Lamentations 3:5

Lam 3:5 He hath builded against me, and compassed [me] with gall and travail.

Ver. 5. He hath builded against me.] Bulwarks and batteries.

And compassed me with gall and travel.] Or, With venom and vexation. See Jer 8:14. In these and the like hyperbolic expressions we must note that words are too weak to utter the greatness of the saints’ grief, when they lie under the sense of God’s wrath and heavy displeasure.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He speaketh this, as one that felt God’s heavy judgment, which he greatly feared, and therefore setteth them out with this diversity of words.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

builded--mounds, as against a besieged city, so as to allow none to escape (so Lam 3:7, Lam 3:9).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 5. 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The words, as translated, may seem harsh, yet they have no common beauty in Hebrew. The Prophet says he was blocked up and straitened as it were by walls; and as we shall see, he repeats this comparison three times; in other words, indeed, but for the same purpose.

God, he says, hath built against me, as, when we wish to besiege any one, we build mounds, so that there may be no escape. This, then, is the sort of building of which the Prophet now speaks: God, he says, holds me confined all around, so that there is no way of escape open to me.

He then gives a clearer explanation, that he was surrounded by gall or poison and trouble. He mentions poison first, and then, without a figure, he shews what that poison was, even that he was afflicted with many troubles. He afterwards adds, —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(5) He hath builded.—The attack of sorrow is presented under the figure of a siege. In the next clause the figure is dropped. “Gall” stands, as in Jer_8:14, for bitterest sorrow. “Travel” is the old English form of “travail,” the two forms, originally identical, being now used with different meanings.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. He hath builded against me, and compassed] Here as in Lam_3:3 we have to deal with the idiom by which two verbs are used where we should in English have a verb and adverb. Translate therefore He hath builded against me round about.

gall] See on Jer_8:14. The combination with “travail” suggests some corruption in the text. Löhr adopts for his translation (though with some hesitation) bitterness and wormwood.

travail] weariness, hardship. From 1611 to the American edition of 1867 all editions of the Authorized Version had travel both here and in the case of Num_20:14. It was probably in comparatively recent times that the two modes of spelling came to be definitely appropriated to distinct meanings of the word.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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" (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; encompassed with sorrows, Mat 26:38. The Targum is,

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

(e) "et fatigatione", Montanus, Vatablus, Castalio.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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).

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Gall. Septuagint, "head." Chaldean, "he hath seized the chief," Job xvi. 13. He speaks in the name of the besieged, who had been threatened with this punishment, ver. 19., and chap. viii. 14. (Calmet) --- And labour. Nabuzardan ransacked the city worse than his master, (Worthington) if the latter was at all present. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

He hath not builded with me, increasing my prosperity, and protecting my houses, but he hath builded forts, and batteries, and castles, (military buildings,) to batter down my walls and houses, Isa 29:2,3. And compassed me with gall and travel; or with poison, venom, and misery, as some translate it; and it seems more proper than gall and travel, which have no cognation one with another. We are not well acquainted with the ancient dialect of other countries: the sense is obvious, God had surrounded them with misery and calamities.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. Hath builded against me — As besiegers enclose a city.

Gall and travail — A most extraordinary combination surely, but not unlike Jeremiah. “Gall” is the name of a bitter plant which has come to be synonymous with keen suffering, and so it seems to be used here co-ordinate with “travail.”

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He hath builded against me, and compassed me. A figure from the siege of a town. Gall. For the true meaning of the word, see on Jer_8:14. We need not trouble ourselves about it here, for the word is evidently used as a kind of "ideograph" for bitterness. Travel; literally, weariness.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Builded - He hath built forts and batteries against my walls and houses.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

He built up siege works against me

Siege works are ramps that an army builds around a city to enable them to climb over the city walls and invade the city.

He built up siege works against me

Possible meanings are 1) the author speaks of God causing bad things to happen to him as if he were a city and God was an enemy that built up siege works against him. AT: "God attacked me like an enemy army that sets up siege works around a city" or 2) the author speaks of God causing the enemy army to attack Jerusalem as if God were the enemy. AT: "God caused the enemy army to build up siege works against me" (See: Metaphor)

surrounded me with bitterness and hardship

This represents God causing him to experience much bitterness and hardship. AT: "caused me to experience much bitterness and hardship" or "caused me to suffer and have many problems" (See: Metaphor)

bitterness

Here "bitterness" represents suffering. (See: Metaphor)

He made me live in dark places, like those who died long ago

Here "dark places" is a metaphor for suffering. The author compares the intensity of his suffering to the intensity of the darkness that those who died long ago experience. AT: "The suffering that he causes me is intense like the darkness of the grave" or "He makes me suffer terribly, as if I were in the darkness of those who died long ago" (See: Metaphor and Simile)

He built a wall around me and I cannot escape. He made my chains heavy

This represents the continuing suffering. Like a person who cannot escape from prison, the author cannot make his suffering stop. AT: "My suffering continues. It is as though he has built a wall around me and put heavy chains on me, and I cannot escape" (See: Metaphor)

he shut out my prayer

The author speaks about God refusing to listen to his prayers as though God was shutting his ears so that the author's prayers could not go into them. AT: "he refuses to hear my prayer" (See: Idiom)

translationWords

siege

darkness

die

pray

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

and encompassed He encompassed me.

gall Heb. רֹאשּׁ, like (Deut. 29: “gall (רֹאשּׁ) and wormwood.” The Midrash Aggadah (Lam. Rabhah), states: רֹאשּׁ refers to Nebuchadnezzar in the exile of Jehoiachin. travail Nebuzaradan, who completed the blow in the days of Zedekiah, and he wearied me.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.