John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 9. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone , etc.] Not with a hedge of thorns, or mud walls, but with a fence of stones; and these not rough, and laid loosely together, but hewn and put in order, and well cemented.
The Targum is, with marble hewn stones, which are harder than common stones, and not so easily demolished; this may respect the case of the prophet in prison, and in the dungeon, and in Jerusalem, when besieged; or in general his afflictive state, from whence he had no prospect of deliverance; or the state of the Jews in captivity, from which there was no likelihood of a release; he hath made my paths crooked ; or, “perverted my ways” f56 ; so that he could not find his way out, when he attempted it; he got into a way which led him wrong; everything went cross and against him, and all his measures were disconcerted, and his designs defeated; no one step he took prospered.
Matthew Henry Commentary
- The miserable state of Jerusalem, the just consequences of its sins (Lam. 1:1-11) Jerusalem represented as a captive female, lamenting, an seeking the mercy of God. (Lam. 1:12-22)
Lam. 1:1-11 The prophet sometimes speaks in his own person; at othe times Jerusalem, as a distressed female, is the speaker, or some of the Jews. The description shows the miseries of the Jewish nation Jerusalem became a captive and a slave
, by reason of the greatness of her 
