In this verse the prisoner comes up against the walls and is unable to find his way, as though in a situation where every turn leads to a dead end. Compare Hosea 2.6. This is well expressed in New Jerusalem Bible, “He has made my paths a maze.” Hewn stones refers to stones that have been cut to a proper shape before being used to build a wall. In some areas this must be rendered “mud walls,” “earth walls,” or “bamboo walls.”

He has made my paths crooked will not mean very much for some readers who know no other kind of path in their area. The Hebrew is literally “he bends (or, twists) my paths.” The effect is that a person does not arrive at the intended destination; he is lost as he tries to follow the paths. Good News Translation has taken the bending or twisting to refer to the way someone walks, “I stagger as I walk.” This may be meaningful, or we may say, for example, “He has made my paths so that they lead nowhere.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .