Thou feedest them with the bread of tears - literally, "Thou causest them to eat the bread of tears," or of weeping. That is, their food was accompanied with tears; even when they ate, they wept. Their tears seemed to moisten their bread, they flowed so copiously. See the notes at Psalm 42:3.

And givest them tears to drink - So abundant were their tears that they might constitute their very drink.

In great measure - Or rather by measure; that is, abundantly. The word here rendered "great measure" - שׁלישׁ shâlı̂ysh - means properly a third, and is usually applied to a measure for grain - a third part of another measure - as, the third part of an ephah. See the notes at Isaiah 40:12. Then the word is used for any measure, perhaps because this was the most common measure in use. The idea seems to be, not so much that God gave tears to them in great measure, but that he measured them out to them, as one measures drink to others; that is, the cup, or cask, or bottle in which their drink was served to them was as if filled with tears only.

Thou feedest them with the bread of tears - They have no peace, no comfort, nothing but continual sorrow.

In great measure - שליש shalish, threefold. Some think it was a certain measure used by the Chaldeans, the real capacity of which is not known. others think it signifies abundance or abundantly.

Thou feedest them with the bread of tears,.... With tears instead of bread, having none to eat; or their bread is mingled with their tears, "dipped" therein, as the Targum; such was their constant grief, and the occasion of it, that they could not cease from tears while they were eating their meals, and so ate them with them (n):

and givest them tears to drink in great measure; or the wine of tears "three fold", as the Targum. Jarchi interprets it of the captivity of Babylon, which was the third part of the two hundred and ten years of Israel's being in Egypt; which exposition, he says, he learned from R. Moses Hadarsan; but he observes, that some interpret it of the kingdom of Grecia, which was the third distress: and so Kimchi and Arama explain it of the third captivity; but Menachem, as Jarchi says, takes "shalish" to be the name of a drinking vessel, and so does Aben Ezra; the same it may be which the Latins call a "triental", the third part of a pint; unless the Hebrew measure, the "seah", which was the third part of an "ephah", is meant; it is translated a "measure" in Isaiah 40:12 and seems to design a large one, and so our version interprets it; compare with this Isaiah 30:20.

(n) "----lachrymisque suis jejunia pavit", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 4. Fab. 6.

Thou feedest them with the bread of tears; and givest them tears to drink in great measure.

5. bread of tears-still an Eastern figure for affliction.

80:1-7 He that dwelleth upon the mercy-seat, is the good Shepherd of his people. But we can neither expect the comfort of his love, nor the protection of his arm, unless we partake of his converting grace. If he is really angry at the prayers of his people, it is because, although they pray, their ends are not right, or there is some secret sin indulged in them, or he will try their patience and perseverance in prayer. When God is displeased with his people, we must expect to see them in tears, and their enemies in triumph. There is no salvation but from God's favour; there is no conversion to God but by his own grace.