Lamentations 2:11

11 Mine eyes failed for tears, mine entrails were troubled; my maw was shed out in [the] earth upon the sorrow of the daughter of my people (my bile was poured out on the ground over the sorrow of the daughter of my people); when a little child and [the] sucking (one) failed in the streets of the city.

Lamentations 2:11 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 2:11

Mine eyes do fail with tears
According to Aben Ezra, everyone of the elders before mentioned said this; but rather they are the words of the Prophet Jeremiah, who had wept his eyes dry, or rather blind, on account of the calamities of his people; though he himself obtained liberty and enlargement by means thereof: my bowels are troubled;
all his inward parts were distressed: my liver is poured upon the earth;
his gall bladder, which lay at the bottom of his liver, broke, and he cast it up, and poured it on the earth; see ( Job 16:13 ) ; and all this was for the destruction of the daughter of my people;
or, the "breach" of them ^F20; their civil and church state being destroyed and broke to shivers; and for the ruin of the several families of them: particularly because the children and sucklings swoon in the streets of the city;
through famine, for want of bread, with those that could eat it; and for want of the milk of their mothers and nurses, who being starved themselves could not give it; and hence the poor infants fainted and swooned away; which was a dismal sight, and heart melting to the prophet.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 (rbv le) "propter contritionem", Pagninus, Montanus, Junius & Tremellius; "propter confractionem", Piscator; "propter fractionem", Cocceius.

Lamentations 2:11 In-Context

9 The gates thereof be pitched in the earth, he lost and all-brake the bars thereof; the king thereof and the princes thereof (be) among heathen men; the law is not, and the prophets thereof found not of the Lord a vision, either revelation. (Its gates be thrown onto the ground, he destroyed and broke up all its bars, or all its locks; its king and its leaders be put among the heathen; the Law is not, and its prophets cannot find a vision, that is, a revelation, from the Lord.)

10 They sat in [the] earth, the eld men of the daughter of Zion were still; they besprinkled their heads with ashes, the elder men of Judah be girt with hair-shirts; the virgins of Judah casted down to the earth their heads. (They sat on the ground, the old men of the daughter of Zion were silent; they sprinkled their heads with ashes, the elders of Judah be girded with hair-shirts; the virgins of Judah cast down their heads to the ground.)

11 Mine eyes failed for tears, mine entrails were troubled; my maw was shed out in [the] earth upon the sorrow of the daughter of my people (my bile was poured out on the ground over the sorrow of the daughter of my people); when a little child and [the] sucking (one) failed in the streets of the city.

12 They said to their mothers, Where is wheat, and wine? when they failed as wounded men in the streets of the city (They asked their mothers, Where is some corn, and some wine? then they died, wounded in the streets of the city); yea, when they sent out their souls in(to) the bosom of their mothers.

13 To whom shall I comparison thee? either to whom shall I liken thee, thou daughter of Jerusalem? to whom shall I make thee even, and shall I comfort thee, thou virgin, the daughter of Zion? for why thy sorrow is (as) great as the sea; who shall do medicine to thee? (To whom shall I compare thee? or to whom shall I liken thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? to whom shall I make thee equal, so that I can comfort thee, O virgin, the daughter of Zion? for thy sorrow is as great as the sea; who shall give medicine to thee?)