Lamentations 3:5

5 Beth. He hath built round about me, and he hath compassed me with gall, and labour.

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 Aleph. Only against me he hath turned, and turned again his hand all the day.

4 Beth. My skin and my flesh he hath made old, he hath broken my bones.

5 Beth. He hath built round about me, and he hath compassed me with gall, and labour.

6 Beth. He hath set me in dark places as those that are dead for ever.

7 Ghimel. He hath built against me round about, that I may not get out: he hath made my fetters heavy.