Bible Strands
Job 23:2
“Even today my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses his companions after their prior arguments, voicing present distress before his declared intent to seek God’s throne in the next verse.
The words — כָּבְדָה (ka.ve.Dah) translates literally as “it is heavy,” denoting oppressive weight, while אַנְחָתִי ('an.cha.T/i) means “my groaning,” marking the physical or emotional toll of the speaker’s condition.
The thread — Unrestrained complaint amid anguish runs through Job 10:1 and Job 7:11, where the speaker refuses to silence his mouth. The specific image of a heavy hand pressing down appears in Psalms 32:4.
Why it lands — The passage demands acknowledgment of ongoing suffering without demanding immediate explanation or comfort from the reader.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Cross-references
- Job 10:1 “I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- 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.
- Psalms 32:4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah
- Job 6:2 “If only my grief could be weighed and placed with my calamity on the scales.
- Job 11:6 and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know then that God exacts from you less than your iniquity deserves.
- Psalms 77:2 In the day of trouble I sought the Lord; through the night my outstretched hands did not grow weary; my soul refused to be comforted.
- Lamentations 3:19 Remember my affliction and wandering, the wormwood and the gall.