Lecture 11

^2:11^ Caph. My eyes have failed with weeping, my bowels are troubled: my liver is poured out upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people, when the children and the sucklings fainted away in the streets of the city.

33. Here he weeps over those who are miserable because of their lack of years.

And first, he touches upon their death;

second, the course of their death, at they said to their mothers (Lam 2:12).

Concerning the first, he does two things.

First, he shows his compassion by his shedding of tears: my eyes have failed, as if they could not cry anymore. Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? (Jer 9:1). By the turbulence of his innards: my bowels are troubled, as if to say, “I suffer so much, it is like the pain of turbulent innards,” or because the pain penetrated even to the bottom of his heart. Therefore are my bowels troubled for him (Jer 31:20). As regards the pouring out of the liver: my liver is poured out upon the earth: that is, I suffer as if it had been poured out, or because my love, whose seat is in the liver, has been thrown to the ground, laying prostrate with those whom I love. I will rend the inner parts of their liver (Hos 13:8).

Second, he shows the mercy of his compassion: for the destruction of the city, that is, of Jerusalem, because she was made vile, or of any other. And with you I will break in pieces the old man and the child, the young man and the virgin (Jer 51:22).