Lectionary Calendar
Friday, July 18th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Job 7:11

"So I will not be quiet! I will let my suffering spirit speak! I will let my bitter soul complain!

Bible Study Resources

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Job;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Greatness of God;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
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.
Hebrew Names Version
"Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
King James Version
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.
English Standard Version
"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.
New Century Version
"So I will not stay quiet; I will speak out in the suffering of my spirit. I will complain because I am so unhappy.
New English Translation
"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.
Amplified Bible
"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 [O Lord].
New American Standard Bible
"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.
World English Bible
"Therefore I will not keep silent. I will speak in the anguish of my spirit. I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Therefore I will not spare my mouth, but will speake in the trouble of my spirite, and muse in the bitternesse of my minde.
Legacy Standard Bible
"Indeed I will not hold back my mouth;I will speak in the distress of my spirit;I will muse on the bitterness of my soul.
Berean Standard Bible
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.
Contemporary English Version
And so, I cry out to you in agony and distress.
Complete Jewish Bible
"Therefore I will not restrain my mouth but will speak in my anguish of spirit and complain in my bitterness of soul.
Darby Translation
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.
George Lamsa Translation
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.
Good News Translation
No! I can't be quiet! I am angry and bitter. I have to speak.
Lexham English Bible
"Even I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in my spirit's anguish; I will complain in my inner self's bitterness.
Literal Translation
Therefore, I will not hold my mouth; I will speak in the distress of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Therfore I will not spare my mouth, but will speake in the trouble of my sprete, in ye bytternesse of my mynde will I talke.
American Standard Version
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.
Bible in Basic English
So I will not keep my mouth shut; I will let the words come from it in the pain of my spirit, my soul will make a bitter outcry.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Therfore I wil not spare my mouth, but I will speake in the trouble of my spirite, and muse in the bitternesse of my mynde.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Therefore I will not refrain my mouth;
King James Version (1611)
Therefore I will not refraine my mouth, I wil speake in the anguish of my spirit, I will complaine in the bitternesse of my soule.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Then neither will I refrain my mouth: I will speak being in distress; being in anguish I will disclose the bitterness of my soul.
English Revised Version
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.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Wherfor and Y schal not spare my mouth; Y schal speke in the tribulacioun of my spirit, Y schal talke togidere with the bitternesse of my soule.
Update Bible Version
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.
Webster's Bible Translation
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.
New King James Version
"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.
New Living Translation
"I cannot keep from speaking. I must express my anguish. My bitter soul must complain.
New Life Bible
"So I will not keep my mouth shut. I will speak in the suffering of my spirit. I will complain because my soul is bitter.
New Revised Standard
"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.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
I also, cannot restrain my mouth, - I must speak, in the anguish of my spirit, I must find utterance, in the bitterness of my soul.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Wherefore, I will not spare my month, I will speak in the affliction of my spirit: I will talk with the bitterness of my soul.
Revised Standard Version
"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.
Young's Literal Translation
Also I -- I withhold not my mouth -- I speak in the distress of my spirit, I talk in the bitterness of my soul.
THE MESSAGE
"And so I'm not keeping one bit of this quiet, I'm laying it all out on the table; my complaining to high heaven is bitter, but honest. Are you going to put a muzzle on me, the way you quiet the sea and still the storm? If I say, ‘I'm going to bed, then I'll feel better. A little nap will lift my spirits,' You come and so scare me with nightmares and frighten me with ghosts That I'd rather strangle in the bedclothes than face this kind of life any longer. I hate this life! Who needs any more of this? Let me alone! There's nothing to my life—it's nothing but smoke.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"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.

Contextual Overview

7 God, remember, my life is like a breath. I will not get a second chance to enjoy it. 8 Those who see me now will never see me again. You watch me for a while, but then I am gone. 9 Just as clouds that come and go, people are put in the grave, never to rise again. 10 They don't come back to their old homes. The people there would not know them. 11 "So I will not be quiet! I will let my suffering spirit speak! I will let my bitter soul complain! 12 Am I one of your enemies? Is that why you put a guard over me? 13 My bed should bring me comfort. My couch should give me rest and relief. 14 But when I lie down, you scare me with dreams; you frighten me with visions. 15 So I would rather be choked to death than to live like this. 16 I hate my life—I give up. I don't want to live forever. Leave me alone! My life means nothing.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I will not: Job 6:26, Job 10:1, Job 13:13, Job 16:6, Job 21:3, Psalms 39:3, Psalms 40:9

the anguish: Genesis 42:21, 2 Kings 4:27, 2 Kings 4:28, Matthew 26:37, Matthew 26:38, Luke 22:44, 2 Corinthians 2:4

the bitterness: Job 10:15, Job 21:25, 1 Samuel 1:10, Isaiah 38:15, Isaiah 38:17

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 8:38 - the plague Job 7:20 - I am Job 8:2 - the words Job 13:19 - if I hold Job 21:4 - is my complaint Job 29:9 - refrained Psalms 77:3 - I complained Psalms 88:15 - while Proverbs 14:10 - heart

Cross-References

Genesis 1:7
So God made the space and separated the water. Some of the water was above it, and some of the water was below it.
Genesis 6:17
"Understand what I am telling you. I will bring a great flood of water on the earth. I will destroy all living things that live under heaven. Everything on the earth will die.
Genesis 7:5
Noah did everything the Lord told him to do.
Genesis 7:6
Noah was 600 years old at the time the rains came.
Genesis 7:8
All the clean animals, all the other animals on the earth, the birds, and everything that crawls on the earth
Genesis 7:11
On the 17th day of the second month, when Noah was 600 years old, the springs under the earth broke through the ground, and water flowed out everywhere. The sky also opened like windows and rain poured down. The rain fell on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. That same day Noah went into the boat with his wife, his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives.
Genesis 7:23
In this way God wiped the earth clean—he destroyed every living thing on the earth—every human, every animal, everything that crawls, and every bird. All that was left was Noah and his family and the animals that were with him in the boat.
Genesis 7:24
The water continued to cover the earth for 150 days.
2 Kings 7:2
Then the officer who was close to the king answered the man of God. The officer said, "Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, this could not happen." Elisha said, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of that food."
2 Kings 7:19
But that officer had answered the man of God, "Even if the Lord made windows in heaven, this could not happen!" And Elisha had told the officer, "You will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of that food."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Therefore I will not refrain my mouth,.... From speaking and complaining; seeing, besides the common lot of mankind, which is a state of warfare, sorrow, and trouble, and is as much as a man can well grapple with, extraordinary afflictions are laid upon me, which make life insupportable; and seeing I enjoy no good in this present life, and am shortly going where no temporal good is to be expected, and shall never return to this world any more to enjoy any; therefore I will not be silent, and forbear speaking my mind freely, and uttering my just complaint, for which I think I have sufficient reason: or "I also will not refrain my mouth" c; in turn, as a just retaliation, so Jarchi; since God will not refrain his hand from me, I will not refrain my mouth from speaking concerning him; since he shows no mercy to me, I shall utter my miserable complaints, and not keep them to myself; this was Job's infirmity when he should have held his peace, as Aaron, and been dumb and silent as David, and been still, and have known, owned, and acknowledged the sovereignty of God, and not vented himself in passion as he did:

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; or "in the straitness" d of it; he was surrounded on all sides with distress, the sorrows of death compassed him about, and the pains of hell got hold upon him; he was like one pent up in a narrow place, in a close confinement, that he could not get out of, and come forth from; and he felt not only exquisite pains of body from his boils and sores, but great anguish of soul; and therefore he determines to speak in and "of" e all this, to give vent to his grief and sorrow, his passion and resentment:

I will complain in the bitterness of my soul; his afflictions were like the waters of Marah, bitter ones, very grievous and disagreeable to flesh and blood, and by which his life and soul were embittered to him; and in and of f this he determines to complain, or to utter in a complaining way what he had been meditating on, as the word g signifies; so that this was not an hasty and precipitate action, but what upon deliberation he resolved to do; to pour out his complaint before God, and leave it with him, in a submissive way, would not have been amiss, but if he complained of God and his providence, it was wrong: "why should a living man complain?" not even a wicked man, of "the punishment of his sin", and much less a good man of fatherly chastisements? We see what the will of man is, what a stubborn and obstinate thing it is, "I will, I will, I will", even of a good man when left to himself, and not in the exercise of grace, and under the influence of it; the complaint follows, by way of expostulation.

c גם אני "etiam ego", Vatablus, Beza, Piscator, Bolducius, Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis, Schultens; "vicissim", Noldius, p. 222. d בצר "in angustia", Junius Tremellius, Schmidt "in arcto", Cocceius; "in angusto", Schultens. e "De angustia", Vatablus, Drusius, Mercerus, Piscator. f במר "de amaritudine", Drusius, Piscator, Mercerus. g אשיחה "meditabor et eloquar", Michaelis.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Therefore I will not refrain my mouth - The idea in this verse is, “such is my distress at the prospect of dying, that I cannot but express it. The idea of going away from all my comforts, and of being committed to the grave, to revisit the earth no more, is so painful that I cannot but give vent to my feelings.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 7:11. Therefore I will not refrain — All is hopeless; I will therefore indulge myself in complaining.


 
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