He has blocked my ways with cut stone; He has twisted my paths.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
- KJV He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
- BSB He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
- NKJV He has blocked my ways with hewn stone; He has made my paths crooked.
- NLT He has blocked my way with a high stone wall; he has made my road crooked.
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 his paths blocked with cut stone and made crooked. It pictures every way forward obstructed by God.
Overview
The sufferer's ways are 'walled up with cut stone' and twisted, so he cannot move ahead or find a straight path. The imagery conveys frustration and entrapment in affliction. The contrast is striking with Christ, who is the way, and who makes the crooked places straight for those who trust him (Isaiah 40:3-4; John 14:6).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 4
- Isa 63:17O Yahweh, why do you make us wander from your ways, and harden our heart from your fear? Return for your servants’ sake, the tribes of your inheritance.
- Isa 30:28His breath is as an overflowing stream that reaches even to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction; and a bridle that leads to ruin will be in the jaws of the peoples.
- 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 3:11He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
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 3:9 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.