Shall cause their voice to be heard; with greatest cries they shall make the country echo forth their sorrows.
Against thee; either standing on higher ground over against the shipwrecked city; or rather,
for thee, those Eastern people did use to lift up their voice in mourning, Job_2:12Jer_31:15Lam_2:18,19 Zec 11:3.
Shall cry bitterly; their weeping shall be from a deep sense of the misery of their friends. and this expressed by bitter cries; so such sorrow is expressed, Zep_1:14Isa_22:4 33:7.
Shall cast up dust upon their heads; another expression of great distress and sorrow, proper to those countries, Jos_7:6Job_2:12Lam_2:10Jer_6:26.
Wallow themselves in the ashes; which they used to do in their greatest mourning, as Mic_1:10Jer_6:26. As every country hath its peculiar manners and customs in mourning, so had these customs that expressed most vehement sorrows in gestures which we are not accustomed to.