Bible Strands
Lamentations 3:9
He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses God during Jerusalem's siege, recording his experience of divine obstruction immediately after noting that God shut out his pleas for help.
The words — The verb גָּדַר (ga.Dar) literally means "he has walled up," depicting the placement of cut stones to block movement, while עִוָּה ('i.Vah) means "he has made crooked," describing the deliberate distortion of his paths.
The thread — This motif of divine obstruction runs into Isaiah 63:17, which questions why God makes His people stray from His ways, and continues in Lamentations 3:11, where the speaker is forced off his path and left without assistance.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that God actively controls both access to Him and the direction of a person's life, demanding a sober assessment of divine sovereignty over human movement and prayer.
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 inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 63:17 Why, O LORD, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.
- Isaiah 30:28 His breath is like a rushing torrent that rises to the neck. He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction; He bridles the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.
- Lamentations 3:11 He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces; He left me without help.
- Hosea 2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.