3748 verses about Suffering

He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes.

For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.

He breaks open a shaft away from where people live. They are forgotten by the foot. They hang far from men, they swing back and forth.

“But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?

They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.

They are driven out from among men. They cry after them as after a thief;

So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

Among the bushes they bray; and under the nettles they are gathered together.

“Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and don’t hesitate to spit in my face.

For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.

On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.

They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, without anyone’s help.

As through a wide breach they come, in the middle of the ruin they roll themselves in.

Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

“Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me.

In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.

I cry to you, and you do not answer me. I stand up, and you gaze at me.

You have turned to be cruel to me. With the might of your hand you persecute me.

You lift me up to the wind, and drive me with it. You dissolve me in the storm.

“However doesn’t one stretch out a hand in his fall? Or in his calamity therefore cry for help?

Didn’t I weep for him who was in trouble? Wasn’t my soul grieved for the needy?

When I looked for good, then evil came; When I waited for light, there came darkness.

My heart is troubled, and doesn’t rest. Days of affliction have come on me.

I go mourning without the sun. I stand up in the assembly, and cry for help.

I am a brother to jackals, and a companion to ostriches.

My skin grows black and peels from me. My bones are burned with heat.

Therefore my harp has turned to mourning, and my pipe into the voice of those who weep.

then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone.

oh that I had one to hear me! Behold, here is my signature! Let the Almighty answer me! Let the accuser write my indictment!

If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;

Behold, my breast is as wine which has no vent; like new wineskins it is ready to burst.

Behold, he finds occasions against me. He counts me for his enemy.

He puts my feet in the stocks. He marks all my paths.’

Why do you strive against him, because he doesn’t give account of any of his matters?

He is chastened also with pain on his bed, with continual strife in his bones;

His flesh is so consumed away, that it can’t be seen. His bones that were not seen stick out.

Yes, his soul draws near to the pit, and his life to the destroyers.

“Behold, God does all these things, twice, yes three times, with a man,

to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be enlightened with the light of the living.

For Job has said, ‘I am righteous, God has taken away my right:

Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar. My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.’

What man is like Job, who drinks scorn like water,

In a moment they die, even at midnight. The people are shaken and pass away. The mighty are taken away without a hand.

so that they caused the cry of the poor to come to him. He heard the cry of the afflicted.

That you ask, ‘What advantage will it be to you? What profit shall I have, more than if I had sinned?’

“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty.

But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night,

There they cry, but no one gives answer, because of the pride of evil men.

He doesn’t preserve the life of the wicked, but gives to the afflicted their right.

If they are bound in fetters, and are taken in the cords of afflictions,

But if they don’t listen, they shall perish by the sword; they shall die without knowledge.

“But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don’t cry for help when he binds them.

He delivers the afflicted by their affliction, and opens their ear in oppression.

Would your wealth sustain you in distress, or all the might of your strength?

Take heed, don’t regard iniquity; for you have chosen this rather than affliction.

Yahweh turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends. Yahweh gave Job twice as much as he had before.

Then came there to him all his brothers, and all his sisters, and all those who had been of his acquaintance before, and ate bread with him in his house. They comforted him, and consoled him concerning all the evil that Yahweh had brought on him. Everyone also gave him a piece of money, and everyone a ring of gold.

Yahweh, how my adversaries have increased! Many are those who rise up against me.

Many there are who say of my soul, “There is no help for him in God.” Selah.

Answer me when I call, God of my righteousness. Give me relief from my distress. Have mercy on me, and hear my prayer.

Yahweh, don’t rebuke me in your anger, neither discipline me in your wrath.

Have mercy on me, Yahweh, for I am faint. Yahweh, heal me, for my bones are troubled.

My soul is also in great anguish. But you, Yahweh—how long?

I am weary with my groaning. Every night I flood my bed. I drench my couch with my tears.

My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my adversaries.

Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, for Yahweh has heard the voice of my weeping.

lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver.

let the enemy pursue my soul, and overtake it; yes, let him tread my life down to the earth, and lay my glory in the dust. Selah.

Yahweh will also be a high tower for the oppressed; a high tower in times of trouble.

For he who avenges blood remembers them. He doesn’t forget the cry of the afflicted.

Have mercy on me, Yahweh. See my affliction by those who hate me, and lift me up from the gates of death;

For the needy shall not always be forgotten, nor the hope of the poor perish forever.

Why do you stand far off, Yahweh? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

The helpless are crushed. They collapse. They fall under his strength.

He says in his heart, “God has forgotten. He hides his face. He will never see it.”

Arise, Yahweh! God, lift up your hand! Don’t forget the helpless.

But you do see trouble and grief. You consider it to take it into your hand. You help the victim and the fatherless.

“Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise,” says Yahweh; “I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”

How long, Yahweh? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart every day? How long shall my enemy triumph over me?

from the wicked who oppress me, my deadly enemies, who surround me.

The cords of death surrounded me. The floods of ungodliness made me afraid.

The cords of Sheol were around me. The snares of death came on me.

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

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

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

May Yahweh answer you in the day of trouble. May the name of the God of Jacob set you up on high,

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?

My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer; in the night season, and am not silent.

But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.

All those who see me mock me. They insult me with their lips. They shake their heads, saying,

“He trusts in Yahweh. Let him deliver him. Let him rescue him, since he delights in him.”

Don’t be far from me, for trouble is near. For there is no one to help.

Many bulls have surrounded me. Strong bulls of Bashan have encircled me.

They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring.