How is the writer’s hostile environment (3:5-6) further developed?

The imagery of a prison (Lamentations 3:5) and grave (Lamentations 3:6) is further developed in the third stanza (gimel) of the third poem (Lamentations 3:7–9) to emphasize the hostile environment and dire situation of the writer and the people. Now he is sealed off alive in a prison without any possibility to escape. This is developed by the following phrases:

1. He has walled me about so that I cannot escape. The plight of the writer as a prisoner is now further developed by describing walls that have been built around him, preventing his free exit (see also Job 19:8; Hosea 2:5). The confinement of prisoners within small walled-up spaces was used as a form of torture by the Assyrians. The goal was that the prisoners would die quickly.¹ In Lamentations 3:7 and Lamentations 3:9 it is stated that God has acted against him to wall up any possible escape. As a wall may give protection from external danger, it may also prevent movement from those enclaved in it. God did the latter by hemming him in.² No escape is possible.

2. He has made my chains heavy. The condition of his hostile environment is further reinforced by the addition that he is loaded with copper shackles. If the imprisonment is not enough, the pressure of suffering is heightened by these chains. The chains may refer to chains around the neck, or rather to all the chains used to impede the movement of the prisoner. It is to be noted that God is the jailer who imposes these maximum-security conditions. Therefore, it is futile for anyone to attempt an escape. While this is a metaphor, it may refer on a physical level to the siege of Jerusalem, but at a spiritual level it depicts the spiritual bondage and inability to escape.³ 

3. Though I call and cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. The writer describes the hopelessness of his condition by stating how all his crying and complaining to God is completely in vain. The word though demonstrates the spiritual nature of this hostile environment created by God. While God is not directly mentioned, the cry for help is directed to him.⁴ Just like a prisoner, sealed off in a dungeon, the writer is sealed in and sealed off, so that even his prayers are not heard.

4. He has blocked my ways with blocks of stones. The verb blocked is the same as in Lamentations 3:7: walled. The blocks of stones are large, newly made blocks of stone, which were used in mighty buildings, such as the temple (1 Kings 5:17).⁵ It was carefully chiselled stones that were intended to construct a permanent and solid obstruction or barrier that will successfully resist any attempt to remove it. Any attempt to alleviate or reverse the circumstances of the writer has been blocked by God (see also Job 3:23; Hosea 2:6).⁶

5. He has made my paths crooked.  There is a difference of opinion about the meaning of this phrase. Some take it to mean that God has closed off the straight path, and now forces the writer to take side paths and winding paths. A second, more probable meaning, is to understand the meaning of the verb as turning upside down, as it also occurs in Isaiah 24:1, where, in the picture of the demise of the world, Isaiah speaks of a turning of its surface upside down. This turning upside down makes the paths completely impassable. The writer's way is closed so that he should not be able to get out, and become confused in his course (see also Job 19:8; Hosea 2:5). Everything is turned upside down for him.⁷ Life has become an inescapable maze. Everything is thwarted and crooked with no possibility of finding relief or escape. Again, as is clear from the other expressions of this stanza, and as previously stated, it is all God’s doing.