He has walled me about, that I can’t go out; he has made my chain heavy.
Parallel translations
- KJV He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
- BSB He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
- 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 walled up my way so that I can’t pass, and has set darkness in my paths.
- Job 3:23Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
- Jer 38:6Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchijah the king’s son, that was in the court of the guard. They let down Jeremiah with cords. In the dungeon there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire.
- Jer 40:4Now, behold, I release you today from the chains which are on your hand. If it seems good to you to come with me into Babylon, come, and I will take care of you; but if it seems bad to you to come with me into Babylon, don’t. Behold, all the land is before you. Where it seems good and right to you to go, there go.”
- Ps 88:8You have taken my friends from me. You have made me an abomination to them. I am confined, and I can’t escape.
- Lam 1:14“The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; They are knit together. They have come up on my neck. He has made my strength to fail. The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.
- Hos 2:6Therefore behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can’t find her way.
- Lam 3:9He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
- Lam 5:5Our pursuers are on our necks: We are weary, and have no rest.
- Dan 9:12He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us, and against our judges who judged us, by bringing on us a great evil; for under the whole sky, such has not been done as 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.