John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 3:12

"He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow." — Lamentations 3:12 (ASV)

Here the Prophet introduces another metaphor: God had shot him with arrows, as he was made a mark for them. Jeremiah has elsewhere often used the word מתרא, methera, for a prison, but here it means a mark at which arrows are aimed; and such is its meaning in Job 16:12, where a similar complaint is made.

The meaning is that the people, in whose name Jeremiah speaks, had been like marks, because God had directed all His arrows against them. It is, indeed, a fearful thing when God aims at us, that He may discharge His darts and arrows in order to hit and wound us. But as God had so grievously afflicted His people that He seemed to have poured out all His vengeance, the Prophet justly complains that the people had been like marks for arrows.