Lamentations 3:5
What does Lamentations 3:5 mean?
A plain-English look at Lamentations 3:5 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Lamentations 3:5 means
God is pictured as a besieging enemy who has built fortifications against the sufferer. He is surrounded not by mercy, but by “gall and travail”—bitterness and hard labor. The imagery evokes a city hemmed in by siege works, cut off from relief. The bitterness suggests the inner taste of grief; the travail points to exhausting toil merely to survive. This is how the fall of Jerusalem felt: no way out, no sweetness left. The verse affirms that when God judges, He can encircle life so thoroughly that grief saturates every side, compelling the humbled soul to look nowhere but up.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
KJV
King James Version · 1611He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949He has put up a wall against me, shutting me in with bitter sorrow.
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862He hath built up against me, And setteth round poverty and weariness.
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Beth. He hath built round about me, and he hath compassed me with gall, and labour.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890He hath built against me, and encompassed [me] with gall and toil.
Context
The poem shifts from bodily breakdown to military imagery. Verses 6–9 will deepen this, moving from darkness like the grave, to chains and walls, to blocked and crooked paths. The surrounding “gall and travail” accents how all avenues feel bitter and burdensome. This context sets the stage for a hard-won hope: later, when compassion and faithfulness are recalled, it will be against the backdrop of total encirclement, making the hope credible instead of naïve.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Jeremiah 9:15
therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
- Jeremiah 8:14
Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for Jehovah our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Jehovah.
- Job 19:8
He hath walled up my way that I cannot pass, And hath set darkness in my paths.
- Psalms 69:21
They gave me also gall for my food; And in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
- Jeremiah 23:15
Therefore thus saith Jehovah 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 ungodliness gone forth into all the land.
- Lamentations 3:7
He hath walled me about, that I cannot go forth; he hath made my chain heavy.
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