Bible Encyclopedias
Bitter; Bitterness

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

bit´ẽr , bit´ẽr -nes ( מר , mar , or מרה , mārāh = "bitter" (literally or figuratively); also (noun) "bitterness" or (adverb) "bitterly"; "angry," "chafed," "discontented," "heavy" (Genesis 27:34; Exodus 15:23; Numbers 5:18 , Numbers 5:19 , Numbers 5:23 , Numbers 5:24 , Numbers 5:27; Esther 4:1; Job 3:20; Psalm 64:3; Proverbs 5:4; Proverbs 27:7; Ecclesiastes 7:26; Isaiah 5:20; Jeremiah 2:19; Jeremiah 4:18; Ezekiel 27:31; Amos 8:10; Habakkuk 1:6 ); the derivatives מרר , mārar , מרר , merōr , and מררה , merōrāh , used with the same significance according to the context, are found in Exodus 1:14; Exodus 12:8; Numbers 9:11; Job 13:26; Isaiah 24:9 . The derivatives merı̄ and merı̄rı̄ occur in Deuteronomy 32:24; Job 23:2 (margin); and תּמרוּר , tamrūr , is found in Jeremiah 6:26; Jeremiah 31:15 . In the New Testament the verb πικραίνω , pikraı́nō = "to embitter"; the adjective πικρός , pikrós = "bitter," and the noun πικρία , pikrı́a , "bitterness," supply the same ideas in Colossians 3:19; James 3:11 , James 3:14; Revelation 8:11; Revelation 10:9 , Revelation 10:10 ): It will be noted that the word is employed with three principal spheres of application: (1) The physical sense of taste; (2) a figurative meaning in the objective sense of cruel, biting words; intense misery resulting from forsaking God, from a life of sin and impurity; the misery of servitude; the misfortunes of bereavement; (3) more subjectively, bitter and bitterness describe emotions of sympathy;' the sorrow of childlessness and of penitence, of disappointment; the feeling of misery and wretchedness, giving rise to the expression "bitter tears"; (4) The ethical sense, characterizing untruth and immorality as the bitter thing in opposition to the sweetness of truth and the gospel; (5) Numbers 5:18 the Revised Version (British and American) speaks of "the water of bitterness that causeth the curse." Here it is employed as a technical term.