Lamentations 3 · Verse 16

Lamentations 3:16

He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
Lamentations 3:16, King James Version

Lamentations 3:16 in other translations

BSBHe has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.
WEBHe has also broken my teeth with gravel. He has covered me with ashes.
ASVHe hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he hath covered me with ashes.
YLTAnd He breaketh with gravel my teeth, He hath covered me with ashes.
DARBYHe hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
BBEBy him my teeth have been broken with crushed stones, and I am bent low in the dust.
WebsterHe hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

What does Lamentations 3:16 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Lamentations 3:16-18
16-18. gravel--referring to the grit that often mixes with bread baked in ashes, as is the custom of baking in the East (Pr 20:17). We fare as hardly as those who eat such bread. The same allusion is in "Covered me with ashes," namely, as bread.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 16 He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones - What a figure to express disgust, pain, and the consequent incapacity of taking food for the support of life; a man, instead of bread, being obliged to eat small pebbles till all his teeth are broken to pieces by endeavoring to grind them. One can scarcely read this description without feeling the toothache. The next figure is not less expressive. He hath covered me with ashes - הכפישני באפר hichphishani beepher, "he hath plunged me into the dust." To be thrown into a mass or bed of perfect dust, where the eyes are blinded by it, the ears stopped, and the mouth and lungs filled at the very first attempt to respire after having been thrown into it - what a horrible idea of suffocation and drowning! One can scarcely read this without feeling a suppression of breath, or a stricture upon the lungs! Did ever man paint sorrow like this man?

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Lamentations 3:1-20

The faithful lament their calamities, and hope in God's mercies. Verses 1-20 The prophet relates the more gloomy and discouraging part of his experience, and how he found support and relief. In the time of his trial the Lord had become terrible to him. It was an affliction that was misery itself; for sin makes the cup of affliction a bitter cup. The struggle between unbelief and faith is often very severe. But the…

Read the full comment on Lamentations 3:1-20 →

Lamentations 3:16 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וַיַּגְרֵ֤סvai.yag.Resand he has brokenH1638
בֶּֽחָצָץ֙be.cha.Tzatzwith <the> gravelH2687
שִׁנָּ֔יshi.Naiteeth myH8127
הִכְפִּישַׁ֖נִיhikh.pi.Sha.nihe has made cower meH3728
בָּאֵֽפֶר\׃ba.'E.ferin <the> ash[es]H665

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Lamentations 3:16

  • Proverbs 20:17

    Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.

  • Jeremiah 6:26

    O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes: make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation: for the spoiler shall suddenly come upon us.

  • Psalms 3:7

    Arise, O Lord; save me, O my God: for thou hast smitten all mine enemies upon the cheek bone; thou hast broken the teeth of the ungodly.

  • Psalms 58:6

    Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O Lord.

  • Luke 11:11

    If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

  • Job 4:10

    The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the fierce lion, and the teeth of the young lions, are broken.

  • Matthew 7:9

    Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?

  • Job 2:8

    And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.

  • Psalms 102:9

    For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping,

  • Jonah 3:6

    For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
broken.
Job 4:10; Ps 3:7; 58:6
gravel.
Pr 20:17; Mt 7:9; Lu 11:11
he hath.
Ps 102:9
covered me with ashes. or, rolled me in the ashes.
Job 2:8; Jer 6:26; Jon 3:6

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Lamentations 3:15

    He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

  • Lamentations 3:16

    He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

  • Lamentations 3:17

    And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgat prosperity.

Read all of Lamentations 3

Lamentations 3:16 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Quebróme los dientes con cascajo, cubrióme de ceniza.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Il m’a brisé les dents avec du gravier; il m’a couvert de cendre.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Und er hat mit Kies meine Zähne zermalmt, hat mich niedergedrückt in die Asche.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Et fregit ad numerum dentes meos; cibavit me cinere.