Lamentations 3:5 Meaning and Explanation
“He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →He feels besieged by God, surrounded with bitterness and hardship as a city is encircled for siege.
What Does Lamentations 3:5 Mean?
The image is of siege warfare. 'He hath builded against me' pictures God raising siege-works around the sufferer as an army throws up ramparts around a doomed city. He is encircled, cut off, with no way out. The man feels himself the target of a deliberate, closing pressure.
What surrounds him is 'gall and travail' — bitterness and weary hardship. The siege is not of stone but of sorrow; he is walled in by misery on every side. Yet the very intensity of the picture shows how completely his attention is fixed on God as the one who has done this. Even in describing himself as besieged, he keeps God in view, and that refusal to look away will become the door to mercy.
Lamentations 3:5 in the Original Language
rosh (רֹאשׁ), 'gall' -- a bitter, poisonous plant, the taste of concentrated sorrow.
Frequently Asked Questions About Lamentations 3:5
What does Lamentations 3:5 mean?
He feels besieged by God, surrounded with bitterness and hardship as a city is encircled for siege.