My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief
Parallel translations
- WEB that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.
- KJV That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
- BSB I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.
- NKJV that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
- NASB that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart.
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
Paul confesses that he carries great sorrow and unceasing anguish in his heart. His grief is over his fellow Israelites who have not embraced the Messiah.
Overview
Having sworn his sincerity in v. 1, Paul now states its cause: a deep, continual heartache. Though he does not yet name the reason explicitly, the following verses make clear it is Israel's unbelief in Christ. This sorrow shows that the doctrine of God's sovereign election (the chapter's theme) does not produce coldness but rather intensifies compassion for the lost.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Phil 3:18For many walk, of whom I told you often, and now tell you even weeping, as the enemies of the cross of Christ,
- Jer 13:17But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride; and my eye shall weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because Yahweh’s flock is taken captive.
- Lam 3:51My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
- Ps 119:136Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don’t observe your law. TZADI
- Rom 10:1Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God is for Israel, that they may be saved.
- Luke 19:41–44When he came near, he saw the city and wept over it,
- Jer 9:1Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
- Ezek 9:4Yahweh said to him, “Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done within it.”
- Lam 3:48–49My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
- 1 Sam 15:35Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death; for Samuel mourned for Saul: and Yahweh grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.
- Rev 11:3I will give power to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand two hundred sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.”
- Isa 66:10“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her;
- Lam 1:12“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, with which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Paul unfolds the gospel in full: Christ our righteousness received by faith, the second Adam in whom many are made righteous, in whose death and resurrection we are buried and raised.
How Romans 9:2 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 Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.