He has barred my ways with cut stones; He has made my paths crooked.
Other metaphors are used. Some think that the Prophet refers to the siege of Jerusalem, but such a view is not suitable. The metaphors correspond with one another, though they are somewhat different. He had said before, that he was enclosed by God, or surrounded as with a mound; and now he transfers this idea to his ways.
God is angry with His own people, yet it comes as a rod to correct, not a sword to destroy. Walk in darkness though we may, we must not quarrel with affliction, for His anger is just and His chastening, though grievous now, mixed with mercy.
AI summary
Commenting on Lamentations 3:1-20
He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone,.... 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.