John Calvin Commentary Lamentations 3:5

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

The words, as translated, may seem harsh, yet they possess uncommon beauty in Hebrew. The Prophet says he was blocked up and confined, as it were, by walls; and as we will 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 anyone, we build mounds, so that there may be no escape. This, then, is the kind of building of which the Prophet now speaks: God, he says, holds me confined all around, so that there is no way of escape open to me.

He then gives a clearer explanation: that he was surrounded by gall (or poison) and trouble. He mentions poison first, and then, literally, he shows what that poison was—namely, that he was afflicted with many troubles. He afterwards adds—