My eyes do fail with tears, my soul is troubled, my heart is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the infants faint in the streets of the city.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 2:11 Go To Lamentations 2
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
Here, miserable persons, due to defect of age, are mourned. First is indicated the death of such persons, second, the order of their death. As verse 12 says: "They cry to their mothers, 'Where is bread and wine?" And as Jeremiah 9:1 expresses it: "O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears." Namely, from a commotion of vital parts, around the heart.
Then: "my heart is poured out in grief," As if, only I grieve, like the heart's commotion within grief. Or, as if one arrives to the very intimacies of the heart. Jeremiah 31:20 so saying: "Therefore my heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the Lord."
Regarding effusion of the human liver on human passions, Verse 11 refers: "because of the destruction of the daughter of my people," That is, as I grieve, as if the city would be destroyed.
Or, since my love for the plight (of the city) within destruction. That is, as if thrown to the earth, those prostrate, whom I loved. The prophet Hosea 13:8 thus states: "and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rend them."
Second, (as to the death of such persons) mercy is from compassion. As Verse 11 concludes: "because infants and babies faint in the streets of the city." Namely, the city of Jerusalem, since it has become vile, or from any other condition. As Jeremiah 51:22 says: "with you I break in pieces the old man and the youth; with you I break in pieces the old man and the youth; with you I break in pieces the young man and the maiden."
