John Gill Commentary Lamentations 3:5

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

He has 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" ^F5 ; 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; (perilupov) , encompassed with sorrows, (Matthew 26:38) . The Targum is,

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

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FOOTNOTES:

• F5: (haltw) "et fatigatione", Montanus, Vatablus, Castalio.