He has made me chew on gravel. He has rolled me in the dust.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.
- KJV He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath 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.
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 20:17Fraudulent food is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth is filled with gravel.
- Jer 6:26Daughter of my people, clothe yourself with sackcloth, and wallow in ashes! Mourn, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us.
- Ps 3:7Arise, Yahweh! Save me, my God! For you have struck all of my enemies on the cheek bone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked.
- Ps 58:6Break their teeth, God, in their mouth. Break out the great teeth of the young lions, Yahweh.
- Job 2:8He took for himself a potsherd to scrape himself with, and he sat among the ashes.
- Job 4:10The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, the teeth of the young lions, are broken.
- Luke 11:11“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?
- Matt 7:9Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?
- Jonah 3:6The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.
- Ps 102:9For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Commentaries & study tools
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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.