Bible Strands
Lamentations 3:12
He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The speaker is the afflicted prophet addressing God during Jerusalem's siege. He describes a moment of acute judgment where he is deliberately positioned as a stationary mark.
The words — דָּרַךְ (da.Rakh) means "he has bent," describing the drawing of a weapon, while כַּמַטָּרָא (ka.ma.ta.Ra') literally translates to "like a target," establishing the speaker as a fixed mark.
The thread — The text's archery imagery runs through Job 6:4 and Job 7:20, where the Almighty's arrows and target language frame relentless suffering, and in Psalms 38:2, where pierced arrows accompany God's pressing hand.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to acknowledge that the described violence is directed by sovereign will rather than accident, demanding a response of sober accountability rather than evasion or comfort.
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 bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
Cross-references
- Psalms 38:2 For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
- Job 7:20 If I have sinned, what have I done to You, O watcher of mankind? Why have You made me Your target, so that I am a burden to You?
- Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.
- Psalms 7:12 If one does not repent, God will sharpen His sword; He has bent and strung His bow.
- Lamentations 2:4 He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.
- 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;