Therefore I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
- BSB 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.
- NKJV “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.
- NASB ¶“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.
- NLT “I cannot keep from speaking. I must express my anguish. My bitter soul must complain.
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 resolves to speak openly rather than suppress his anguish, pouring out the bitterness of his soul. He chooses honest lament before God.
Overview
Job refuses to stay silent, determining to voice his complaint. This is not faithless rebellion but raw, honest prayer in the tradition of biblical lament. Scripture validates bringing real grief and even protest to God, who is big enough to receive it, as the Psalms and Christ's own cry from the cross show.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Ps 40:9I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.
- 1 Sam 1:10And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.
- Job 10:1My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
- Job 6:26Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind?
- Job 21:25And another dieth in the bitterness of his soul, and never eateth with pleasure.
- Isa 38:17Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.
- Isa 38:15What shall I say? he hath both spoken unto me, and himself hath done it: I shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul.
- 2 Cor 2:4For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you.
- Job 16:6Though I speak, my grief is not asswaged: and though I forbear, what am I eased?
- 2 Kgs 4:27–28And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the LORD hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.
- Job 13:13Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.
- Luke 22:44And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.
- Gen 42:21And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
- Job 21:3–4Suffer me that I may speak; and after that I have spoken, mock on.
- Matt 26:37–38And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
- Job 10:15If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;
- Ps 39:3My heart was hot within me, while I was musing the fire burned: then spake I with my tongue,
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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 7:11 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.