'Sorrow' in the Bible

Then to Adam the Lord God said, “Because you have listened [attentively] to the voice of your wife, and have eaten [fruit] from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’;The ground is [now] under a curse because of you;In sorrow and toil you shall eat [the fruit] of itAll the days of your life.

And as her soul was departing, (for she died), she named him Ben-oni (son of my sorrow); but his father called him Benjamin (son of the right hand).

If you take this one also from me, and harm or an accident happens to him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow.’

when he sees that the young man is not with us, he will die; and your servants will bring the gray hair of your servant our father down to Sheol in [great] sorrow.

When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they mourned there with a great lamentation (expressions of mourning for the deceased) and [extreme demonstrations of] sorrow [according to Egyptian custom]; and Joseph observed a seven-day mourning for his father.

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; but his mother named him Jabez, saying, “Because I gave birth to him in pain.”

then whatever prayer or request is made by any man or all of Your people Israel, each knowing his own suffering and his own pain, and stretching out his hands toward this house,

So the king said to me, “Why do you look sad when you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart.” Then I was very frightened,

because on those days the Jews rid themselves of their enemies, and as the month which was turned for them from grief to joy and from mourning into a holiday; that they should make them days of feasting and rejoicing and sending choice portions of food to one another and gifts to the poor.

Because it did not shut the doors of my mother’s womb,Nor hide trouble from my eyes.

“How many are my iniquities and sins [that so much sorrow should come to me]?Make me recognize and understand my transgression and my sin.

“If I speak [to you miserable comforters], my pain is not relieved;And if I refrain [from speaking], what [pain or anguish] leaves me?

How long must I take counsel in my soul,Having sorrow in my heart day after day?How long will my enemy exalt himself and triumph over me?

For my life is spent with sorrowAnd my years with sighing;My strength has failed because of my iniquity,And even my body has wasted away.

The Lord is near to the heartbrokenAnd He saves those who are crushed in spirit (contrite in heart, truly sorry for their sin).

I behaved as if grieving for my friend or my brother;I bowed down in mourning, as one who sorrows for his mother.

For I am ready to fall;My sorrow is continually before me.

For I do confess my guilt and iniquity;I am filled with anxiety because of my sin.

My [only] sacrifice [acceptable] to God is a broken spirit;A broken and contrite heart [broken with sorrow for sin, thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise.

My eye grows dim with sorrow.O Lord, I have called on You every day;I have spread out my hands to You [in prayer].

The days of our life are seventy years—Or even, if because of strength, eighty years;Yet their pride [in additional years] is only labor and sorrow,For it is soon gone and we fly away.

He has exhausted my strength [humbling me with sorrow] in the way;He has shortened my days.

When they are diminished and bowed down (humbled)Through oppression, misery, and sorrow,

The cords and sorrows of death encompassed me,And the terrors of Sheol came upon me;I found distress and sorrow.

He who [maliciously] winks the eye [of evil intent] causes trouble;And the babbling fool [who is arrogant and thinks himself wise] will come to ruin.

The blessing of the Lord brings [true] riches,And He adds no sorrow to it [for it comes as a blessing from God].

A heart full of joy and goodness makes a cheerful face,But when a heart is full of sadness the spirit is crushed.

He who becomes the parent of a fool [who is spiritually blind] does so to his sorrow,And the father of a fool [who is spiritually blind] has no joy.

Who has woe? Who has sorrow?Who has strife? Who has complaining?Who has wounds without cause?Whose eyes are red and dim?

She sees that her gain is good;Her lamp does not go out, but it burns continually through the night [she is prepared for whatever lies ahead].

For in much [human] wisdom there is much displeasure and exasperation; increasing knowledge increases sorrow.

Then I saw that [even secular] wisdom [that brings sorrow] is better than [the pleasures of] folly and self-indulgence as light excels darkness.

For all his days his work is painful and sorrowful; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is vanity (worthless).

All of his life he also eats in darkness [cheerlessly, without sweetness and light], with great frustration, sickness, and anger.

Sorrow is better than laughter,For when a face is sad (deep in thought) the heart may be happy [because it is growing in wisdom].

Therefore, remove sorrow and anger from your heart and put away pain from your body, for childhood and the prime of life are fleeting.

And it will be in the day when the Lord gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and from the harsh service in which you have been enslaved,

They have gone up to the temple and to Dibon, to the high places to weep.Moab wails over Nebo and over Medeba;Everyone’s head is shaved, and every beard is cut off [in mourning].

In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,And in the morning you bring your seed to blossom;Yet [promising as it is] the harvest will be a heap [of ruins that passes away]In the day of sickness and incurable pain.

And the ransomed of the Lord will returnAnd come to Zion with shouts of jubilation,And everlasting joy will be upon their heads;They will find joy and gladness,And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

So the redeemed of the Lord will returnAnd come with joyful shouting to Zion;Everlasting joy will be on their heads.They will obtain gladness and joy,And sorrow and sighing will flee away.

For the high and exalted OneHe who inhabits eternity, Whose name is Holy says this,“I dwell on the high and holy place,But also with the contrite and humble in spiritIn order to revive the spirit of the humbleAnd to revive the heart of the contrite [overcome with sorrow for sin].

“Is a fast such as this what I have chosen, a day for a man to humble himself [with sorrow in his soul]?Is it only to bow down his head like a reedAnd to make sackcloth and ashes as a bed [pretending to have a repentant heart]?Do you call this a fast and a day pleasing to the Lord?

“Indeed, My servants will shout for joy from a happy heart,But you will cry out with a heavy heart,And you shall wail and howl from a broken spirit.

Oh, that I (Jeremiah) could find comfort from my sorrow [for my grief is beyond healing],My heart is sick and faint within me!

Why did I come out of the wombTo see trouble and sorrow,So that my days have been filled with shame?

“They will come and sing aloud and shout for joy on the height of Zion,And will be radiant [with joy] over the goodness of the Lord—For the grain, for the new wine, for the oil,And for the young of the flock and the herd.And their life will be like a watered garden,And they shall never sorrow or languish again.

“Then the virgin will rejoice in the dance,And the young men and old, together,For I will turn their mourning into joyAnd will comfort them and make them rejoice after their sorrow.

‘You said, “Woe is me! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and sighing and I find no rest.”’

“Damascus has become helpless;She has turned away to flee,Terror (panic) has seized her;Anguish and distress have gripped herLike a woman in childbirth.

The land trembles and writhes [in pain and sorrow],For the purposes of the Lord against Babylon stand,To make the land of BabylonA desolation without inhabitants.

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass this way?Look and see if there is any pain like my painWhich was severely dealt out to me,Which the Lord has inflicted [on me] on the day of His fierce anger.

“The Lord is righteous and just;For I have rebelled against His commandment (His word).Hear now, all you peoples,And look at my pain;My virgins and my young menHave gone into captivity.

‘You shall be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,With the cup of horror and desolation,With the cup of your sister Samaria.

“A sword will come upon Egypt,And anguish and trembling will be in Ethiopia (Cush),When the slain fall in EgyptAnd they [of Babylon] carry away her great mass of people and her richesAnd her foundations are torn down.

On that day [swift] messengers will go from Me in ships to frighten the careless and unsuspecting Ethiopians, and there will be anguish and trembling in them as in the day of [judgment for] Egypt; for behold, it is coming!”

Yes, even though [with presents] they hire allies among the nations,Now I will gather them up;And [in a little while] they will begin to grow weak and diminishBecause of the burden imposed by the king of princes [the king of Assyria].

all the families that remain, each by itself, and their wives by themselves [each with an overwhelming individual regret for having blindly rejected their Messiah].

Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, so that I am almost dying of sorrow. Stay here and stay awake and keep watch with Me.”

But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts [and taken complete possession of them].

I assure you and most solemnly say to you, that you will weep and grieve [in great mourning], but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.

So for now you are in grief; but I will see you again, and [then] your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away from you your [great] joy.

And you are proud and arrogant! You should have mourned in shame so that the man who has done this [disgraceful] thing would be removed from your fellowship!

For I wrote to you out of great distress and with an anguished heart, and with many tears, not to cause you sorrow but to make you realize the [overflowing] love which I have especially for you.

so instead [of further rebuke, now] you should rather [graciously] forgive and comfort and encourage him, to keep him from being overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

For [godly] sorrow that is in accord with the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but worldly sorrow [the hopeless sorrow of those who do not believe] produces death.

For [you can look back and] see what an earnestness and authentic concern this godly sorrow has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves [against charges that you tolerate sin], what indignation [at sin], what fear [of offending God], what longing [for righteousness and justice], what passion [to do what is right], what readiness to punish [those who sin and those who tolerate sin]! At every point you have proved yourselves to be innocent in the matter.

Who is weak, and I do not feel [his] weakness? Who is made to sin, and I am not on fire [with sorrow and concern]?

I am afraid that when I come again my God may humiliate me before you, and I may mourn over many of those who have sinned in the past and not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality and decadence which they formerly practiced.

He certainly was sick and close to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but also on me, so that I would not have sorrow upon sorrow.

To the degree that she glorified herself and reveled and gloated in her sensuality [living deliciously and luxuriously], to that same degree impose on her torment and anguish, and mourning and grief; for in her heart she boasts, ‘I sit as a queen [on a throne] and I am not a widow, and will never, ever see mourning or experience grief.’

For this reason in a single day her plagues (afflictions, calamities) will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire and completely consumed; for strong and powerful is the Lord God who judges her.

and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be death; there will no longer be sorrow and anguish, or crying, or pain; for the former order of things has passed away.”