Topic
Bitter; Bitterness
34 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Genesis 27:34ISBE
And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, Bless me, even me also, O my father.
- Exodus 1:14ISBE
And they made their lives bitter with hard bondage, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.
- Exodus 12:8ISBE
And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.
- Exodus 15:23ISBE
¶ And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
- Numbers 5:18ISBE
And the priest shall set the woman before the LORD, and uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering of memorial in her hands, which is the jealousy offering: and the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that causeth the curse:
- Numbers 5:19ISBE
And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man have lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse:
- Numbers 5:23ISBE
And the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out with the bitter water:
- Numbers 5:24ISBE
And he shall cause the woman to drink the bitter water that causeth the curse: and the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter.
- Numbers 5:27ISBE
And when he hath made her to drink the water, then it shall come to pass, that, if she be defiled, and have done trespass against her husband, that the water that causeth the curse shall enter into her, and become bitter, and her belly shall swell, and her…
- Numbers 9:11ISBE
The fourteenth day of the second month at even they shall keep it, and eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.
- Deuteronomy 32:24ISBE
They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
- Esther 4:1ISBE
When Mordecai perceived all that was done, Mordecai rent his clothes, and put on sackcloth with ashes, and went out into the midst of the city, and cried with a loud and a bitter cry;
Show 22 more
- Job 3:20 ISBE
- Job 13:26 ISBE
- Job 23:2 ISBE
- Psalms 64:3 ISBE
- Proverbs 5:4 ISBE
- Proverbs 27:7 ISBE
- Ecclesiastes 7:26 ISBE
- Isaiah 5:20 ISBE
- Isaiah 24:9 ISBE
- Jeremiah 2:19 ISBE
- Jeremiah 4:18 ISBE
- Jeremiah 6:26 ISBE
- Jeremiah 31:15 ISBE
- Ezekiel 27:31 ISBE
- Amos 8:10 ISBE
- Habakkuk 1:6 ISBE
- Colossians 3:19 ISBE
- James 3:11 ISBE
- James 3:14 ISBE
- Revelation 8:11 ISBE
- Revelation 10:9 ISBE
- Revelation 10:10 ISBE
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 35 references
bit'-er, bit'-er-nes (mar, or marah = "bitter" (literally or figuratively); also (noun) "bitterness" or (adverb) "bitterly"; "angry," "chafed," "discontented," "heavy" (Ge 27:34; Ex 15:23; Nu 5:18,19,23,24,27; Es 4:1; Job 3:20; Ps 64:3; Pr 5:4; 27:7; Ec 7:26; Isa 5:20; Jer 2:19; 4:18; Eze 27:31; Am 8:10; Hab 1:6); the derivatives marar, meror, and merorah, used with the same significance according to the context, are found in Ex 1:14; 12:8; Nu 9:11; Job 13:26; Isa 24:9. The derivati ves meri and meriri occur in De 32:24; Job 23:2 (margin); and tamrur, is found in Jer 6:26; 31:15. In the New Testament the verb pikraino = "to embitter"; the adjective pikros = "bitter," and the noun pikria, "bitterness," supply the same ideas in Col 3:19; Jas 3:11,14; Re 8:11; 10:9,10): 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) Nu 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.
Frank E. Hirsch
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.