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LAMENTATIONS 3:5 — KING JAMES VERSION 0 0
Lam 3:4Lam 3:6
He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.
He has besieged and enveloped me with bitterness and tribulation—the imagery shifts to siege, suggesting that suffering surrounds the speaker completely, like an army encircling a city. The specific mention of "bitterness and tribulation" personalizes the suffering: it is not merely harsh but bitter, evoking the taste of poison. Theologically, the siege imagery suggests total entrapment: there is no escape, no way out, no space of safety. Yet the metaphor also suggests that, like a besieged city, the sufferer maintains internal existence even while surrounded. The bitterness adds emotional dimension to physical entrapment; the suffering is not only constraining but emotionally toxic. The verse captures the experience of depression and despair: one feels surrounded, boxed in, unable to move or escape.
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Lamentations 3:5 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy