BibleInTonguesBitterness in the Bible
Scripture names bitterness honestly, from Naomi renaming herself Mara to Paul's command to put it away. These passages trace how a wounded soul speaks, and how it can be healed rather than hardened.
A word the Bible does not soften
The Bible never pretends bitterness is rare or shameful to feel. Job says he will not keep silent but will "complain in the bitterness of my soul" (Job 7:11). Hannah prays "in bitterness of soul" and weeps before the LORD (1 Samuel 1:10). The word covers grief, injustice, and the taste left when life turns hard.
Naomi makes it personal. Returning to Bethlehem widowed and childless, she tells the women, "Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me" (Ruth 1:20). She does not hide the wound behind a brave face; she renames herself around it.
How the passages develop it
Lamentations shows bitterness spoken without being final. The poet remembers "the wormwood and the bitterness" (Lamentations 3:19), then turns: "This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope" (3:21). Mercies "new every morning" do not erase the wound; they reframe it.
The New Testament treats bitterness as something that can take root and spread. Hebrews warns against "any root of bitterness springing up" that troubles many (Hebrews 12:15), echoing the "root that produces bitter poison" in Deuteronomy 29:18. Paul's remedy is concrete: "Let all bitterness, wrath, anger... be put away" and instead "forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:31-32).
Reading and praying it this week
Try reading these in pairs. Set Naomi's lament beside Lamentations 3 and notice that the same Bible holds both the unedited cry and the turn toward hope. Neither cancels the other; honesty comes first, and hope is not forced.
When you pray, name the specific wound the way Job and Hannah do, rather than a vague heaviness. Then ask, with Ephesians, what it would mean to "put away" what has hardened, and to forgive as you have been forgiven. That is not denial; it is letting the root be pulled before it poisons more than you.
Verses
- 20Ruth 1:20Read in context
She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
- 19Lamentations 3:19Read in context
Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the bitterness.
- 14Hebrews 12:14Read in context
Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord,
- 31Ephesians 4:31Read in context
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, outcry, and slander be put away from you, with all malice.
- 101 Samuel 1:10Read in context
She was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD, weeping bitterly.
- 1Job 10:1Read in context
“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- 25Job 21:25Read in context
Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.
- 10Proverbs 14:10Read in context
The heart knows its own bitterness and joy; he will not share these with a stranger.
- 18Numbers 5:18Read in context
The priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and let the hair of the woman’s head go loose, and put the meal offering of memorial in her hands, which is the meal offering of jealousy. The priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that brings a curse.
- 19Numbers 5:19Read in context
The priest shall cause her to take an oath and shall tell the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you haven’t gone aside to uncleanness, being under your husband’s authority, be free from this water of bitterness that brings a curse.
- 23Numbers 5:23Read in context
“‘The priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall wipe them into the water of bitterness.
- 24Numbers 5:24Read in context
He shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causes the curse; and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her and become bitter.
- 321 Samuel 15:32Read in context
Then Samuel said, “Bring Agag the king of the Amalekites here to me!” Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, “Surely the bitterness of death is past.”
- 262 Samuel 2:26Read in context
Then Abner called to Joab, and said, “Shall the sword devour forever? Don’t you know that it will be bitterness in the latter end? How long will it be then, before you ask the people to return from following their brothers?”
- 11Job 7:11Read in context
“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- 18Job 9:18Read in context
He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
- 25Proverbs 17:25Read in context
A foolish son brings grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him.
- 4Lamentations 1:4Read in context
The roads to Zion mourn, because no one comes to the solemn assembly. All her gates are desolate. Her priests sigh. Her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
- 5Lamentations 3:5Read in context
He has built against me, and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.
- 15Lamentations 3:15Read in context
He has filled me with bitterness. He has stuffed me with wormwood.
- 14Ezekiel 3:14Read in context
So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; and the LORD’s hand was strong on me.
- 6Ezekiel 21:6Read in context
“Therefore sigh, you son of man. You shall sigh before their eyes with a broken heart and with bitterness.
- 31Ezekiel 27:31Read in context
They will make themselves bald for you, and clothe themselves with sackcloth. They will weep for you in bitterness of soul, with bitter mourning.
- 12Amos 6:12Read in context
Do horses run on the rocky crags? Does one plow there with oxen? But you have turned justice into poison, and the fruit of righteousness into bitterness,
- 23Acts 8:23Read in context
For I see that you are in the poison of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity.”
- 14Romans 3:14Read in context
“Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
- 15Hebrews 12:15Read in context
looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you and many be defiled by it,
- 7Genesis 2:7Read in context
The LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
- 14Genesis 17:14Read in context
The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant.”
- 6Genesis 49:6Read in context
My soul, don’t come into their council. My glory, don’t be united to their assembly; for in their anger they killed men. In their self-will they hamstrung cattle.
- 14Exodus 4:14Read in context
The LORD’s anger burned against Moses, and he said, “What about Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Also, behold, he is coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart.
- 18Numbers 14:18Read in context
‘The LORD is slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, forgiving iniquity and disobedience; and he will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and on the fourth generation.’
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