God has forced the man to consume revolting food and drink. This should be understood metaphorically. Bitter herbs (also translated as gall
or wormwood
) were used in the Passover meal (see Exodus 12:8; Numbers 9:11). It was also used for medicinal purposes. It was unpleasant to eat and would be left to the last, even in the severest famine. Along with this he had to drink the sap of a bitter tasting shrub called wormwood.
Although this substance can be drunk in small quantities, the writer is forced to drink it to saturation. Although this is also a metaphor, it stands for severe suffering imposed by God (see Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15).1
15 He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.