Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Lamentations 3:15
He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
15. wormwood ] See on Jer 9:15; Jer 23:15.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 15. He hath filled me with bitterness] bimrorim, with bitternesses, bitter upon bitter.
He hath made me drunken with wormwood.] I have drunk the cup of misery till I am intoxicated with it. Almost in all countries, and in all languages, bitterness is a metaphor to express trouble and affliction. The reason is, there is nothing more disagreeable to the taste than the one; and nothing more distressing to the mind than the other. An Arabic poet. Amralkeis, one of the writers of the Moallakat, terms a man grievously afflicted [Arabic] a pounder of wormwood.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That is, he hath filled me with severe and bitter dispensations.
Wormwood is a bitter herb, but it is also a wholesome herb, and therefore some think that the Hebrew word should rather be translated henbane, and that it signifies some herb whose juice is intoxicating and poisonous.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. wormwood (Jer9:15). There it is regarded as food, namely, the leaves:here as drink, namely, the juice.
Vau.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
He hath filled me with bitterness,…. Or “with bitternesses” m; instead of food, bitter herbs; the allusion perhaps is to the bitter herbs eaten at the passover, and signify bitter afflictions, sore calamities, of which the prophet and his people had their fill. The Targum is,
“with the gall of serpents;”
see Job 20:14;
he hath made me drunken with wormwood; with wormwood drink; but this herb being a wholesome one, though bitter, some think that henbane, or wolfsbane, is rather meant, which is of a poisonous and intoxicating nature; it is no unusual thing for persons to be represented as drunk with affliction, Isa 51:17.
m “amaritudinibus”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Michaelis, “amaroribus”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Some render the last word “wormwood,” but this word seems not to me to suit the passage, for though wormwood is bitter, yet it is a wholesome herb. I therefore take it in this and like places for poison or gall; and ראש, rash, as we shall see, is joined with it. To satiate, is also a metaphor very common. Then the Prophet means that lie was full of bitterness and gall; and lie thus had regard to those calamities from which so much sorrow had proceeded.
We hence also gather that the faithful were not free from sorrow in their evils, for bitterness and gall sufficiently shew that their minds were so disturbed that they did not bear their troubles with sufficient patience. But they struggled with their own infirmity, and the example is set before us that we may not despond when bitterness and gall lay hold on our minds; for since the same thing happened to the best servants of God, let us bear in mind our own infirmity, and at the same time flee to God. The unbelieving nourish their bitterness, for they do not unburden their souls into the bosom of God. But the best way of comfort is, when we do not flatter ourselves in our bitterness and grief, but seek the purifying of our souls, and in a manner lay them open, so that whatever bitter thing may be there, God may take it away and so feed us, as it is said elsewhere, with the sweetness of his goodness. He adds, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(15) Bitterness.The Hebrew gives the plural, bitternesses. With these, the sorrows which are as the bitter herbs of life (the same word meets us in Exo. 12:8, and Num. 9:11), the mourner had been filled even to satiety, even as he had been made drunk with wormwood.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Lam 3:15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
Ver. 15. He hath filled me with bitterness. ] Heb., Bitternesses: a alluding, as some think, to that ius seu embamma in quo intingebant agnum Paschalem, sauce of bitter herbs wherewith they did eat the Passover – the juice of them expressed – to mind them of the bitter afflictions which they suffered in Egypt.
He hath made me drunk with wormwood.
a Exarescunt torrentes, metalla exhauriuntur, flumina deficiunt, prata item cum structibus, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
filled: Lam 3:19, Rth 1:20, Job 9:18, Psa 60:3, Isa 51:17-22, Jer 9:15, Jer 23:15, Jer 25:15-18, Jer 25:27
bitterness: Heb. bitternesses
Reciprocal: 1Sa 1:10 – in bitterness of soul Psa 88:3 – soul Psa 102:9 – I Have Pro 20:17 – his Isa 51:20 – full Isa 63:6 – make Jer 23:9 – like a drunken Jer 25:16 – General Jer 48:26 – ye him
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lam 3:15. Wormwood is an herb that has a bitter juice, and it is used in symbolic language to illustrate any bitter or unpleasant experience. The prophet regards himself as having to taste it through the chastisement which the Lord had brought upon the nation of which he was a member.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
3:15 He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunk with {f} wormwood.
(f) With great anguish and sorrow he has made me lose my sense.