Lamentations 3:9-11

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Lamentations 3:9 tn The verb גָּדַר (gadar) has a twofold 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 (d^erakhay, “my roads”) in 3:9 clearly indicate that the second category of meaning is in view.
2. Lamentations 3:9 tn Heb “my roads.”
3. Lamentations 3:9 tn Heb “he has made my paths crooked.” The implication is that the paths by which one might escape cannot be traversed.
4. Lamentations 3:10 tn Heb “he is to me [like] a bear lying in wait.”
5. Lamentations 3:10 tc The Kethib is written אַרְיֵה (ʾaryeh, “lion”), while the Qere is אֲרִי (ʾari, “lion”), simply a short spelling of the same term (BDB 71 s.v. אַרְיֵה).
6. Lamentations 3:10 tn Heb “a lion in hiding places.”
7. Lamentations 3:11 tn Or “he made my paths deviate.”
8. Lamentations 3:11 tn “Since the Hebrew וַיְפַשְּׁחֵנִי (vay^efash^ekheni) 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).