Lamentations 3:9-13

He hath enclosed my way with hewn stone He hath not only hedged it up with thorns, Hosea 2:6, but stopped it up with a stone wall which cannot be broken through; so that my paths are made crooked That is, I traverse to and fro, to the right hand and to the left, to try to get forward, but I am still turned back. Observe, reader, if we walk in the crooked ways of sin, crossing or swerving from God's laws, it is just with God to make us walk in the crooked paths of affliction, crossing our designs and breaking our measures. He was unto me as a bear lying in wait Surprising me with his judgments; and as a lion in secret places So that which way soever I went, I was in continual fear of being attacked, and could never think myself safe. He hath turned aside my ways Hath blasted all my counsels and ruined my projects; (see above on Lamentations 3:9;) and pulled me in pieces Hath torn and gone away, Hosea 5:14. He hath made me desolate Deprived me of all society, and of all comfort in my soul. He hath bent his bow That bow, which was ordained against the church's persecutors, is bent against her sons. He hath set me as a mark for his arrows Which he aims at, and is sure to hit: so that the arrows of his quiver enter into my reins And give me an inward and mortal wound.