Lamentations 2:11

“Mine eyes do fail with tears, etc.] 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 <181613>Job 16:13); and all this was for the destruction of the daughter of my people; or, the “breach” of them f43 ; their civil and church state being destroyed…”

“liver is poured, &c.--that is, as the liver was thought to be the seat of the passions, "all my feelings are poured out and prostrated for," &c. The "liver," is here put for the bile ("gall," Job 16:13; "bowels," Psa 22:14) in a bladder on the surface of the liver, copiously discharged when the passions are agitated. swoon--through faintness from the effects of hunger.”

“Troubled - See the margin reference note. Liver - As the heart was regarded by the Jews as the seat of the intellect, so the liver (or bowels) was supposed to be the seat of the emotions. The pouring out of the liver upon the ground meant that feelings had entirely given way under the acuteness of sorrow, and he could no longer restrain them. return to 'Top of Page'”

“Mine eyes - This whole verse is but expressive of the prophets great affliction for the miseries come upon the Jews. He wept himself almost blind. Bowels - His passion had disturbed his bodily humours, that his bowels were troubled. Liver - His gall lying under his liver. All these are expressions of great affliction and sorrow. Swoon - During the famine, occasioned by the long siege. Lamentations 2:12”

“eyes: Lam 1:16, Lam 3:48-51; Sa1 30:4; Psa 6:7, Psa 31:9, Psa 69:3; Isa 38:14 my bowels: Lam 1:20; Jer 4:19 my liver: Job 16:13; Psa 22:14 for: Lam 4:10; Isa 22:4; Jer 8:19-22, Jer 9:1, Jer 14:17 because: Lam 2:19, Lam 2:20, Lam 4:3, Lam 4:4, Lam 4:9, Lam 4:10; Luk 23:29 swoon: or, faint Lamentations 2:12”

“The impotence of human comfort, and the mockery of enemies. Lam 2:11. The misery that has befallen the people is so fearful, that sorrow over it wears out one's life. "Mine eyes pine away because of tears," is the complaint of the prophet, not merely for himself personally, but in the name of all the godly ones. "Mine eyes pine" is the expression used in Psa 69:4. On חמרמרוּ מעי, cf. Lam 1:20. The expression, "my liver is poured out on the earth," occurs nowhere else, and is variously explained. That the liver is fons sanguinis, and thus the seat of the animal life (Rosenmller, Thenius), cannot be made out from Pro 7:23. This passage rather forms a proof that among the Hebrews, according to…”