Lamentations 3:5

5 He has ¹besieged * and encompassed me with ²bitterness 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.''

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Lamentations 3:5 In-Context

3 Surely against me He has turned His hand Repeatedly all the day.

4 He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away, He has broken my bones.

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

6 In dark places He has made me dwell, Like those who have long been dead.

7 He has walled me in so that I cannot go out; He has made my chain heavy.

Cross References

• 1. Job 19:8
• 2. Jeremiah 23:15; Lamentations 3:19