3:9 He has blocked 1 every road I take 2 with a wall of hewn stones;
he has made every path impassable. 3
3:11 He has obstructed my paths 4 and torn me to pieces; 5
he has made me desolate.
1 tn The verb גָּדַר (garad) has a two-fold range of meanings: (1) “to build up a wall” with stones, and (2) “to block a road” with a wall of stones. The collocated terms דְּרָכַי (dÿrakhay, “my roads”) in 3:9 clearly indicate that the second category of meaning is in view.
2 tn Heb “my roads.”
3 tn Heb “he had made my paths crooked.” The implication is that the paths by which one might escape cannot be traversed.
4 tn Or “he made my paths deviate.”
5 tn “Since the Heb. וַיְפַשְּׁחֵנִי (vaypashÿkheni) occurs only here, and the translation relies on the Syriac and the Targum, it is not certain that the image of God as a predatory animal continues into this verse especially since [the beginning of the verse] is also of uncertain meaning” (D. R. Hillers, Lamentations [AB], 54).