Despondency

How Nave’s arranged it

• General scriptures concerningNumbers 17:12Numbers 17:13Deuteronomy 28:65–67Job 3:1–26Job 17:13–16Psalms 31:22Psalms 77:7–9Proverbs 13:12Isaiah 2:19Jeremiah 2:25Jeremiah 8:20Jeremiah 18:12Lamentations 3:1–21Lamentations 5:22Hosea 10:8Jonah 2:2–4Micah 7:1–7Matthew 24:30Luke 13:27Luke 13:28
• See Affliction
• See Resignation
• See Sorrow
• See Suffering
• INSTANCES OF
• Cain, when God pronounced judgment upon him for the murder of AbelGenesis 4:13Genesis 4:14
• Hagar, when cast out of the household of Abraham on account of the jealousy of SarahGenesis 21:15Genesis 21:16
• Moses
• When sent on his mission to the IsraelitesExodus 4:1Exodus 4:10Exodus 4:13Exodus 6:12
• At the Red SeaExodus 14:15
• When the people craved for meatNumbers 11:15

The passages, in Bible order (45)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 16 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 4:13

   But Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 4:132 voices

   “My punishment is greater than I can bear - The margin reads, Mine iniquity is greater than that it may be forgiven. The original words, גדול עוני מנשוא gadol avoni minneso, may be translated, Is my crime too great to be forgiven? words which we may presume he uttered on the verge of black despair. It is most probable that עון avon signifies rather the crime than the punishment; in this sense it is used Lev 26:41, Lev 26:43 1Sa 28:10; 2Ki 7:9; and נשא nasa signifies to remit or forgive.

   “There is forgiveness with the God of pardons for the greatest sins and sinners; but those forfeit it who despair of it. Just now Cain made nothing of his sin, but now he is in the other extreme: Satan drives his vassals from presumption to despair. We cannot think too ill of sin, provided we do not think it unpardonable.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 4:13→

   Verse page →Original language →

2. Genesis 4:14

   Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

   ›Commentary on Genesis 4:142 voices

   “Therefore, everyone who finds me will kill me. Since from the trembling of the body and the fury of the trembling one, or from the instability of the wanderer and fugitive, he understands him to be one who deserves to be killed.

   “Behold, thou hast driven me out - In Gen 4:11, Gen 4:12, God states two parts of Cain’s punishment: 1. The ground was cursed, so that it was not to yield any adequate recompense for his most careful tillage. 2. He was to be a fugitive and a vagabond having no place in which he could dwell with comfort or security. To these Cain himself adds others.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 4:14→

   Verse page →Original language →

3. Genesis 21:15

   When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes.

   ›Commentary on Genesis 21:151 voice

   “And she cast the child - ותשלך את הילד vattashlech eth haiyeled, and she sent the lad under one of the shrubs, viz., to screen him from the intensity of the heat. Here Ishmael appears to be utterly helpless, and this circumstance seems farther to confirm the opinion that he was now in a state of infancy; but the preceding observations do this supposition entirely away, and his present helplessness will be easily accounted for on this ground: 1. Young persons can bear much less fatigue than those who are arrived at mature age.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 21:15→

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4. Genesis 21:16

   Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I cannot bear to watch the boy die!” And as she sat nearby, she lifted up her voice and wept.

   Verse page →Original language →

5. Exodus 4:1

   Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”

   ›Commentary on Exodus 4:11 voice

   “But, behold--Hebrew, "If," "perhaps," "they will not believe me."--What evidence can I produce of my divine mission? There was still a want of full confidence, not in the character and divine power of his employer, but in His presence and power always accompanying him.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 4:1→

   Verse page →Original language →

6. Exodus 4:10

   “Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”

   ›Commentary on Exodus 4:102 voices

   “I am not eloquent--It is supposed that Moses labored under a natural defect of utterance or had a difficulty in the free and fluent expression of his ideas in the Egyptian language, which he had long disused. This new objection was also overruled, but still Moses, who foresaw the manifold difficulties of the undertaking, was anxious to be freed from the responsibility.

   “Moses himself once said: "I am alogos"("wordless"). The Latin version uses a different expression, but we can translate the word alogos exactly as "without words and reason." After he said this, he received reason and speech, which he admitted that he did not have before. When the people of Israel were in Egypt, before they had received the law, they too were without words and reason and thus in a sense mute. Then they received the Word; Moses was the image of it.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 4:10→

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7. Exodus 4:13

   But Moses replied, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”

   ›Commentary on Exodus 4:132 voices

   “I am not eloquent--It is supposed that Moses labored under a natural defect of utterance or had a difficulty in the free and fluent expression of his ideas in the Egyptian language, which he had long disused. This new objection was also overruled, but still Moses, who foresaw the manifold difficulties of the undertaking, was anxious to be freed from the responsibility.

   “Send - by the hand of him whom thou wilt send - Many commentators, both ancient and modern, have thought that Moses prays here for the immediate mission of the Messiah; as if he had said: “Lord, thou hast purposed to send this glorious person at some time or other, I beseech thee send him now, for who can be sufficient to deliver and rule this people but himself alone?” The Hebrew שלח נא ביד תשלח shelach na beyad tishlach literally translated is, Send now (or, I beseech thee) by the hand thou wilt send; which seems to intimate, Send a person more fit for the work than I am. So the Septuagint: Προχειρισαι δυναμενον αλλον, ὁν αποστελεις· Elect another powerful person, whom thou wilt send. It is right to find out the Messiah wherever he is mentioned in the Old Testament; but to press scriptures into this service which have not an obvious tendency that way, is both improper and dangerous. I am firmly of opinion that Moses had no reference to the Messiah when he spoke these words.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 4:13→

   Verse page →Original language →

8. Exodus 6:9

   Moses relayed this message to the Israelites, but on account of their broken spirit and cruel bondage, they did not listen to him.

   ›Commentary on Exodus 6:92 voices

   LITTLE WORDS OFTEN CONTAIN great meanings. It is often the case with that monosyllable "so." In the present instance we must lay stress upon it and read the text thus’"Moses spake so unto the children of Israel." That is, he said what God told him to say. He did not invent his message. He did not think out the gospel that he had to carry to the people. He was simply a repeater of the divine message. As he received it, so he spake it. "Moses spake as unto the children of Israel."

   “They hearkened not - The contrast between the reception of this communication and that recorded in Exo 4:31 is accounted for by the change of circumstances. On the former occasion the people were comparatively at ease, accustomed to their lot, sufficiently afflicted to long for deliverance, and sufficiently free in spirit to hope for it. For anguish - See the margin; out of breath, as it were, after their cruel disappointment, they were quite absorbed by their misery, unable and unwilling to attend to any fresh communication.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 6:9→

   Verse page →Original language →

9. Exodus 6:12

   But in the LORD’s presence Moses replied, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, then why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I am unskilled in speech?”

   ›Commentary on Exodus 6:121 voice

   “Uncircumcised lips? - The word ערל aral, which we translate uncircumcised, seems to signify any thing exuberant or superfluous. Had not Moses been remarkable for his excellent beauty, I should have thought the passage might be rendered protuberant lips; but as this sense cannot be admitted for the above reason, the word must refer to some natural impediment in his speech; and probably means a want of distinct and ready utterance, either occasioned by some defect in the organs of speech, or impaired knowledge of the Egyptian language after an absence of forty years. See Clarke’s note on Exo 4:10.

   Everything gathered on Exodus 6:12→

   Verse page →Original language →

10. Exodus 14:15

    Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.

    ›Commentary on Exodus 14:152 voices

    AT first sight we might suppose that crying unto God was so good a thing that it would never be necessary for the Lord to ask the question, "Why do you cry unto Me?" But the question we are now to consider shows that there may be a time when, even to a man like Moses, it is necessary for God to ask, "Why do you cry unto Me?"

    “Or do you not hear how Moses, although he said nothing but met the Lord with his inexpressible groanings, was heard by the Lord, who said, "Why do you cry to me?" God knows how to hear even the blood of a just man, to which no tongue is attached and of which no voice pierces the air. The presence of good works is a loud voice before God.

    Everything gathered on Exodus 14:15→

    Verse page →Original language →

11. Numbers 11:15

    If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now—if I have found favor in Your eyes—and let me not see my own wretchedness.”

    ›Commentary on Numbers 11:151 voice

    “Is this the meekest of all the men on the earth? The best have their infirmities, and fail sometimes in the exercise of that grace for which they are most eminent.

    Everything gathered on Numbers 11:15→

    Verse page →Original language →

12. Numbers 17:12

    Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost!

    ›Commentary on Numbers 17:121 voice

    “Behold, we die, we perish, we all perish - גוענו gavaenu signifies not so much to die simply, as to feel an extreme difficulty of breathing, which, producing suffocation, ends at last in death. See the folly and extravagance of this sinful people. At first, every person might come near to God, for all, they thought, were sufficiently holy, and every way qualified to minister in holy things. Now, no one, in their apprehension, can come near to the tabernacle without being consumed, Num 17:

    Everything gathered on Numbers 17:12→

    Verse page →Original language →

13. Numbers 17:13

    Anyone who comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to perish?”

    Verse page →Original language →

14. Deuteronomy 28:65–67

    Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul.

    Verse page →Original language →

15. 1 Kings 19:4

    while he himself traveled on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

    ›Commentary on 1 Kings 19:42 voices

    “Into the wilderness - The vast wilderness of Arabia. He durst not stay in Judah, tho' good Jehosaphat reigned there, because he was allied to Ahab, and was a man of an easy temper, whom Ahab might circumvent, and either by force or art seize upon Elijah.

    “Elijah, whom John the Baptist followed in spirit and virtue and who caused fire to fall from heaven and the waters of the Jordan to part by his prayers, was afraid of Jezebel and fled, and exhausted, he sat down in the wilderness under a tree, and, wearied from walking, he prayed for death, saying, "It is enough for me, Lord, take away my soul, for I am no better than my ancestors." Who can deny that he was a just man?

    Everything gathered on 1 Kings 19:4→

    Verse page →Original language →

16. Job 3:1–26

    After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

    ›Commentary on Job 3:1–262 voices

    “His curse was sinful, both because it was vain, being applied to a thing, which was not capable of blessing and cursing, and because it cast a blame upon God for bringing that day, and for giving him life on that day.

    “After this - Dr. Good renders this, “at length.” It means after the long silence of his friends, and after he saw that there was no prospect of relief or of consolation. Opened Job his mouth - The usual formula in Hebrew to denote thc commencement of a speech; see Mat 5:

    Everything gathered on Job 3:1–26→

    Verse page →Original language →