“Even today my complaint is rebellious. His hand is heavy in spite of my groaning.
Parallel translations
- KJV Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
- BSB “Even today my complaint is bitter. His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
- NKJV “Even today my complaint is bitter; My hand is listless because of my groaning.
- NASB “Even today my complaint is rebellion; His hand is heavy despite my groaning.
- NLT “My complaint today is still a bitter one, and I try hard not to groan aloud.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Job admits his complaint still feels rebellious, and God's hand lies heavy on him despite his groaning. He is honest about both his anguish and his struggle.
Overview
Job acknowledges that his lament may seem like defiance, yet his suffering remains crushing. The verse captures the tension of faithful lament: Job neither denies his pain nor abandons God. The textual sense is debated, with some renderings reading 'bitter' rather than 'rebellious,' but either way Job lays his honest distress before the Lord (cf. Ps 13:1-2).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Job 10:1“My soul is weary of my life. I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 7:11“Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- Ps 32:4For day and night your hand was heavy on me. My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.
- Job 6:2–3“Oh that my anguish were weighed, and all my calamity laid in the balances!
- Lam 3:19–20Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
- Ps 77:2–9In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night, and didn’t get tired. My soul refused to be comforted.
- Job 11:6that he would show you the secrets of wisdom! For true wisdom has two sides. Know therefore that God exacts of you less than your iniquity deserves.
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Christ at the center
Job's cry for a mediator who can lay his hand on both God and man, and his confidence that 'my Redeemer lives' and will stand on the earth, reaches forward to Jesus the living Redeemer.
How Job 23:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.