Thomas Aquinas Commentary Lamentations 2:11

"Mine eyes do fail with tears, my heart is troubled; My liver is poured upon the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the young children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city." — Lamentations 2:11 (ASV)

Here he weeps over those who are miserable because their lives were cut short.

He addresses two things:

1. Their death.
2. The manner of their death, at the words they said to their mothers (Lamentations 2:12).

Concerning the first point, he does two things:

1. He shows his compassion by shedding tears: my eyes have failed, as if they could no longer cry. Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? (Jeremiah 9:1). He also shows it by the turmoil within him: my bowels are troubled. This is as if to say, “I suffer so much, it is like the pain of churning insides,” or because the pain penetrated to the very depths of his heart. Therefore my bowels are troubled for him (Jeremiah 31:20).

   Regarding the pouring out of the liver, he says, my liver is poured out on the earth. This means, “I suffer as if it had been poured out,” or it means that his love—whose seat was thought to be in the liver—has been thrown to the ground, lying prostrate with those whom he loves. I will tear the inner parts of their liver (Hosea 13:8).

2. He shows the mercy of his compassion regarding the destruction of the city—that is, of Jerusalem, because she was made despicable, or of any other. And with you I will break in pieces the old man and the child, the young man and the virgin (Jeremiah 51:22).