He has enclosed my ways with hewn stone, he has made my paths crooked.
All Commentaries on Lamentations 3:9 Go To Lamentations 3
Thomas Aquinas
AD 1274
A remedy for an escape from enemies' siege is cut off. So, Verse 7 states: "He has walled me about so that I cannot excape." That is, by the besieging army.
"He has put heavy chains on me." This indicates that I (Jeremiah) am besieged just like those persons who are sent to prison and cannot escape. Thus, Psalm 88(87):8 claims: "I am shut in so that I cannot escape." And Job 13:27 says: "Thou puttest my feet in the stocks, and watchest all my paths."
Second, is cut off a remedy for escape, due to an exclusion of prayer. For Verse 8 states: "Though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer." And, as Psalm 22(2l):2 says: "O my God, I cry by day, but thou dost not answer; and by night, but find no rest."
Third, a remedy for escape is cut off due to a hinderance in counselling. As Verse 9 so expresses: "He has blocked my ways with hewn stones, he has made my paths crooked", Namely, he has blocked counsels for escaping: "with hewn stones": like to heavy impediments. The
prophet Hosea thus claims: "Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns; and I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths." (Hosea 2:6).
