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Read the Bible

Contemporary English Version

Job 23:2

Today I complain bitterly, because God has been cruel and made me suffer.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - God Continued...;   Thompson Chain Reference - Complaints;   Content-Discontent;   Discontent;  

Dictionaries:

- Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Heart;   Love to God;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Intercession;   Job, the Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Bitter;   Groan;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Today also my complaint is bitter.His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
Hebrew Names Version
"Even today is my complaint rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
King James Version
Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
English Standard Version
"Today also my complaint is bitter; my hand is heavy on account of my groaning.
New Century Version
"My complaint is still bitter today. I groan because God's heavy hand is on me.
New English Translation
"Even today my complaint is still bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning.
Amplified Bible
"Even today my complaint is contentious; His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
New American Standard Bible
"Even today my complaint is rebellion; His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
World English Bible
"Even today is my complaint rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Though my talke be this day in bitternes, and my plague greater then my groning,
Legacy Standard Bible
"Even today my musing is rebellion;His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
Berean Standard Bible
"Even today my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
Complete Jewish Bible
"Today too my complaint is bitter; my hand is weighed down because of my groaning.
Darby Translation
Even to-day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Easy-to-Read Version
"I am still complaining today. I groan because God is still making me suffer.
George Lamsa Translation
Even today is my complaint bitter; Gods hand is heavier and increases my groaning.
Lexham English Bible
"Even today my complaint is bitter; my hand is heavy in addition to my groaning.
Literal Translation
Even today my complaint is bitter; my hand is heavy over my groaning.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
My sayenge is yet this daye in bytternes, and my hande heuy amonge my groninges.
American Standard Version
Even to-day is my complaint rebellious: My stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Bible in Basic English
Even today my outcry is bitter; his hand is hard on my sorrow.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Even to-day is my complaint bitter; my hand is become heavy because of my groaning.
King James Version (1611)
Euen to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heauier then my groning.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Though my talke be this day in bitternesse, and my plague greater then my groning.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Yea, I know that pleading is out of my reach; and his hand has been made heavy upon my groaning.
English Revised Version
Even today is my complaint rebellious: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Now also my word is in bitternesse, and the hond of my wounde is agreggid on my weilyng.
Update Bible Version
Even today is my complaint rebellious: My hand is heavy on my groaning.
Webster's Bible Translation
Even to-day [is] my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
New King James Version
"Even today my complaint is bitter;My [fn] hand is listless because of my groaning.
New Living Translation
"My complaint today is still a bitter one, and I try hard not to groan aloud.
New Life Bible
"Even today my complaining is bitter. His hand is heavy even when I cry inside myself.
New Revised Standard
"Today also my complaint is bitter; his hand is heavy despite my groaning.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Even to-day, is my complaint rebellion? His hand, is heavier than my groaning.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Now also my words are in bitterness, and the hand of my scourge is more grievous than my mourning.
Revised Standard Version
"Today also my complaint is bitter, his hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
Young's Literal Translation
Also -- to-day [is] my complaint bitter, My hand hath been heavy because of my sighing.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Even today my complaint is rebellion; His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

Contextual Overview

1 Job's Reply to Eliphaz Job said: 2 Today I complain bitterly, because God has been cruel and made me suffer. 3 If I knew where to find God, I would go there 4 and argue my case. 5 Then I would discover what he wanted to say. 6 Would he overwhelm me with his greatness? No! He would listen 7 because I am innocent, and he would say, "I now set you free!"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

my complaint: Job 6:2, Job 10:1, Lamentations 3:19, Lamentations 3:20, Psalms 77:2-9

stroke: Heb. hand

heavier: Job 11:6

Reciprocal: Job 1:18 - there came Job 3:10 - hid Psalms 6:6 - I am Jeremiah 45:3 - added

Cross-References

Genesis 13:18
Abram took down his tents and went to live near the sacred trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar in honor of the Lord .
Genesis 23:14
"But sir," the man replied, "the property is worth only four hundred pieces of silver. Why should we haggle over such a small amount? Take the land. It's yours."
Genesis 23:16
Abraham accepted Ephron's offer and paid him the four hundred pieces of silver in front of everyone at the city gate. That's how Abraham got Ephron's property east of Hebron, which included the field with all of its trees, as well as Machpelah Cave at the end of the field.
Genesis 23:19
So Abraham buried his wife Sarah in Machpelah Cave that was in the field
Genesis 27:41
Esau hated his brother Jacob because he had stolen the blessing that was supposed to be his. So he said to himself, "Just as soon as my father dies, I'll kill Jacob."
Genesis 50:10
After crossing the Jordan River and reaching Atad's threshing place, Joseph had everyone mourn and weep seven days for his father.
Numbers 13:22
As they went through the Southern Desert, they came to the town of Hebron, which was seven years older than the Egyptian town of Zoan. In Hebron, they saw the three Anakim clans of Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai.
Numbers 20:29
the people knew that Aaron had died, and they mourned his death for thirty days.
Deuteronomy 34:8
The people of Israel stayed in the lowlands of Moab, where they mourned and grieved thirty days for Moses, as was their custom.
Joshua 10:39
They captured the town, and its nearby villages. Then they destroyed Debir and killed its king, together with everyone else, just as they had done with Hebron and Libnah.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Even today [is] my complaint bitter,.... Job's afflictions were continued on him long; he was made to possess months of vanity; and, as he had been complaining ever since they were upon him, he still continued to complain to that day, "even" after all the comforts his friends pretended to administer to him, as Jarchi observes: his complaints were concerning his afflictions, and his friends' ill usage of him under them; not of injustice in God in afflicting him, though he thought he dealt severely with him; but of the greatness of his afflictions, they being intolerable, and his strength unequal to them, and therefore death was more eligible to him than life; and he complained of God's hiding his face from him, and not hearing him, nor showing him wherefore he contended with him, nor admitting an hearing of his cause before him: and this complaint of his was "bitter": the things he complained of were such, bitter afflictions, like the waters of Marah the Israelites could not drink of, Exodus 15:23; there was a great deal of wormwood and gall in his affliction and misery; and it was in a bitter way, in the bitterness of his soul, he made his complaint; and, what made his case still worse, he could not utter any complaint, so much as a sigh or a groan, but it was reckoned "provocation", or "stubbornness [and] rebellion", by his friends; so some render the word x, as Mr. Broughton does, "this day my sighing is holden a rebellion": there is indeed a great deal of rebellion oftentimes in the hearts, words and actions, conduct and behaviour, even of good men under afflictions, as were in the Israelites in the wilderness; and a difficult thing it is to complain without being guilty of it; though complaints may be without it, yet repinings and murmurings are always attended with it:

and my stroke is heavier than my groaning; or "my hand" y, meaning either his own hand, which was heavy, and hung down, his spirits failing, his strength being exhausted, and so his hands weak, feeble, and remiss, that he could not hold them up through his afflictions, and his groanings under them, see Psalms 102:5; or the hand of God upon him, his afflicting hand, which had touched him and pressed hard upon him, and lay heavy, and was heavier than his groanings showed; though he groaned much, he did not groan more, nor so much, as his afflictions called for; and therefore it was no wonder that his complaint was bitter, nor should it be reckoned rebellion and provocation; see Job 6:2.

x מרי "exacerbatio", Montanus, Vatablus, Schmidt; "exasperatio", Mercerus, Drusius; "pertinacia", Bolducius; "contumacia habetur", Cocceius; "rebellionem haberi", Junius Tremellius "rebellio est", Piscator, Codurcus. y ידי "manus mea", Montanus, Vatablus, Mercerus, Drusius, Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Even to-day - At the present time. I am not relieved. You afford me no consolation. All that you say only aggravates my woes.

My complaint - See the notes at Job 21:3.

Bitter - Sad, melancholy, distressing. The meaning is, not that he made bitter complaints in the sense which those words would naturally convey, or that he meant to find fault with God, but that his case was a hard one. His friends furnished him no relief, and he had in vain endeavored to bring his cause before God. This is now, as he proceeds to state, the principal cause of his difficulty. He knows not where to find God; he cannot get his cause before him.

My stroke - Margin, as in Hebrew “hand;” that is, the hand that is upon me, or the calamity that is inflicted upon me. The hand is represented as the instrument of inflicting punishment, or causing affliction; see the notes at Job 19:21.

Heavier than my groaning - My sighs bear no proportion to my sufferings. They are no adequate expression of my woes. If you think I complain; if I am heard to groan, yet the sufferings which I endure are far beyond what these would secm to indicate. Sighs and groans are not improper. They are prompted by nature, and they furnish “some” relief to a sufferer. But they should not be:

(1) with a spirit of murmuring or complaining;

(2) they should not be beyond what our sufferings demand, or the proper expression of our sufferings. They should not be such as to lead others to suppose we suffer more than we actually do.

(3) they should - when they are extorted from us by the severity of suffering - lead us go look to that world where no groan will ever be heard.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 23:2. Even to-day is my complaint bitter — Job goes on to maintain his own innocence, and shows that he has derived neither conviction nor consolation from the discourses of his friends. He grants that his complaint is bitter; but states that, loud as it may be, the affliction which he endures is heavier than his complaints are loud.

Mr. Good translates: "And still is my complaint rebellion?" Do ye construe my lamentations over my unparalleled sufferings as rebellion against God? This, in fact, they had done from the beginning: and the original will justify the version of Mr. Good; for מרי meri, which we translate bitter, may be derived from מרה marah, "he rebelled."


 
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