First it is stated that she weeps for these things,
which sums up what is described by the personified Jerusalem in Lamentations 1:12–15. The calamities of the past with their ongoing consequences makes her a plaintive figure.
In the rest of the verse the reason for her weeping is elaborated on in the form of repeated statements in previous verses, especially Lamentations 1:1–3. Again, the issue of the lack of a comforter is raised. It is not that there is no comforter, but he is far; rather she has no one to share her burden (see also Lamentations 1:2, Lamentations 1:9, Lamentations 1:17, Lamentations 1:21). Even God has left her in her misery. The expression far from me
or a variation of it is also used in other passages to indicate the felt absence of the Lord (see Psalm 10:2; Psalm 22:1, Psalm 22:11, Psalm 22:19; Psalm 35:22; Psalm 38:21; Psalm 71:12). In her weeping she acknowledges that there is no one to revive her life. Probably it refers to God as the only One who can do so, but He has become unavailable.1
Another cause for weeping is that my children are desolate.
The children of personified Jerusalem may be understood as the inhabitants of the city and the other towns and villages in Judah that are politically and economically connected to Jerusalem.2 Instead of divine deliverance, Jerusalem received abandonment and cruelty. Her mighty men… young men…[and] virgin daughter
(Lamentations 1:15) are as desolate as Zion’s gates (Lamentations 1:4). Jerusalem’s assessment of herself is as bleak as that of the narrator in Lamentations 1:1–11.3
16 “For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears; for a comforter is far from me, one to revive my spirit; my children are desolate, for the enemy has prevailed.”