John Gill Bible Commentary

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 Isa 40:12 and seems to design a large one, and so our version interprets it; compare with this Isa 30:20. (n) "----lachrymisque suis jejunia pavit", Ovid. Metamorph. l. 4. Fab. 6.