Lamentations 3:5 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Lamentations 3:1-20

The title of the Ps. 102:1-28 might very fitly be prefixed to this chapter?The prayer of the afflicted, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the Lord; for it is very feelingly and fluently that the complaint is here poured out. Let us observe the particulars of it. The prophet complains, 1. That God is angry. This gives both birth and bitterness to the affliction (Lam. 3:1): I am the man, the remarkable man, that has seen affliction, and has felt it sensibly, by the rod... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Lamentations 3:5

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" F5 ותלאה "et fatigatione", Montanus, Vatablus, Castalio. ; the same with gall and wormwood, Lamentations 3:19 ; as Jarchi observes. The sense is, he was surrounded with sorrow, affliction, and misery, which were as disagreeable as gall; or like... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 3:5

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. read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Lamentations 3:5

Verse 5 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... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 3:1-21

MONOLOGUE SPOKEN BY AN INDIVIDUAL BELIEVER WHOSE FATE IS BOUND UP WITH THAT OF THE NATION ; OR PERHAPS BY THE NATION PERSONIFIED (see Introduction). read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Lamentations 3:5

He hath builded against me, and compassed me. A figure from the siege of a town. Gall . For the true meaning of the word, see on Jeremiah 8:14 . We need not trouble ourselves about it here, for the word is evidently used as a kind of "ideograph" for bitterness. Travel ; literally, weariness. read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Lamentations 3:5

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). read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Lamentations 3:3-7

Lamentations 3:3-7. Surely against me is he turned The course of his providence toward me is quite altered. He was formerly kind and gracious, but now exercises an afflicting hand against me, and that not occasionally, or for a short time, but continually, all the day. The phrase, He turneth his hand against me, is equivalent to that which occurs Isaiah 1:25, I will turn thy hand upon thee, where see the note. My flesh, &c., hath he made old Hebrew, בלה , hath wasted, caused... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Lamentations 3:1-66

Grief, repentance and hope (3:1-66)This poem is different in style from the previous two. The poet speaks as if he is the representative of all Judah, describing Judah’s sufferings as if they were his own. And those sufferings are God’s righteous judgment (3:1-3). He is like a starving man ready to die. Indeed, he feels as if he already dwells in the world of the dead (4-6). He is like a man chained and locked inside a stone prison from which there is no way out (7-9).To the writer God seems... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - Lamentations 3:5

builded against = built up against. gall. Compare Lamentations 3:19 , and Psalms 69:21 , with Matthew 27:34 . travel = travail, or labour. This line probably is put for the fortifications and the trench. read more