Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

LAMENTATIONS 2:11KJV
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Lamentations 2:11 (KJV)

What does Lamentations 2:11 mean?

Lamentations 2:11 describes the deep grief and overwhelming sorrow of the speaker, who is witnessing the destruction of Jerusalem and the suffering of its people, especially the children. The verse uses vivid language to show how the pain is so intense that it affects the speaker physically and emotionally.

The prophet Jeremiah is speaking here, expressing his heartbreak over the devastation that has come upon Jerusalem after the Babylonian invasion. He describes his eyes failing from weeping, his inner being (bowels and liver) being in turmoil, and the agony he feels as he sees even infants and young children fainting in the city streets due to the calamity.

The Hebrew behind Lamentations 2:11

  • "Bowels" (מֵעֶה, me‘eh) and "liver" (כָּבֵד, kaved) are ancient Hebrew ways of describing the deepest seat of emotion and distress, not just physical organs. Their mention shows that Jeremiah’s grief is total, affecting him at the core of his being.
  • "Fail" (כָּלָה, kalah) means to be spent or exhausted. Here, it emphasizes that Jeremiah’s tears and sorrow have reached their absolute limit.
  • "Swoon" (עָטַף, ‘ataf) is often understood as fainting or collapsing from weakness, showing the desperate state of the children in the ruined city.

Why Lamentations 2:11 matters

  • This verse clears up that the suffering in Jerusalem was not just physical destruction but included deep emotional and communal pain, especially for the most vulnerable.
  • The strong imagery of bodily organs highlights how grief in ancient Israelite culture was understood as something that could overwhelm a person completely, not just mentally but physically.
  • Lamentations 2:11 connects to the wider passage by showing the personal cost of national tragedy, making the suffering of Jerusalem’s people vivid and unforgettable for the reader.

Where else these words appear

“troubled” Hebrew H2560 · used in 6 verses

  • Exodus 2:3 And when she could not longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid it in the flags by the river's brink.
  • Job 16:16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;
  • Psalms 75:8 For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them.

“liver” Hebrew H3516 · used in 14 verses

  • Exodus 29:13 And thou shalt take all the fat that covereth the inwards, and the caul that is above the liver, and the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, and burn them upon the altar.
  • Leviticus 3:15 And the two kidneys, and the fat that is upon them, which is by the flanks, and the caul above the liver, with the kidneys, it shall he take away.
  • Leviticus 8:25 And he took the fat, and the rump, and all the fat that was upon the inwards, and the caul above the liver, and the two kidneys, and their fat, and the right shoulder:

“swoon” Hebrew H5848 · used in 15 verses

  • Genesis 30:42 But when the cattle were feeble, he put them not in: so the feebler were Laban's, and the stronger Jacob's.
  • Psalms 73:6 Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.
  • Psalms 143:4 Therefore is my spirit overwhelmed within me; my heart within me is desolate.

“children” Hebrew H5768 · used in 20 verses

  • 1 Samuel 15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.
  • Psalms 137:9 Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
  • Lamentations 2:19 Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.