3748 verses about Suffering

Behold, then I would wander far off. I would lodge in the wilderness.” Selah.

For it was not an enemy who insulted me, then I could have endured it. Neither was it he who hated me who raised himself up against me, then I would have hidden myself from him.

Evening, morning, and at noon, I will cry out in distress. He will hear my voice.

Be merciful to me, God, for man wants to swallow me up. All day long, he attacks and oppresses me.

My enemies want to swallow me up all day long, for they are many who fight proudly against me.

All day long they twist my words. All their thoughts are against me for evil.

They conspire and lurk, watching my steps, they are eager to take my life.

You count my wanderings. You put my tears into your bottle. Aren’t they in your book?

My soul is among lions. I lie among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.

Let them be like a snail which melts and passes away, like the stillborn child, who has not seen the sun.

For, behold, they lie in wait for my soul. The mighty gather themselves together against me, not for my disobedience, nor for my sin, Yahweh.

I have done no wrong, yet they are ready to attack me. Rise up, behold, and help me!

They shall wander up and down for food, and wait all night if they aren’t satisfied.

God, you have rejected us. You have broken us down. You have been angry. Restore us, again.

You have made the land tremble. You have torn it. Mend its fractures, for it quakes.

You have shown your people hard things. You have made us drink the wine that makes us stagger.

Haven’t you, God, rejected us? You don’t go out with our armies, God.

How long will you assault a man, would all of you throw him down, Like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?

For you, God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined.

You brought us into prison. You laid a burden on our backs.

You allowed men to ride over our heads. We went through fire and through water, but you brought us to the place of abundance.

which my lips promised, and my mouth spoke, when I was in distress.

Save me, God, for the waters have come up to my neck!

I sink in deep mire, where there is no foothold. I have come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.

I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry. My eyes fail, looking for my God.

Those who hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head. Those who want to cut me off, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. I have to restore what I didn’t take away.

Because for your sake, I have borne reproach. Shame has covered my face.

I have become a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s children.

For the zeal of your house consumes me. The reproaches of those who reproach you have fallen on me.

When I wept and I fasted, that was to my reproach.

When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.

Those who sit in the gate talk about me. I am the song of the drunkards.

Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters.

Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.

Don’t hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress. Answer me speedily!

You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonor. My adversaries are all before you.

Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness. I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none.

They also gave me gall for my food. In my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink.

Let their eyes be darkened, so that they can’t see. Let their backs be continually bent.

For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.

But I am in pain and distress. Let your salvation, God, protect me.

For Yahweh hears the needy, and doesn’t despise his captive people.

For my enemies talk about me. Those who watch for my soul conspire together,

saying, “God has forsaken him. Pursue and take him, for no one will rescue him.”

Let my accusers be disappointed and consumed. Let them be covered with disgrace and scorn who want to harm me.

You, who have shown us many and bitter troubles, you will let me live. You will bring us up again from the depths of the earth.

Increase my honor, and comfort me again.

For he will deliver the needy when he cries; the poor, who has no helper.

He will have pity on the poor and needy. He will save the souls of the needy.

He will redeem their soul from oppression and violence. Their blood will be precious in his sight.

But as for me, my feet were almost gone. My steps had nearly slipped.

They are free from burdens of men, neither are they plagued like other men.

Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence,

For all day long I have been plagued, and punished every morning.

When I tried to understand this, it was too painful for me;

Surely you set them in slippery places. You throw them down to destruction.

How they are suddenly destroyed! They are completely swept away with terrors.

For my soul was grieved. I was embittered in my heart.

My flesh and my heart fails, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture?

Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary.

Your adversaries have roared in the middle of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs.

They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name.

We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.

How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever?

Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it from your chest and consume them!

Don’t deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don’t forget the life of your poor forever.

Don’t let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name.

Don’t forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.

when God arose to judgment, to save all the afflicted ones of the earth. Selah.

Surely the wrath of man praises you. The survivors of your wrath are restrained.

In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.

I remember God, and I groan. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed. Selah.

You hold my eyelids open. I am so troubled that I can’t speak.

“Will the Lord reject us forever? Will he be favorable no more?

Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he, in anger, withheld his compassion?” Selah.

Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary’s hand.

He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.

God, the nations have come into your inheritance. They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps.

They have given the dead bodies of your servants to be food for the birds of the sky, the flesh of your saints to the animals of the earth.

Their blood they have shed like water around Jerusalem. There was no one to bury them.

We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and derision to those who are around us.

For they have devoured Jacob, and destroyed his homeland.

Don’t hold the iniquities of our forefathers against us. Let your tender mercies speedily meet us, for we are in desperate need.

Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let it be known among the nations, before our eyes, that vengeance for your servants’ blood is being poured out.

Let the sighing of the prisoner come before you. According to the greatness of your power, preserve those who are sentenced to death.

Yahweh God of Armies, How long will you be angry against the prayer of your people?

You have fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure.

You make us a source of contention to our neighbors. Our enemies laugh among themselves.

Why have you broken down its walls, so that all those who pass by the way pluck it?

The boar out of the wood ravages it. The wild animals of the field feed on it.

It’s burned with fire. It’s cut down. They perish at your rebuke.

God, don’t keep silent. Don’t keep silent, and don’t be still, God.