Job 3:24

I sigh when food is put before me, and my groans pour out like water.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Job speaks in a solitary monologue at the opening of his lament, addressing no human audience. He voices his despair immediately after questioning why God hides his path and before declaring that his deepest fears have overtaken him.

The words — The Hebrew אַנְחָתִי ('anchati) means "my groaning," paired with the verb יִתּכּוּ (yittəku) translated literally as "they pour forth." The text states these groans flow out like water when food is placed before him.

The thread — This motif of grief replacing sustenance appears in Psalms 102:9, 42:3, and 80:5, where tears and weeping function as food or drink. The thread connects Job's physical despair to a broader biblical pattern where affliction overwhelms daily nourishment.

Why it lands — The verse demands recognition that profound suffering can invert basic human needs, turning sustenance into a trigger for anguish. It asks the reader to observe how unrelieved despair distorts ordinary life without offering immediate comfort.

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

כִּֽי־ki-if לִפְנֵ֣יli/f.Nei<to>/ before לַ֭חְמִיLach.m/ifood/ my אַנְחָתִ֣י'an.cha.T/igroaning/ my תָבֹ֑אta.Vo'it comes וַֽיִּתְּכ֥וּva/i.yi.te.Khuand/ they poured forth כַ֝מַּ֗יִםkha./Ma.yimlike <the>/ water שַׁאֲגֹתָֽי׃sha.'a.go.Ta/icries of distress/ my

King James Version

For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are poured out like the waters.

Cross-references

Psalms 102:9 For I have eaten ashes like bread and mixed my drink with tears
Psalms 42:3 My tears have been my food both day and night, while men ask me all day long, “Where is your God?”
Psalms 80:5 You fed them with the bread of tears and made them drink the full measure of their tears.
Psalms 38:8 I am numb and badly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.
Job 6:7 My soul refuses to touch them; they are loathsome food to me.
Job 7:19 Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle?
Job 33:20 so that he detests his bread, and his soul loathes his favorite food.
Psalms 22:1 For the choirmaster. To the tune of “The Doe of the Dawn.” A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from saving me, so far from my words of groaning?
Psalms 32:3 When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
Isaiah 59:11 We all growl like bears and moan like doves. We hope for justice, but find none, for salvation, but it is far from us.