John Gill Commentary Lamentations 3:11

"He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he hath made me desolate." — Lamentations 3:11 (ASV)

He has turned aside my ways. Or caused me to depart or go back from the way I was in, and so fall into the hand of the enemy that lay in wait, as before. Jarchi interprets the word of thorns, and of scattering the way with thorns, and hedging it up with them, so that there was no passing (Hosea 2:6); the sense seems to be the same with (Lamentations 3:9). And pulled me in pieces: as any creature that falls into the hands of a bear or lion. Jarchi says it signifies a stopping of the feet, so that the traveller cannot go on in his way; and in the Talmudic language it is used for the breaking off of branches of trees, which being strowed in the way, hinder passengers from travelling; and this sense agrees with what goes before. He has made me desolate: or brought me into a desolate condition, into ruin and destruction, as the Jews were in Babylon.