In this stanza verses 49 and 51 have my eyes, and verse 50 has the LORD … sees.

The thought of verse 49 is parallel in meaning and partly parallel in form to the first half of verse 48. My eyes is singular in the Hebrew, “my eye,” but this need not be followed literally. Good News Translation switches to “my tears.”

The word which Revised Standard Version translates without in the second half of verse 49 usually means “for lack of,” so New English Bible alters it to a verb meaning “refuse”: “and refuse all comfort.” But here the word is better taken as an emphatic form of the negative, “without stopping,” and no change in the text is necessary.

Good News Translation “ceaseless stream” is equivalent to the double expression in Revised Standard Version without ceasing, without respite, which follows the Hebrew formally. The Hebrew for respite not only means rest from distress but includes the idea of numbness as part of the relief from feeling pain or distress.

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 .