Pour Out Your Heart Like Water
11 My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My bile is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city. 12 They ask their mothers, “Where is grain and wine?” when they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul is poured out into their mothers’ bosom. 13 What shall I testify to you? What shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your breach is as big as the sea. Who can heal you? 14 Your prophets have seen false and foolish visions for you. They have not uncovered your iniquity, to reverse your captivity, but have seen for you false revelations and causes of banishment. 15 All that pass by clap their hands at you. They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, “Is this the city that men called ‘The perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth’?” 16 All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth. They say, “We have swallowed her up. Certainly this is the day that we looked for. We have found it. We have seen it.” 17 Yahweh has done that which he planned. He has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down, and has not pitied. He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you. He has exalted the horn of your adversaries. 18 Their heart cried to the Lord. O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night. Give yourself no relief. Don’t let your eyes rest. 19 Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches! Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, who faint for hunger at the head of every street. 20 “Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Should the women eat their offspring, the children that they held and bounced on their knees? Should the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? 21 “The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets. My virgins and my young men have fallen by the sword. You have killed them in the day of your anger. You have slaughtered, and not pitied. 22 “You have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side. There was no one that escaped or remained in the day of Yahweh’s anger. My enemy has consumed those whom I have cared for and brought up.
The poet's own body gives way at the sight of starving children, and the only counsel he can find is to keep crying and put the case to God.
Verse 11 stops describing the city and describes the man watching it. His eyes fail with tears, his heart is troubled, his bile is poured on the earth — a physical collapse, and the cause is named: children and infants fainting in the streets.
Verse 12 is the detail that undoes the chapter. They ask their mothers where is grain and wine, and their life pours out into their mothers' bosom. The children do not know what is happening; they ask an ordinary question.
Verse 13 admits the failure of comparison itself. What shall I liken to you? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you? A poet whose trade is comparison reports that nothing is available, and the reason given is scale: your breach is as big as the sea.
Then the blame is placed. Verse 14 charges the prophets — false and foolish visions, and the specific failure that they did not uncover your iniquity. The people were not warned by the men whose office was warning.
Verses 18 and 19 give the only instruction the chapter contains, and it is not consolation. Let tears run down like a river, day and night, give yourself no relief — and then pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord. Grief is directed rather than relieved.
And the reason to lift the hands is stated: for the life of your young children. Verse 20 delivers the horror the law had foreseen Deuteronomy 28:53, and puts it to God as a question rather than a report.
settled What this mark means