Lamentations 3:16
in Lamentations 3He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he hath covered me with ashes.
KJV
He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.
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This verse in Lamentations 3
Commentary
7 notes on this verseHe 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.
This site's exposition
I am a laughingstock to all my people
on Lamentations 3:14-18
“He has intoxicated me with wormwood”, the bitter plant Deuteronomy 29:18 names as the fruit of turning from the covenant. The unit ends at its lowest point, with hope named as gone: “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD”.
This site's exposition
He has ground my teeth with gravel
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explain the gravel as grit baked into bread made in ashes, and they compare Proverbs 20:17. Matthew Henry heard Psalm 102, where ashes are eaten like bread. Even food has turned against the man.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
The afflictions are here pursued. "He has made my teeth grind on gravel, and made me cower in ashes." That is, like to the warriors by whom defended, and like to teeth of beasts on gravel. So, nothing remains except in ashes as if worthless. …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
) and what I eat is neither pleasant nor nourishing. He has covered me with ashes, as mourners used to be, or (as some read it) he has fed me with ashes. I have eaten ashes like bread, " Ps. cii.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
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.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
The words behind it
5 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.
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
Psalms 3:7Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.
it leads to
- Job 29:17
I shattered the fangs of the unjust and snatched the prey from his teeth.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 58:6
O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; O LORD, tear out the fangs of the lions.
- Job 16:10
They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join together against me.
- Psalms 59:5
O LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, rouse Yourself to punish all the nations; show no mercy to the wicked traitors. Selah
- Psalms 10:12
Arise, O LORD! Lift up Your hand, O God! Do not forget the helpless.
- Job 29:17
Through
Proverbs 20:17Food gained by fraud is sweet to a man, but later his mouth is full of gravel.
it leads to
- Lamentations 3:15–16
He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Ecclesiastes 11:9
Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes,…
- Lamentations 3:15–16
Through
Psalms 58:6O God, shatter their teeth in their mouths; O LORD, tear out the fangs of the lions.
it leads to
- Psalms 3:7
Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.
- Psalms 3:7
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies17
On this verse
On this chapter
About Lamentations
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.