Lamentations 3:5
in Lamentations 3He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
KJV
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
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This verse in Lamentations 3
Commentary
7 notes on this verseHe hath builded against me,.... Fortresses, as the Targum adds; as when forts and batteries were raised by the Chaldeans against the city of Jerusalem, in which the prophet was: and compassed me with gall and travail; or "weariness" (e); the same with gall and wormwood, Lam 3:19; as Jarchi observes. The sense is, he was surrounded with sorrow, affliction, and misery, which were as disagreeable as gall; or like poison that drank up his spirits, and made him weary of his life. Thus our Lord was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; περιλυπος, encompassed with sorrows, Mat 26:
This site's exposition
I am the man who has seen affliction
on Lamentations 3:1-6
Chapter 3 is a triple acrostic, sixty-six verses giving three verses to each of the twenty-two letters. The voice moves from the city to one man: “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath”. He is made to “walk in darkness instead of light”.
This site's exposition
He has besieged me
The words come from siege warfare. John Gill and Adam Clarke both saw behind them the mounds the Chaldeans set against the city, and Gill notes the prophet was within it. Gill also ties this bitterness to the gall of Lamentations 3:19, and Albert Barnes reads hardship as weariness.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Verse 4 views the effect of divine blows. It is like a livid spot on a person's body, the effect from a rod inflicting blows. So, about this are three more views. Second is the siege of those people already weakening. Since Verse 5 reports: …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
): " He has built against me, as forts and batteries are built against a besieged city. Where there was a way open it is now quite made up: He has compassed me on ever side with gall and travel;
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens+odd-straight-quotes
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
He hath builded against me - Perhaps there is a reference here to the mounds and ramparts raised by the Chaldeans in order to take the city.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
He hath builded ... - The metaphor is taken from the operations in a siege. Gall and travail - Or “travail;” i. e. bitterness and weariness (through toil).
The words behind it
5 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| בָּנָ֥ה | banah | he has built | H1129 → | |
| עָלַ֛י | ʾalai | on me | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| וַיַּקַּ֖ף | vaiyakaf | and he has surrounded [me] | H5362 → | |
| רֹ֥אשׁ | rosh | poison | H7219 → | |
| וּתְלָאָֽה׃ | utelaah | and hardship | H8513 → |
בָּנָ֥הhe has built
banahH1129 →
עָלַ֛יon me
ʾalaiH5921 →5755 times
וַיַּקַּ֖ףand he has surrounded [me]
vaiyakafH5362 →
רֹ֥אשׁpoison
roshH7219 →
וּתְלָאָֽה׃and hardship
utelaahH8513 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Jeremiah 8:14Why are we just sitting here? Gather together, let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink,…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 9:15
Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Psalms 69:21
They poisoned my food with gall and gave me vinegar to quench my thirst.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 23:15
Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets: “I will feed them wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 9:15
Through
Lamentations 3:19Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
it leads to
- Lamentations 3:15
He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.
Reached by 3 separate paths from here.
- Lamentations 3:15
Through
Jeremiah 23:15Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets: “I will feed them wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout…
it leads to
- Jeremiah 8:14
Why are we just sitting here? Gather together, let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink,…
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Jeremiah 8:14
Through
Job 19:8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
it leads to
- Job 3:23
Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
- Lamentations 3:7
He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
- Proverbs 4:19
But the way of the wicked is like the darkest gloom; they do not know what makes them stumble.
- Job 3:23
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies17
On this verse
On this chapter
About Lamentations
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, Lamentations; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Lamentations.