Bible Strands
Job 9:18
He does not let me catch my breath, but overwhelms me with bitterness.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Job addresses God in a poetic discourse on divine sovereignty and human frailty, describing his current state of relentless affliction.
The words — יִתּנֵ/נִי הָשֵׁב (Yi.te.ne/ni ha.Shev) literally means "he permits to bring back," while יַשְׂבִּעַ/נִי מַמְרֹרִים (yas.bi.'A./ni ma.me.ro.Rim) means "he surfeits me with bitter things."
The thread — The motif of being overwhelmed with bitterness and denied resurfacing appears in Job 7:19, where God is asked to leave Job alone, and in Lamentations 3:15, where God fills the speaker with bitterness and intoxicates him with wormwood.
Why it lands — The text states that God actively withholds relief and saturates the speaker with bitterness, demanding acknowledgment of divine agency in unmerited suffering rather than offering comfort or explanation.
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
He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.
Cross-references
- Job 7:19 Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle?
- Lamentations 3:15 He has filled me with bitterness; He has intoxicated me with wormwood.
- Job 3:20 Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,
- Job 27:2 “As surely as God lives, who has deprived me of justice—the Almighty, who has embittered my soul—
- Psalms 39:13 Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may again be cheered before I depart and am no more.”
- Psalms 88:7 Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah
- Psalms 88:15 From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.
- Lamentations 3:3 Indeed, He keeps turning His hand against me all day long.
- Lamentations 3:18 So I say, “My strength has perished, along with my hope from the LORD.”
- Hebrews 12:11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.