Lamentations 3:15

Lamentations 3:15, in plain English

God has filled his innermost being with bitterness—a poisonous spiritual condition that taints everything, like being forced to drink something vile.

Why it's here

Wormwood is bitter, even dangerous. To be intoxicated with it means you can't think clearly, can't find relief or comfort. This describes a state where every emotion is poisoned, where even small moments are tainted by bitterness. It's what prolonged suffering does to a person's inner life.

Who's speaking

The survivor, describing the spiritual and emotional poisoning that suffering has caused.

Where it sits in the story

Wormwood appears in Scripture as a symbol of God's curse and judgment (Jeremiah 9:15). But here, the survivor is naming what it feels like from the inside—not the judgment itself, but the bitterness it produces in the soul.

The scholarly reading

The speaker has been forced to ingest bitterness and wormwood—substances representing poison—until intoxicated and overwhelmed by their taste.

Language and setting

The verb שִׁכְּרַנִי (shikkrani—intoxicated me) employs language normally associated with wine; the substitution of wormwood (לַעֲנָה, laanah—a bitter plant) for wine inverts the possibility of comfort or escape. This may reference both literal deprivation (no nourishing food) and metaphorical poisoning of all that sustains.

Voice

The poisoned sufferer, describing how even basic sustenance has been replaced with what is toxic and intoxicating in its bitterness

Significance

This appears in Jeremiah 9:15 as divine punishment and connects to Revelation's image of the bitter cup, establishing a biblical tradition wherein divine judgment corrupts even what should nourish.

13He pierced my kidneys with His arrows.

14I am a laughingstock to all my people; they mock me in song all day long.

15He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.

16He has ground my teeth with gravel and trampled me in the dust.

17My soul has been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is.

Read all of Lamentations 3 — I am the man who has seen affliction. From the pit, the poet reaches for the only hope left: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies are new every morning.