Lamentations 3:12

THE MESSAGE

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He strung his bowand set me as the target for his arrow.

Hebrew Names Version
He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

King James Version
He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

English Standard Version
he bent his bow and set me as a target for his arrow.

New American Standard Bible
He bent His bow And took aim at me as a target for the arrow.

New Century Version
He prepared to shoot his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

Amplified Bible
He has bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow.

World English Bible
He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

Geneva Bible (1587)
He hath bent his bow & made me a marke for the arrow.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
He bent His bow And set me as a target for the arrow.

Legacy Standard Bible
He bent His bowAnd set me as a target for the arrow.

Berean Standard Bible
He bent His bow and set me as the target for His arrow.

Contemporary English Version
God took careful aim and shot his arrows

Complete Jewish Bible
He has bent his bow and used me as a target for his arrows.

Darby Translation
He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

Easy-to-Read Version
He made his bow ready. He made me the target for his arrows.

George Lamsa Translation
He has bent his bow, and set me up as a mark for the arrow.

Good News Translation
He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

Lexham English Bible
He has bent his bow and set me as the target for the arrow.

Literal Translation
He has trod His bow and set me up as a mark for the arrow.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
He hath bent his bowe, and made me as it were a marck to shute at.

American Standard Version
He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

Bible in Basic English
With his bow bent, he has made me the mark for his arrows.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
He hath bent His bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

King James Version (1611)
He hath bent his bow, and set me as a marke for the arrow.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
He hath bent his bowe, and made me as it were a marke to shoote at.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
HE. He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

English Revised Version
He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Deleth. He bente his bowe, and settide me as a signe to an arowe.

Update Bible Version
He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

Webster's Bible Translation
He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

New English Translation
He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrow.

New King James Version
He has bent His bow And set me up as a target for the arrow.

New Living Translation
He has drawn his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

New Life Bible
He used His bow, and set me as a mark for His arrow.

New Revised Standard
he bent his bow and set me as a mark for his arrow.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
He hath trodden his bow, and set me up, as a mark for the arrow.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Daleth. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for his arrows.

Revised Standard Version
he bent his bow and set me as a mark for his arrow.

Young's Literal Translation
He hath trodden His bow, And setteth me up as a mark for an arrow.

Contextual Overview

¹ I'm the man who has seen trouble, trouble coming from the lash of God 's anger. He took me by the hand and walked me into pitch-black darkness. Yes, he's given me the back of his hand over and over and over again. ⁴He turned me into a scarecrow of skin and bones, then broke the bones. He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, poured on the trouble and hard times. He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin. ⁷He shuts me in so I'll never get out, manacles my hands, shackles my feet. Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key. He sets up blockades with quarried limestone. He's got me cornered. ¹⁰He's a prowling bear tracking me down, a lion in hiding ready to pounce. He knocked me from the path and ripped me to pieces. When he finished, there was nothing left of me. He took out his bow and arrows and used me for target practice. ¹³He shot me in the stomach with arrows from his quiver. Everyone took me for a joke, made me the butt of their mocking ballads. He forced rotten, stinking food down my throat, bloated me with vile drinks. ¹⁶He ground my face into the gravel. He pounded me into the mud. I gave up on life altogether. I've forgotten what the good life is like. I said to myself, "This is it. I'm finished. God is a lost cause." ¹⁹I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. I remember it all—oh, how well I remember— the feeling of hitting the bottom. But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope:

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

bent: Job 6:4, Job 7:20, Job 16:12, Job 16:13, Psalms 7:12, Psalms 7:13, Psalms 38:2

Reciprocal: Psalms 21:12 - make Psalms 64:7 - God Psalms 91:5 - nor Lamentations 2:4 - bent Ezekiel 5:16 - the evil

Cross-References

Genesis 2:18
God said, "It's not good for the Man to be alone; I'll make him a helper, a companion." So God formed from the dirt of the ground all the animals of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the Man to see what he would name them. Whatever the Man called each living creature, that was its name. The Man named the cattle, named the birds of the air, named the wild animals; but he didn't find a suitable companion.

Genesis 3:13
"The serpent seduced me," she said, "and I ate."

Genesis 3:20
The Man, known as Adam, named his wife Eve because she was the mother of all the living.

Genesis 3:21
God made leather clothing for Adam and his wife and dressed them.

Proverbs 19:3
People ruin their lives by their own stupidity, so why does God always get blamed?

Proverbs 28:13
You can't whitewash your sins and get by with it; you find mercy by admitting and leaving them.

Luke 10:29
Looking for a loophole, he asked, "And just how would you define ‘neighbor'?"

Gill's Notes on the Bible

He hath bent his bow,.... Which is put for all the instruments, of war; the Chaldeans were archers, and shot their arrows into the city:

and set me as a mark for the arrow; as a target to shoot at; signifying that God dealt with him, or his people, as enemies, the object of his wrath and indignation; and if he directed his arrow against them, it must needs hit them; there was no escaping his vengeance; see Job 7:20.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Having dwelt upon the difficulties which hemmed in his path, he now shows that there are dangers attending upon escape.

Lamentations 3:11

The meaning is, “God, as a lion, lying in wait, has made me turn aside from my path, but my flight was in vain, for springing upon me from His ambush lie has torn me in pieces.”

Desolate - Or, astonied, stupefied that he cannot flee. The word is a favorite one with Jeremiah.

Lamentations 3:12

This new simile arises out of the former one, the idea of a hunter being suggested by that of the bear and lion. When the hunter comes, it is not to save him.

Lamentations 3:14

Metaphor is dropped, and Jeremiah shows the real nature of the arrows which rankled in him so deeply.

Lamentations 3:15

“He hath” filled me to the full with bitterness, i. e. bitter sorrows Job 9:18.

Lamentations 3:16

Broken my teeth with gravel stones - His bread was so filled with grit that in eating it his teeth were broken.

Lamentations 3:17

Prosperity - literally, as in the margin, i. e. I forgot what good was, I lost the very idea of what it meant.

Lamentations 3:18

The prophet reaches the verge of despair. But by struggling against it he reaches at length firm ground.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 12. He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. — One might conjecture that the following thought in the Toozek i Teemour was borrowed from this: -

"One addressed the caliph Aaly, and said, 'If the heavens were a bow, and the earth the cord thereof; if calamities were arrows, man the butt for those arrows; and the holy blessed God the unerring marksman; where could the sons of Adam flee for succour?' The caliph replied, 'The children of Adam must flee unto the Lord.'" This was the state of poor Jerusalem. It seemed as a butt for all God's arrows; and each arrow of calamity entered into the soul, for God was the unerring marksman.