Job 23:2
in Job 23“Even today my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Even to-day is my complaint rebellious: My stroke is heavier than my groaning.
KJV
Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
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This verse in Job 23
Commentary
11 notes on this verseIn his discourse Eliphaz proposed two changes against Job. First, that he had been punished because of his very great evil. Second, that he had doubted or even denied divine providence. Now men are often saddened when any charges are falsely made against them, and …
This site's exposition
Then Job answered
on Job 23:1-2
Job's reply opens by naming what has not changed through the speeches so far: "Even today my complaint is bitter". Henry notes that Job restates the complaint the friends have been rebuking, because the affliction has not lifted: "His hand is heavy despite my groaning".
This site's exposition
Even today my complaint is bitter
Job stands by the complaint Eliphaz has rebuked. Clarke reads the verse as a claim that the affliction is heavier than his complaint is loud, so his groaning understates it. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the heavy hand as the hand of God on him, as at Job 19:21.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
"Today also my speech is bitter," that is, my words happen to be harsh and irksome to both our ears. In a different sense [we may interpret the passage as] you, indeed, to use harsher speech against you, drive me with your words.
"Then Job answered and said, 'Yes, I know that my accusation comes from my hands.' " This means, I carry along with me the evidence that accuses me. I draw from myself the demonstration of my afflictions. "His hand has been made heavy upon me, and I groan over me." If it were possible, he says, to discuss my punishments with him, it would also be possible to find them out. If only I could plead my case in justice, he says, and meet him and learn what he would have answered me! See how he obtained exactly what he desired. That is, in fact, what occurs at the end of the book. I wanted to know what he would have said to me and whether he would have punished me just the same; and, by saying so, I had no intention of condemning any injustice on his part.
The Medieval Church1 voice
Then Job answered and said, Now also is my complaint bitter: and the hand of my stroke is heavier than my groaning. ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION In his own way blessed Job sets out with the plainer sort of words, but his declaration he closes by the deep following on of mystery. For the pain of the afflicted man ought to have been healed by the consoling of his friends, but because their consoling broke out into the soothings of deceit, the pain of the stricken man was made harsher.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
He appeals from the censures of his friends to the just judgment of God; and this he thought was an evidence for him that he was not a hypocrite, for then he durst not have made such an appeal as this. St Paul comforted himself in this, that he that judged him was the Lord, and therefore he valued not man's judgment ( 1 Cor. iv.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
Even today is my complaint bitter,....
3 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century3 voices
Even to-day is my complaint bitter - Job goes on to maintain his own innocence, and shows that he has derived neither conviction nor consolation from the discourses of his friends. He grants that his complaint is bitter; but states that, loud as it may be, the affliction which he endures is heavier than his complaints are loud. Mr. Good translates: “And still is my complaint rebellion?” Do ye construe my lamentations over my unparalleled sufferings as rebellion against God?
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
to-day--implying, perhaps, that the debate was carried on through more days than one (see Introduction). bitter-- (Job 7:11; 10:1). my stroke--the hand of God on me (Margin, Job 19:21; Ps 32:4). heavier than--is so heavy that I cannot relieve myself adequately by groaning.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
Even to-day - At the present time. I am not relieved. You afford me no consolation. All that you say only aggravates my woes. My complaint - See the notes at Job 21:3. Bitter - Sad, melancholy, distressing. The meaning is, not that he made bitter complaints in the sense which those words would naturally convey, or that he meant to find fault with God, but that his case was a hard one. His friends furnished him no relief, and he had in vain endeavored to bring his cause before God. This is now, as he proceeds to state, the principal cause of his difficulty. He knows not where to find God; he cannot get his cause before him. My stroke - Margin, as in Hebrew “hand;” that is, the hand that is upon me, or the calamity that is inflicted upon me. The hand is represented as the instrument of inflicting punishment, or causing affliction; see the notes at Job 19:21. Heavier than my groaning - My sighs bear no proportion to my sufferings. They are no adequate expression of my woes. If you think I complain; if I am heard to groan, yet the sufferings which I endure are far beyond what these would secm to indicate. Sighs and groans are not improper. They are prompted by nature, and they furnish “some” relief to a sufferer. But they should not be: (1) with a spirit of murmuring or complaining; (2) they should not be beyond what our sufferings demand, or the proper expression of our sufferings. They should not be such as to lead others to suppose we suffer more than we actually do. (3) they should - when they are extorted from us by the severity of suffering - lead us go look to that world where no groan will ever be heard.
The words behind it
8 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| גַּם־ | gam- | also | H1571 → | 769 times |
| הַ֭יּוֹם | haiyom | this day | H3117 → | 2304 times |
| מְרִ֣י | meri | [the] rebellion of | H4805 → | |
| שִׂחִ֑י | sichi | complaint my | H7879 → | 13 times |
| יָ֝דִ֗י | yadi | hand my | H3027 → | 1618 times |
| כָּבְדָ֥ה | kavedah | it is heavy | H3513 → | 113 times |
| עַל־ | ʾal- | on | H5921 → | 5755 times |
| אַנְחָתִֽי׃ | ʾanchati | groaning my | H585 → |
גַּם־also
gam-H1571 →769 times
הַ֭יּוֹםthis day
haiyomH3117 →2304 times
מְרִ֣י[the] rebellion of
meriH4805 →
שִׂחִ֑יcomplaint my
sichiH7879 →13 times
יָ֝דִ֗יhand my
yadiH3027 →1618 times
כָּבְדָ֥הit is heavy
kavedahH3513 →113 times
עַל־on
ʾal-H5921 →5755 times
אַנְחָתִֽי׃groaning my
ʾanchatiH585 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 10:1“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
it leads to
- Job 7:11
Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- 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,…
- Job 7:11
Through
Job 7:11Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
it leads to
- 1 Samuel 1:10
In her bitter distress, Hannah prayed to the LORD and wept with many tears.
- Psalms 40:9
I proclaim righteousness in the great assembly; behold, I do not seal my lips, as You, O LORD, do know.
- Job 10:1
“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 21:25
Yet another man dies in the bitterness of his soul, having never tasted prosperity.
- 1 Samuel 1:10
Through
Psalms 32:4For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah
it leads to
- Psalms 38:2–8
For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.
- 1 Samuel 5:11
Then the Ekronites assembled all the rulers of the Philistines and said, “Send away the ark of the God of Israel. It must return to its place, so that it will not kill us…
- Psalms 38:2–8
Where this verse is studied
About Job
This page draws on 10 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ephrem the Syrian, COMMENTARY ON JOB 23:2; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVI; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 23:2B; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.