He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.
- BSB He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.
- NKJV He has also broken my teeth with gravel, And covered me with ashes.
- NASB He has also made my teeth grind with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust.
- NLT He has made me chew on gravel. He has rolled me in the dust.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God has broken his teeth on gravel and pressed him into ashes. It depicts humiliation and degradation in affliction.
Overview
The harsh images of teeth broken on grit and being covered in ashes convey degradation and mourning. The sufferer is brought low, eating the bread of affliction. This experience of being humbled in the dust precedes the hope that follows, reminding us that God brings low before he lifts up, supremely in the humiliation and exaltation of Christ (Philippians 2:8-9).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Prov 20:17Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.
- Jer 6:26O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.
- Ps 3:7Arise, O LORD; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.
- Ps 58:6Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
- Job 2:8And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
- Job 4:10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
- Luke 11:11If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?
- Matt 7:9Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
- Jonah 3:6For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
- Ps 102:9For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 3:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.