Lamentations 3:9

Lam 3:9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

Ver. 9. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone,] i.e., Most strongly and closely, so that none can come at me.

He hath made all my paths crooked.] So that all things go cross with me; and although they were never so well devised, yet still they sort out unto the worst.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Lam 3:9-13. He hath enclosed my way with hewn stone — He hath not only hedged it up with thorns, Hos 2:6, but stopped it up with a stone wall which cannot be broken through; so that my paths are made crooked — That is, I traverse to and fro, to the right hand and to the left, to try to get forward, but I am still turned back. Observe, reader, if we walk in the crooked ways of sin, crossing or swerving from God’s laws, it is just with God to make us walk in the crooked paths of affliction, crossing our designs and breaking our measures. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait — Surprising me with his judgments; and as a lion in secret places — So that which way soever I went, I was in continual fear of being attacked, and could never think myself safe. He hath turned aside my ways — Hath blasted all my counsels and ruined my projects; (see above on Lam 3:9;) and pulled me in pieces — Hath torn and gone away, Hos 5:14. He hath made me desolate — Deprived me of all society, and of all comfort in my soul. He hath bent his bow — That bow, which was ordained against the church’s persecutors, is bent against her sons. He hath set me as a mark for his arrows — Which he aims at, and is sure to hit: so that the arrows of his quiver enter into my reins — And give me an inward and mortal wound.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:9 blocked my way . . . made my road crooked: Sin causes confusion and cuts a person or a community off from a happy future. Innocent people know the future as a straight path that is easy to follow (Prov 21:8). Isaiah imagined God’s activities as a procession on a straight road that his worshipers would prepare (Isa 40:3).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

And keepeth me in hold as a prisoner.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

hewn stone--which coheres so closely as not to admit of being broken through.

paths crooked--thwarted our plans and efforts so that none went right.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 9. He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone] He has put insuperable obstacles in my way; and confounded all my projects of deliverance and all my expectations of prosperity.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Other metaphors are used. Some think that the Prophet refers to the siege of Jerusalem, but such a view is not suitable. The metaphors correspond with one another, though they are somewhat different. He had said before, that he was enclosed by God, or surrounded as with a mound; and now he transfers this idea to his ways. When the life of man is spoken of, it is, we know, compared to a way. Then the Prophet includes under this word all the doings of his life, as though he had said, that all his plans were brought into straits, as though his way was shut up, so that he could not proceed: “Were I to proceed ill any direction, an obstacle is set before me; I am compelled to remain as it were fixed.” So the Prophet now says, his ways were enclosed, because God allowed none of His counsels or His purposes to be carried into effect.

And to the same purpose he adds, that. God had perverted his ways, that is, that he had confounded all his doings, and all his counsels.

But these words are added, with a squared stone The verb גזז gizaz, means to cut; hence the word גזית, gizit, signifies a polished stone, or one trimmed by the hammer. And we know that such stones are more durable and firmer than other stones. For when unpolished stones are used, the building is not so strong as when the stones are squared, as they fit together better. Then the Prophet intimates that the enclosures were such that he could by no means break through them, as they could not be broken. He, in short, means that he was so oppressed by God’s hand, that whatever he purposed God immediately reversed it. We now, then, perceive what he means by saying, that all his ways were subverted or overturned by God. This is not to be understood generally, for it is God who directs our ways. But he is said to pervert our ways, when he disconcerts our counsels, when all our purposes and efforts are rendered void; in a word, when God as it were meets us as an adversary, and impedes our course; it is then that he is said to pervert our ways. But this ought not to be understood as though God blinded men unjustly, or as though he led them astray. The Prophet only means that he could find no success in all his counsels, in all his efforts and doings, because he had God opposed to him. here I stop.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(9) He hath inclosed.—Yet another figure of resourceless misery follows. A massive wall of stone runs across the mourner’s way. When he turns aside into by-paths, they are turned and twisted in labyrinthine confusion, and lead nowhither.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. hath made my paths crooked] The writer, seeing that the direct way was as it were blocked, tried side paths, but found that they also failed to lead him in the desired direction. The figure expresses perplexity and dismay.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone,.... Not with a hedge of thorns, or mud walls, but with a fence of stones; and these not rough, and laid loosely together, but hewn and put in order, and well cemented. The Targum is, with marble hewn stones, which are harder than common stones, and not so easily demolished; this may respect the case of the prophet in prison, and in the dungeon, and in Jerusalem, when besieged; or in general his afflictive state, from whence he had no prospect of deliverance; or the state of the Jews in captivity, from which there was no likelihood of a release;

he hath made my paths crooked; or, "perverted my ways" (h); so that he could not find his way out, when he attempted it; he got into a way which led him wrong; everything went cross and against him, and all his measures were disconcerted, and his designs defeated; no one step he took prospered.

(h) "semitas meas pervertit", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Calvin; "contorsit", Michealis.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Inclosed - Or, hedged Lam 3:7.

Hath, made crooked - Or, “hath” turned aside. A solid wall being built across the main road, Jeremiah turns aside into by-ways, but finds them turned aside, so that they lead him back after long wandering to the place from where he started.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Stones. There is no passage, Job xix. 8.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Ways in Scripture ordinarily signifies men’s courses, and methods of counsels, and actions; if the term be taken in that sense here, it signifieth God’s defeating all their methods and counsels taken for their own security, in the pursuit of which they met not with ordinary, but with insuperable difficulties, like walls of hewn stone. Nay, God had not only defeated their counsels, but had made them prove more fatal and pernicious to themselves, which seemeth to be intended, by making their ways crooked, which should have led right on to the end intended.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Hewn stones would be of considerable size, and employed to make a strong wall. The term enclosed is the same as “hedged” in Lam_3:7.

Made my paths crooked — Rather, he hath turned aside my paths, so that I cannot go forward.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Inclosed; or, walled up; the participle of this verb is rendered "masons" in the Authorized Version of 2Ki_12:12. Made my paths crooked; i.e. hath compelled me to walk in byways. (comp. margin of the Authorized Version, Jud_1:5:6) But this hardly seems appropriate to the context. The semitas meas subvertit of the Vulgate is preferable. Render, therefore, turned my path upside down. (comp. Isa_24:1) An analogous expression m Job_30:13 is rendered in the Authorized Version, "they mar my path." Thenius thinks that the destruction of a raised causeway is the figure intended; but the word is quite correctly rendered "paths;" see the note of Delitzsch on Isa_59:8.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Enclosed - He has defeated all my methods and counsels for security, by insuperable difficulties like walls of hewn stone. Crooked - Nay, God not only defeated their counsels, but made them fatal and pernicious to them.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

He blocked my path

The author speaks of God causing him to continue to suffer as if God was preventing him from escaping the suffering by blocking his path. AT: "It is as though he blocked my path" (See: Metaphor)

a wall of hewn stone

"a wall of cut stones." People would cut stones into regular shapes that could fit together well in order to build a strong wall.

he made my paths crooked

Crooked paths do not lead people to where they want to go. Here they represent unsuccessful ways of escaping suffering. AT: "it is as though he has made my paths crooked" or "I have tried to make the suffering stop, but God has prevented me, like one who prevents another from escaping by making his paths crooked" (See: Metaphor)

He is like a bear waiting to ambush me, a lion in hiding

The author speaks of God being ready to cause him to suffer more, as if God were a wild animal waiting to attack him. (See: Simile)

he turned aside my paths

Possible meanings are 1) "he dragged me off the path" or 2) "he caused my path to turn in the wrong direction"

he has made me desolate

"he has made me hopeless" or "he has not allowed me to have any help"

translationWords

lions

desolate

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

He has made my paths crooked If I wish to go out, I do not go out on roads paved in a straight way, because of the enemies, but I go out on a crooked road.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.