He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
Parallel translations
- WEB He has built against me, and surrounded me with gall and travail.
- BSB He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
- ESV he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
- NKJV He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.
- NASB He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
- NLT He has besieged and surrounded me with anguish and distress.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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
He feels besieged by God and surrounded with bitterness and hardship. It pictures affliction as an inescapable siege.
Overview
Using military imagery, the sufferer feels God has 'built against' him as a besieger, hemming him in with 'gall and travail.' The bitterness (gall) and weariness surround him on every side. This sense of being besieged by trouble finds its answer in Christ, who endured the bitterest cup so his people might be delivered from final distress (Matthew 26:39).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Lam 3:19Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
- Jer 23:15Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
- Job 19:8He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
- Jer 9:15Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
- Ps 69:21They gave me also gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
- Lam 3:7–9He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
- Jer 8:14Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
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 3:5 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.