Bible Strands
Lamentations 3:11
He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker is the lamenting figure in Lamentations 3, positioned between the predator metaphor of verse 10 and the archery metaphor of verse 12, describing a present moment of divine action.
The words — The Hebrew verb סוֹרֵר (so.Rer) means to cause deviation or turn aside, and the participle שֹׁמֵם (sho.Mem) literally denotes laying waste or making desolate.
The thread — The same devastation language appears in Lamentations 1:13 where God makes the speaker desolate, and the target imagery parallels Job 16:12 where the afflicted is set up as a target.
Why it lands — The text states that God actively removes direction and leaves the speaker without aid, requiring the reader to acknowledge the reality of sovereign judgment and human vulnerability without assuming immediate rescue.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.
Cross-references
- Hosea 6:1 Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
- Job 16:12 I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized me by the neck and crushed me. He has set me up as His target;
- Lamentations 1:13 He sent fire from on high, and it overpowered my bones. He spread a net for my feet and turned me back. He made me desolate, faint all the day long.
- Job 16:7 Surely He has now exhausted me; You have devastated all my family.
- Psalms 50:22 Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you to pieces, with no one to rescue you:
- Isaiah 3:26 And the gates of Zion will lament and mourn; destitute, she will sit on the ground.
- Jeremiah 5:6 Therefore a lion from the forest will strike them down, a wolf from the desert will ravage them. A leopard will lie in wait near their cities, and everyone who ventures out will be torn to pieces. For their rebellious acts are many, and their unfaithful deeds are numerous.
- Jeremiah 6:8 Be forewarned, O Jerusalem, or I will turn away from you; I will make you a desolation, a land without inhabitant.”
- Jeremiah 9:10 I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, a dirge over the wilderness pasture, for they have been scorched so no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled; they have gone away.
- Jeremiah 19:8 I will make this city a desolation and an object of scorn. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff at all her wounds.