Bible Strands
Lamentations 3:5
He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses God amid the city's destruction, positioning the verse between the physical wasting of Lamentations 3:4 and the isolated darkness of Lamentations 3:6.
The words — The text employs בָּנָה (ba.Nah), literally "he has built," and וַ/יַּקַּף (va/i.ya.Kaf), "he has surrounded," to describe God enclosing the speaker with רֹאשׁ (rosh, "poison") and תְּלָאָה (te.la.'Ah, "hardship").
The thread — This motif of divine enclosure and bitter affliction parallels the wormwood and gall of Lamentations 3:19, the prophetic judgment of Jeremiah 23:15, and the blocked paths of Job 19:8.
Why it lands — The verse demands acknowledgment that the speaker's suffering is framed as a deliberate divine action, requiring the reader to face the reality of God's sovereignty in affliction without supplying comfort.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
Cross-references
- Lamentations 3:19 Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.
- Jeremiah 23:15 Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says concerning the prophets: “I will feed them wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink, for from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”
- Job 19:8 He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
- Psalms 69:21 They poisoned my food with gall and gave me vinegar to quench my thirst.
- Jeremiah 8:14 Why are we just sitting here? Gather together, let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us. He has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
- Jeremiah 9:15 Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
- Lamentations 3:7 He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.