Lectionary Calendar
Sunday, April 5th, 2026
Easter Sunday
Attention!
Tired of seeing ads while studying? Now you can enjoy an "Ads Free" version of the site for as little as 10¢ a day and support a great cause!
Click here to learn more!

Read the Bible

Good News Translation

Lamentations 3:5

He has shut me in a prison of misery and anguish.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Afflictions and Adversities;   Despondency;   Pain;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Judgments;  

Dictionaries:

- Easton Bible Dictionary - Poison;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Lamentations, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Acrostic;   Lamentations, Book of;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Gall;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Hemlock;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Builder;   Gall;   Travail;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
He has laid siege against me,encircling me with bitterness and hardship.
Hebrew Names Version
He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
King James Version
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
English Standard Version
he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
New American Standard Bible
He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
New Century Version
He surrounded me with sadness and attacked me with grief.
Amplified Bible
He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
World English Bible
He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
Geneva Bible (1587)
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall, and labour.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship.
Legacy Standard Bible
He has besieged and encompassed me with gall and hardship.
Berean Standard Bible
He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
Contemporary English Version
He attacked and surrounded me with hardships and trouble;
Complete Jewish Bible
He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
Darby Translation
He hath built against me, and encompassed [me] with gall and toil.
Easy-to-Read Version
He built up bitterness and trouble against me. He surrounded me with bitterness and trouble.
George Lamsa Translation
He has built ramparts against me, and compassed me with bitterness and travail.
Lexham English Bible
He has besieged and engulfed me with bitterness and hardship.
Literal Translation
He built against me and has put around me bitterness and hardship.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
He hath buylded rounde aboute me, & closed me in with gall and trauayle.
American Standard Version
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
Bible in Basic English
He has put up a wall against me, shutting me in with bitter sorrow.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
King James Version (1611)
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and trauel.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
He hath buylded rounde about me, and closed me in with gall and trauaile.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
BETH. He has built against me, and compassed my head, and brought travail upon me.
English Revised Version
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Beth. He bildid in my cumpas, and he cumpasside me with galle and trauel.
Update Bible Version
He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
Webster's Bible Translation
He hath built against me, and compassed [me] with gall and labor.
New English Translation
He has besieged and surrounded me with bitter hardship.
New King James Version
He has besieged me And surrounded me with bitterness and woe.
New Living Translation
He has besieged and surrounded me with anguish and distress.
New Life Bible
He has shut me in with trouble and suffering.
New Revised Standard
he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
He hath built up against me, and carried round me, fortifications and a trench;
Douay-Rheims Bible
Beth. He hath built round about me, and he hath compassed me with gall, and labour.
Revised Standard Version
he has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation;
Young's Literal Translation
He hath built up against me, And setteth round poverty and weariness.

Contextual Overview

1 I am one who knows what it is to be punished by God. 2 He drove me deeper and deeper into darkness 3 And beat me again and again with merciless blows. 4 He has left my flesh open and raw, and has broken my bones. 5 He has shut me in a prison of misery and anguish. 6 He has forced me to live in the stagnant darkness of death. 7 He has bound me in chains; I am a prisoner with no hope of escape. 8 I cry aloud for help, but God refuses to listen; 9 I stagger as I walk; stone walls block me wherever I turn. 10 He waited for me like a bear; he pounced on me like a lion.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

builded: Lamentations 3:7-9, Job 19:8

gall: Lamentations 3:19, Psalms 69:21, Jeremiah 8:14, Jeremiah 9:15, Jeremiah 23:15

Reciprocal: Psalms 88:17 - They Acts 8:23 - the gall Revelation 8:11 - Wormwood

Cross-References

Genesis 2:17
except the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. You must not eat the fruit of that tree; if you do, you will die the same day."
Genesis 3:2
"We may eat the fruit of any tree in the garden," the woman answered,
Genesis 3:3
"except the tree in the middle of it. God told us not to eat the fruit of that tree or even touch it; if we do, we will die."
Genesis 3:6
The woman saw how beautiful the tree was and how good its fruit would be to eat, and she thought how wonderful it would be to become wise. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, and he also ate it.
Genesis 3:7
As soon as they had eaten it, they were given understanding and realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and covered themselves.
Genesis 3:10
He answered, "I heard you in the garden; I was afraid and hid from you, because I was naked."
Genesis 3:13
The Lord God asked the woman, "Why did you do this?" She replied, "The snake tricked me into eating it."
Genesis 3:14
Then the Lord God said to the snake, "You will be punished for this; you alone of all the animals must bear this curse: From now on you will crawl on your belly, and you will have to eat dust as long as you live.
Genesis 3:15
I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel."
Genesis 3:22
Then the Lord God said, "Now these human beings have become like one of us and have knowledge of what is good and what is bad. They must not be allowed to take fruit from the tree that gives life, eat it, and live forever."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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" e; 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 poison that drank up his spirits, and made him weary of his life. Thus our Lord was exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; περιλυπος, encompassed with sorrows, Matthew 26:38. The Targum is,

"he hath surrounded the city, and rooted up the heads of the people, and caused them to fail.''

e ותלאה "et fatigatione", Montanus, Vatablus, Castalio.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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).

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 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.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile