Charles Ellicott Commentary Lamentations 3:5

"He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail." — Lamentations 3:5 (ASV)

He has built. —The attack of sorrow is presented under the figure of a siege. In the next clause the figure is dropped. “Gall” stands, as in Jeremiah 8:14, for bitterest sorrow. “Travel” is the old English form of “travail,” the two forms, originally identical, being now used with different meanings.