Tears

Boyd’s Bible Dictionary:

Allusion is supposed, by some, to be made to a custom of preserving the tears of mourners in a bottle and placing it in the sepulcher
(Psa. 56:88Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book? (Psalm 56:8)). Others regard the words as a bold metaphor, expressive of David’s wish that God would keep in memory his many penitential tears, as the traveler stores his water, milk, or wine in leather bottles for a journey.

From Manners and Customs of the Bible:

Reference is usually thought to be made here to the lachrymatories or tear-bottles which have been found in ancient tombs, and which are supposed to have been used for the purpose of receiving the tears of mourning relatives and friends at the time of burial. These tear-bottles are made of various materials, such as glass and earthenware, and are of different shapes. The most of them are broad at the bottom, with long slender necks and funnel-shaped mouths. Morier says that in Persia, “in some of their mournful assemblies, it is the custom for a priest to go about to each person, at the height of his grief, with a piece of cotton in his hand, with which he carefully collects the falling tears, and which he then squeezes into a bottle, preserving them with the greatest caution.” “Some Persians believe that, in the agony of death, when all medicines have failed, a drop of tears so collected put into the mouth of a dying man has been known to revive him; and it is for such use that they are collected” (Second Journey Through Persia, p. 179).
Some commentators, however, deny that there is any reference in this text to the ancient lachrymatories, or that there is any evidence of their use among the Hebrews. Such affirm that the allusion here is to the custom of putting into bags, or small leathern bottles, articles of value for safe keeping. See note on Luke 12:3333Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. (Luke 12:33) (#774). The idea would then be, “Treasure up these tears as something of great value.”

Related Books and Articles:

438. Bottled Tears