He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has walled me about, that I can’t go out; he has made my chain heavy.
- KJV He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
- NKJV He has hedged me in so that I cannot get out; He has made my chain heavy.
- NASB He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.
- NLT He has walled me in, and I cannot escape. He has bound me in heavy chains.
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
He feels walled in and weighed down with heavy chains, unable to escape. It pictures the captivity of unrelieved suffering.
Overview
The sufferer is hemmed in by a wall and burdened with a heavy chain, imagery of imprisonment and bondage. Every path of escape seems blocked. This experience of being bound under affliction heightens the gospel proclamation that Christ came to set captives free (Luke 4:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Job 19:8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
- Job 3:23Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
- Jer 38:6So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.
- Jer 40:4But now, behold, I am freeing you today from the chains that were on your wrists. If it pleases you to come with me to Babylon, then come, and I will take care of you. But if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, go no farther. Look, the whole land is before you. Wherever it seems good and right to you, go there.”
- Ps 88:8You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape.
- Lam 1:14My transgressions are bound into a yoke, knit together by His hand; they are draped over my neck, and the Lord has broken my strength. He has delivered me into the hands of those I cannot withstand.
- Hos 2:6Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.
- Lam 3:9He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
- Lam 5:5We are closely pursued; we are weary and find no rest.
- Dan 9:12You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 3:7 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.