3748 verses about Suffering

I am faint and severely bruised. I have groaned by reason of the anguish of my heart.

Lord, all my desire is before you. My groaning is not hidden from you.

My heart throbs. My strength fails me. As for the light of my eyes, it has also left me.

My lovers and my friends stand aloof from my plague. My kinsmen stand far away.

They also who seek after my life lay snares. Those who seek my hurt speak mischievous things, and meditate deceits all day long.

But I, as a deaf man, don’t hear. I am as a mute man who doesn’t open his mouth.

Yes, I am as a man who doesn’t hear, in whose mouth are no reproofs.

For I said, “Don’t let them gloat over me, or exalt themselves over me when my foot slips.”

For I am ready to fall. My pain is continually before me.

But my enemies are vigorous and many. Those who hate me without reason are numerous.

They who also render evil for good are adversaries to me, because I follow what is good.

Don’t forsake me, Yahweh. My God, don’t be far from me.

I was mute with silence. I held my peace, even from good. My sorrow was stirred.

“Yahweh, show me my end, what is the measure of my days. Let me know how frail I am.

Behold, you have made my days hand widths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah.

I was mute. I didn’t open my mouth, because you did it.

Remove your scourge away from me. I am overcome by the blow of your hand.

When you rebuke and correct man for iniquity, You consume his wealth like a moth. Surely every man is but a breath.” Selah.

“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.

Oh spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go away, and exist no more.”

For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.

Let them be disappointed and confounded together who seek after my soul to destroy it. Let them be turned backward and brought to dishonor who delight in my hurt.

My enemies speak evil against me: “When will he die, and his name perish?”

All who hate me whisper together against me. They imagine the worst for me.

“An evil disease”, they say, “has afflicted him. Now that he lies he shall rise up no more.”

Yes, my own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, who ate bread with me, has lifted up his heel against me.

But you, Yahweh, have mercy on me, and raise me up, that I may repay them.

My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

Why are you in despair, my soul? Why are you disturbed within me? Hope in God! For I shall still praise him for the saving help of his presence.

My God, my soul is in despair within me. Therefore I remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.

Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.

I will ask God, my rock, “Why have you forgotten me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?”

As with a sword in my bones, my adversaries reproach me, while they continually ask me, “Where is your God?”

For you are the God of my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why do I go mourning because of the oppression of the enemy?

But now you rejected us, and brought us to dishonor, and don’t go out with our armies.

You make us turn back from the adversary. Those who hate us take plunder for themselves.

You have made us like sheep for food, and have scattered us among the nations.

You sell your people for nothing, and have gained nothing from their sale.

You make us a reproach to our neighbors, a scoffing and a derision to those who are around us.

You make us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.

All day long my dishonor is before me, and shame covers my face,

At the taunt of one who reproaches and verbally abuses, because of the enemy and the avenger.

All this has come on us, yet have we not forgotten you, Neither have we been false to your covenant.

Though you have crushed us in the haunt of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.

Yes, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are regarded as sheep for the slaughter.

Wake up! Why do you sleep, Lord? Arise! Don’t reject us forever.

Why do you hide your face, and forget our affliction and our oppression?

For our soul is bowed down to the dust. Our body clings to the earth.

Rise up to help us. Redeem us for your loving kindness’ sake.

Trembling took hold of them there, pain, as of a woman in travail.

he shall go to the generation of his fathers. They shall never see the light.

Let me hear joy and gladness, That the bones which you have broken may rejoice.

For strangers have risen up against me. Violent men have sought after my soul. They haven’t set God before them. Selah.

Attend to me, and answer me. I am restless in my complaint, and moan,

Because of the voice of the enemy, Because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring suffering on me. In anger they hold a grudge against me.

My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen on me.

Fearfulness and trembling have come on me. Horror has overwhelmed me.

I said, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! Then I would fly away, and be at rest.

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.