Lamentations 3:5

5 BETH. He has built against me, and compassed my head, and brought travail .

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 Nay, against me has he turned his hand all the day.
4 He has made old my flesh and my skin; he has broken my bones.
5 BETH. He has built against me, and compassed my head, and brought travail .
6 He has set me in dark places, as them that have long been dead.
7 He has builded against me, and I cannot come forth: he has made my brazen heavy.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.