“My bowels, my bowels!” In the biblical culture, the bowels and abdominal organs were the seat of emotion. In this case, Judah had sinned and now Babylon was going to come and attack it. The death and destruction would be horrible in the extreme, and Jeremiah was very upset about it. It is a common occurrence that when a person is greatly upset their bowels are in turmoil and they are uncomfortable and cannot eat. Occasionally in difficult times a person will not even be able to control their bowels and either have diarrhea or defecate in their clothes.

“shofar.” The ram’s horn trumpet, not the metal trumpet.