Lamentations 3:53
in Lamentations 3They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone upon me.
KJV
They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.
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This verse in Lamentations 3
Commentary
2 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
They have cut off my life in the dungeon - Or, “They destroyed my life in the pit,” i. e. tried to destroy it by casting me into the cistern, and covering the month with a stone. See the margin reference.
This site's exposition
Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause
on Lamentations 3:52-54
Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause returns the chapter to the first-person voice and to narrative, a specific memory rather than the general complaint of the verses before it. They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me describes an ancient method of sealing a pit prison, ordinarily read as biography rather than figure by the older commentators, ground the bench connects to the cistern Jeremiah was lowered into during the siege. Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off marks the low point of the narrative, drowning language used of a dry pit to state despair at its most complete.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| צָֽמְת֤וּ | tzametu | they destroyed | H6789 → | |
| בַבּוֹר֙ | vabor | in the pit | H953 → | |
| חַיָּ֔י | chaiyai | life my | H2416 → | 498 times |
| וַיַּדּוּ־ | vaiyadu- | and they threw down | H3034 → | |
| אֶ֖בֶן | ʾeven | a stone | H68 → | |
| בִּֽי׃ | bi | on me |
צָֽמְת֤וּthey destroyed
tzametuH6789 →
בַבּוֹר֙in the pit
vaborH953 →
חַיָּ֔יlife my
chaiyaiH2416 →498 times
וַיַּדּוּ־and they threw down
vaiyadu-H3034 →
אֶ֖בֶןa stone
ʾevenH68 →
בִּֽי׃on me
bi
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 38:6So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 37:21
So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 38:22
All the women who remain in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon, and those women will say: ‘They misled you and…
- Psalms 69:2
I have sunk into the miry depths, where there is no footing; I have drifted into deep waters, where the flood engulfs me.
- Jeremiah 37:16
So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and remained there a long time.
- Jeremiah 37:21
Through
Matthew 27:60and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut into the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance to the tomb and went away.
it leads to
- Isaiah 53:9
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth.
- Matthew 27:66
So they went and secured the tomb by sealing the stone and posting the guard.
- Matthew 28:2
Suddenly there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, rolled away the stone, and sat on it.
- Isaiah 53:9
Through
Jeremiah 37:16So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and remained there a long time.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 38:6
So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no…
- Jeremiah 38:6
Where this verse is studied
No study on the site is anchored to this verse yet.
Also on Lamentations 3: 6 studies that walk through this chapter ▾
- Acrostics: From Aleph to Taw
- The Fruit of the SpiritGalatians 5:22–23 names a singular fruit (karpos, not fruits) with nine visible facets. Gifts are distributed; fruit is unified. Every believer bears the whole fruit. The grammar is the theology.
- Great Is Thy Faithfulness: Lamentations 3:22–24 · MannaFest
- Lamentations — the Study Guide
- The Weeping Prophet — the Confessions of Jeremiah
- The Yoke
About Lamentations

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869) and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament.
