Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 3:5
He hath built against me, and compassed [me] with gall and travail.
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. Lhr 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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. buildedmounds, as againsta besieged city, so as to allow none to escape (so Lam 3:7;Lam 3:9).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
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, La 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, Mt 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
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 (175) 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, —
(175) The Sept. , the Targ. , and the Arab. render this “my head;” but the Vulg. and the Syr. , “gall.” It occurs again in Lam 2:19, and is rendered “gall” by the Targ. and all the versions. He was “surrounded with gall,” with what was bitter to him, and “with faintness,” with what made him to faint. Hence, in the next verse, he represents himself as being like the dead. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lam 3:5. Compassed me with gall and travail Broken my head, that I faint away. Schultens.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
builded against = built up against.
gall. Compare Lam 3:19, and Psa 69:21, with Mat 27:34.
travel = travail, or labour. This line probably is put for the fortifications and the trench.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
builded: Lam 3:7-9, Job 19:8
gall: Lam 3:19, Psa 69:21, Jer 8:14, Jer 9:15, Jer 23:15
Reciprocal: Psa 88:17 – They Act 8:23 – the gall Rev 8:11 – Wormwood
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lam 3:5. Budded against me means that God had reared up a wall of chastisement as to the nation in gen-eral. and surrounded the prophet with conditions like gall (bitterness), and travail which means weariness.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
3:5 He hath {b} built against me, and surrounded [me] with gall and labour.
(b) He speaks this as one that felt God’s heavy judgment, which he greatly feared, and therefore sets them out with this diversity of words.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Bitter experiences and hardship had assailed the prophet as Yahweh had judged His people (cf. Jer 8:14). Jeremiah’s existence had turned into a living death for him (cf. Psa 143:3).