to share one’s deep feelings, thoughts, or emotions
—I poured my heart out to my son, telling him how sorry I was for all the ways I’d hurt him.

In Lamentations, the prophet Jeremiah mourns the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. Because of his sadness, Jeremiah is sometimes called “the weeping prophet.” For example, he writes,

My eyes are worn out from weeping;

my stomach is in knots.

My heart is poured out on the ground

due to the destruction of my helpless people;

children and infants faint

in the town squares. (Lamentations 2:11)

Jeremiah’s style of writing has given us the word jeremiad, meaning “a long tirade or sorrowful complaint.” But despite his sadness, Jeremiah also shows his trust in God and tells the people to pray earnestly to the Lord for help:

Get up! Cry out in the night

when the night watches start!

Pour out your heart like water [pour out thine heart like water]

before the face of the Lord!

Lift up your hands to him

for your children’s lives;

they are fainting

at every street corner. (Lamentations 2:19)