whom “Their” refers. It can hardly refer to Jerusalem’s enemies. Possibly it can refer to the people of Jerusalem rather than to the figure daughter of Zion. Many translations, however, like Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, modify the Hebrew to express an imperative, which is then parallel to the commands in the middle and final units of the verse. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project gives the Hebrew text an “A” rating and recommends “Their hearts cried out,” which is better expressed by New International Version “The hearts of the people cry out to the Lord.”
Another problem occurs in O daughter of Zion, which in Hebrew is “O wall of daughter Zion.” Revised Standard Version and others modify the Hebrew by deleting the word for “wall.” However, this should not be done merely on the basis that a wall is asked to cry out to the Lord. In poetic discourse, to regard objects as if they were persons is common. See, for example, “The roads to Zion mourn” and “her gates are desolate” in 1.4; and Isaiah 14.31, “Wail, O gate; cry, O city; melt in fear….” Good News Translation keeps the walls: “O Jerusalem, let your very walls cry out to the Lord!” This is a possibility that translators may wish to follow. Some translations link O daughter of Zion to the command Let tears stream down …, and so New International Version says “O wall of the daughter of Zion let your tears flow….” The Handbook recommends that “wall” be retained, as in Good News Translation, and that Cry be expressed as a command, as in Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation.
If translators base their translation on Good News Translation, in this case it will often be necessary to make some adjustments, since the resulting figure may not be natural. For example, “Jerusalem, let your walls cry to the Lord, as people cry when in grief,” or “… let your walls mourn as people mourn for their dead.”
The second command (the first in Hebrew) is Let tears stream down like a torrent day and night. This simile is a call to Jerusalem to cry, weep, show sorrow for her sins, and is parallel in meaning to the first unit. In some languages it may be necessary to say, for example, “Weep until tears flow like rivers from your eyes day and night (or, all the time).”
Give yourself no rest repeats the thought of day and night. Your eyes translates “the daughter of your eye.” This expression is used in Psalm 17.8 and Zechariah 2.8, “apple of the eye,” and has the meaning “pupil of the eye.” This is a case of the figure of speech in which a part of the eye represents the whole eye, and so the sense is “Don’t let your eyes stop crying,” or more naturally, “Keep the tears flowing from your eyes,” or “Keep crying all the time.”
Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .