The two half-lines of verse 15, as seen in Revised Standard Version, are fully parallel in meaning. The Hebrew word for the bitterness with which the poet is filled is the same as used of “bitter herbs” in Exodus 12.8. Similarly, wormwood is a plant that yields a bitter-tasting medicinal juice. Translators may keep the metaphorical use of filled me with bitterness and sated me with wormwood, as in both Revised Standard Version and Good News Translation, or they can shift to a nonfigurative expression. If translators follows the second way, they avoid giving the reader the impression that God is intent on curing the man with foul-tasting medicine. We may translate, for example, “He has caused me to suffer greatly, to suffer more than I am able to endure.” It is also possible to combine the figurative expression and the direct meaning by saying, for example, “He has made me suffer like one who is forced to swallow the most bitter liquid.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on Lamentations. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .