Charles Spurgeon Commentary Lamentations 3:16

"He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he hath covered me with ashes." — Lamentations 3:16 (ASV)

He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he has covered me with ashes.

The Easterns usually baked their cakes on the hearth, and very frequently there would be pieces of grit in the cakes, perhaps large lumps of cinder, and sometimes small gravel stones, which would break the teeth. "So," the prophet seems to say, "when I went to try to get some nourishment by eating bread, I was disappointed; my teeth were broken with gravel stones."

I remember when I used to go up to the house of God to try to get comfort; but, instead, I came away more wretched than I went, for sin, that great devouring dragon, still followed me everywhere.