Lamentations 3:5

5 He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

Lamentations 3:5 Meaning and Commentary

Lamentations 3:5

He 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" F5; the same with gall and wormwood, ( Lamentations 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; (perilupov) , encompassed with sorrows, ( Matthew 26:38 ) . The Targum is,

``he hath surrounded the city, and rooted up the heads of the people, and caused them to fail.''

FOOTNOTES:

F5 (haltw) "et fatigatione", Montanus, Vatablus, Castalio.

Lamentations 3:5 In-Context

3 Against me alone he turns his hand again and again, all day.
4 He has worn away my skin and flesh, he has broken my bones.
5 He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
6 He has made me live in darkness, like those who are long dead.
7 He has walled me in, so I can't escape; he has weighed me down with chains.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.