This verse expresses a contrast to the picture of God in Psalms 23 and 80 as the shepherd who leads his people. Driven is used in reference to driving cattle in Genesis 31.18. In relation to people it is used in Isaiah 49.10 with the sense of “lead or guide.” Brought translates a verb meaning “to cause to go, or to walk.” So in pastoral terms we may say, for example, “He led me and made me go” or “He guided me and made me walk.” The place where God has taken him is into darkness without any light, an idiomatic way of saying “into total darkness” or, as New Jerusalem Bible has it, “In unrelieved darkness,” that is, darkness which has no light anywhere. We may also say, as in Biblia Dios Habla Hoy, “He has led me into dark places and made me walk on paths without light.”

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 .