He has filled me with bitterness. He has sated me with wormwood.
Parallel translations
- KJV He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
- BSB He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.
- NKJV He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink wormwood.
- NASB He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drink plenty of wormwood.
- NLT He has filled me with bitterness and given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God has filled him with bitterness and made him drink wormwood. It pictures suffering as a bitter cup he must swallow.
Overview
Filled with bitterness and sated with 'wormwood' (a bitter plant), the sufferer must consume his sorrow to the full. The cup of bitterness is a recurring image of suffering and judgment in Scripture. Christ drank the truly bitter cup of God's wrath so that his people might be spared and instead receive the cup of blessing (Matthew 26:39; 1 Corinthians 10:16).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Jer 9:15therefore Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
- Jer 25:15–18For Yahweh, the God of Israel, says to me: “take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.
- Ruth 1:20She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara; for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
- Job 9:18He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
- Isa 51:17–22Awake, awake! Stand up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk from Yahweh’s hand the cup of his wrath. You have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it.
- Jer 25:27“You shall tell them, ‘Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Drink, and be drunk, vomit, fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.”’
- Jer 23:15Therefore Yahweh of Armies says concerning the prophets: “Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has gone out into all the land.”
- Ps 60:3You have shown your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger.
- Lam 3:19Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The weeping over a ruined city and the steadfast mercies that are new every morning point to the man of sorrows who wept over Jerusalem and whose mercy rises new from the grave.
How Lamentations 3:15 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.