3748 verses about Suffering

but all the Israelites went down to the Philistines, each man to sharpen his own plowshare, mattock, ax, and sickle.

Now Yahweh’s Spirit departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from Yahweh troubled him.

Saul’s servants said to him, “See now, an evil spirit from God troubles you.

Abiathar told David that Saul had slain Yahweh’s priests.

Moreover Yahweh will deliver Israel also with you into the hand of the Philistines; and tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Yahweh will deliver the army of Israel also into the hand of the Philistines.”

The woman came to Saul, and saw that he was very troubled, and said to him, “Behold, your servant has listened to your voice, and I have put my life in my hand, and have listened to your words which you spoke to me.

When David and his men had come to Ziklag on the third day, the Amalekites had made a raid on the South, and on Ziklag, and had struck Ziklag, and burned it with fire,

When David and his men came to the city, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters were taken captive.

Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voice and wept until they had no more power to weep.

David’s two wives were taken captive, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

David asked him, “To whom do you belong? Where are you from?” He said, “I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days ago I got sick.

Now the Philistines fought against Israel; and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines, and fell down slain on Mount Gilboa.

The Philistines overtook Saul and on his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, the sons of Saul.

The battle went hard against Saul, and the archers overtook him; and he was greatly distressed by reason of the archers.

Then Saul said to his armor bearer, “Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through, and abuse me!” But his armor bearer would not; for he was terrified. Therefore Saul took his sword, and fell on it.

When his armor bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword, and died with him.

So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor bearer, and all his men, that same day together.

On the next day, when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa.

They put his armor in the house of the Ashtaroth, and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth Shan.

After the death of Saul, when David had returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had stayed two days in Ziklag;

David said to him, “Where do you come from?” He said to him, “I have escaped out of the camp of Israel.”

David said to him, “How did it go? Please tell me.” He answered, “The people have fled from the battle, and many of the people also have fallen and are dead. Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also.”

The young man who told him said, “As I happened by chance on Mount Gilboa, behold, Saul was leaning on his spear; and behold, the chariots and the horsemen followed close behind him.

He said to me, ‘Please stand beside me, and kill me; for anguish has taken hold of me, because my life lingers in me.’

Then David took hold on his clothes, and tore them; and all the men who were with him did likewise.

They mourned, wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of Yahweh, and for the house of Israel; because they had fallen by the sword.

“Your glory, Israel, was slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen!

You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain on you, and no fields of offerings; For there the shield of the mighty was defiled and cast away, The shield of Saul was not anointed with oil.

How the mighty have fallen in the middle of the battle! Jonathan was slain on your high places.

How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war have perished!”

Then Abner called to Joab, and said, “Shall the sword devour forever? Don’t you know that it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long will it be then, before you ask the people to return from following their brothers?”

Joab returned from following Abner; and when he had gathered all the people together, nineteen men of David’s and Asahel were missing.

They took up Asahel, and buried him in the tomb of his father, which was in Bethlehem. Joab and his men went all night, and the day broke on them at Hebron.

David said to Joab, and to all the people who were with him, “Tear your clothes, and clothe yourselves with sackcloth, and mourn in front of Abner.” King David followed the bier.

Your hands weren’t bound, and your feet weren’t put into fetters. As a man falls before the children of iniquity, so you fell.” All the people wept again over him.

I am weak today, though anointed king. These men, the sons of Zeruiah are too hard for me. May Yahweh reward the evildoer according to his wickedness.”

Now Jonathan, Saul’s son, had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news came about Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel; and his nurse picked him up and fled. As she hurried to flee, he fell and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth.

The men of the city went out, and fought with Joab. Some of the people fell, even of David’s servants; and Uriah the Hittite died also.

The shooters shot at your servants from off the wall; and some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.”

However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to Yahweh’s enemies to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you will surely die.”

Nathan departed to his house. Yahweh struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it was very sick.

David therefore begged God for the child; and David fasted, and went in, and lay all night on the ground.

The elders of his house arose beside him, to raise him up from the earth: but he would not, and he didn’t eat bread with them.

On the seventh day, the child died. David’s servants were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, “Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he didn’t listen to our voice. How will he then harm himself, if we tell him that the child is dead?”

But when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David perceived that the child was dead; and David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” They said, “He is dead.”

He said, “While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who knows whether Yahweh will not be gracious to me, that the child may live?’

But now he is dead, why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.”

However he would not listen to her voice; but being stronger than she, he forced her, and lay with her.

She said to him, “Not so, because this great wrong in sending me away is worse than the other that you did to me!” But he would not listen to her.

She had a garment of various colors on her; for the king’s daughters who were virgins dressed in such robes. Then his servant brought her out and bolted the door after her.

Tamar put ashes on her head, and tore her garment of various colors that was on her; and she laid her hand on her head, and went her way, crying aloud as she went.

Absalom her brother said to her, “Has Amnon your brother been with you? But now hold your peace, my sister. He is your brother. Don’t take this thing to heart.” So Tamar remained desolate in her brother Absalom’s house.

The servants of Absalom did to Amnon as Absalom had commanded. Then all the king’s sons arose, and every man got up on his mule, and fled.

Then the king arose, and tore his garments, and lay on the earth; and all his servants stood by with their clothes torn.

As soon as he had finished speaking, behold, the king’s sons came, and lifted up their voice, and wept. The king also and all his servants wept bitterly.

But Absalom fled, and went to Talmai the son of Ammihur, king of Geshur. David mourned for his son every day.

All the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed over. The king also himself passed over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over, toward the way of the wilderness.

but if he says, ‘I have no delight in you;’ behold, here am I. Let him do to me as seems good to him.”

David went up by the ascent of the Mount of Olives, and wept as he went up; and he had his head covered, and went barefoot: and all the people who were with him each covered his head, and they went up, weeping as they went up.

When David had come to the top, where God was worshiped, behold, Hushai the Archite came to meet him with his coat torn, and earth on his head.

When king David came to Bahurim, behold, a man of the family of Saul’s house came out, whose name was Shimei, the son of Gera. He came out and cursed as he came.

He cast stones at David, and at all the servants of king David, and all the people and all the mighty men were on his right hand and on his left.

The king said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah? Because he curses, and because Yahweh has said to him, ‘Curse David;’ who then shall say, ‘Why have you done so?’”

David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, “Behold, my son, who came out of my bowels, seeks my life. How much more this Benjamite, now? Leave him alone, and let him curse; for Yahweh has invited him.

It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for the cursing of me today.”

So David and his men went by the way; and Shimei went along on the hillside opposite him, and cursed as he went, threw stones at him, and threw dust.

The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate, and wept. As he went, he said, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! I wish I had died for you, Absalom, my son, my son!”

The victory that day was turned into mourning among all the people; for the people heard it said that day, “The king grieves for his son.”

The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, “My son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!”

Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither groomed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.

Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still.

He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before Yahweh, and all seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest.

Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night.

David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done.

So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa;

The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint;

The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death caught me.

In my distress, I called on Yahweh. Yes, I called to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry came into his ears.

They came on me in the day of my calamity, but Yahweh was my support.

They looked, but there was no one to save; even to Yahweh, but he didn’t answer them.

and Uriah the Hittite: thirty-seven in all.

So Gad came to David, and told him, and said to him, “Shall seven years of famine come to you in your land? Or will you flee three months before your foes while they pursue you? Or shall there be three days’ pestilence in your land? Now answer, and consider what answer I shall return to him who sent me.”

To Abiathar the priest the king said, “Go to Anathoth, to your own fields; for you are worthy of death. But I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the Lord Yahweh’s ark before David my father, and because you were afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted.”

This woman’s child died in the night, because she lay on it.

“When your people Israel are struck down before the enemy, because they have sinned against you; if they turn again to you, and confess your name, and pray and make supplication to you in this house;

“If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is;

If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn’t sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near;

For when David was in Edom, and Joab the captain of the army had gone up to bury the slain, and had struck every male in Edom

I will afflict the offspring of David for this, but not forever.’”

Now my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.’”

Jeroboam’s wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to Ahijah’s house. Now Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age.

Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to Tirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the child died.

There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, and all his might, and all that he did, and the cities which he built, aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.

She said, “As Yahweh your God lives, I don’t have a cake, but a handful of meal in a jar, and a little oil in a jar. Behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and bake it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.”

After these things, the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, became sick; and his sickness was so severe that there was no breath left in him.

She said to Elijah, “What have I to do with you, you man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to memory, and to kill my son!”

He cried to Yahweh, and said, “Yahweh my God, have you also brought evil on the widow with whom I am staying, by killing her son?”

Elijah went to show himself to Ahab. The famine was severe in Samaria.