Devine Scripture

Lamentations 3:7

What does Lamentations 3:7 mean?

A plain-English look at Lamentations 3:7 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.

What Lamentations 3:7 means

He describes being walled in and heavily chained, unable to get free. The feeling is of captivity without exit—both physically, as in Babylon’s imprisonment and Jerusalem’s siege, and spiritually, as under God’s disciplining hand. The weight of the chain suggests the cumulative burden of sin’s consequences. This is not self-pity but realism: some seasons have no human solution. The verse invites us to face limits and helplessness, and to see that being restrained by God may be a severe mercy, turning wandering hearts back to the only One who can open what He has shut.

Parallel translations

WEB

World English Bible · 2000

He hath walled me about, that I cannot go forth; he hath made my chain heavy.

KJV

King James Version · 1611

He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

ASV

American Standard Version · 1901

He hath walled me about, that I cannot go forth; he hath made my chain heavy.

BBE

Bible in Basic English · 1949

He has put a wall round me, so that I am not able to go out; he has made great the weight of my chain.

YLT

Young's Literal Translation · 1862

He hath hedged me about, and I go not out, He hath made heavy my fetter.

DRA

Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752

Ghimel. He hath built against me round about, that I may not get out: he hath made my fetters heavy.

DBY

Darby Bible · 1890

He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

Context

The lament narrows from grave-like darkness to personal imprisonment. Verses 8–9 will add the agony of seemingly unanswered prayer and obstructed paths. These are complementary pictures: walled in within, blocked without, and unheard above. The context emphasizes total deprivation of relief from every direction, heightening the reader’s sense of desperation before the later declaration that Jehovah’s compassions fail not.

v.6He hath made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.

v.7This passage

v.8Yea, when I cry, and call for help, he shutteth out my prayer.

Cross references

Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.

  • Job 3:23

    Why is light givento a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in?

  • Daniel 9:12

    And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil; for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.

  • Job 19:8

    He hath walled up my way that I cannot pass, And hath set darkness in my paths.

  • Jeremiah 38:6

    Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchijah the king’s son, that was in the court of the guard: and they let down Jeremiah with cords. And in the dungeon there was no water, but mire; and Jeremiah sank in the mire.

  • Lamentations 5:5

    Our pursuers are upon our necks: We are weary, and have no rest.

  • Psalms 88:8

    Thou hast put mine acquaintance far from me; Thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.

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