Thematic Bible: Despondency


Thematic Bible




O my God, my soul is in despair within me [the burden more than I can bear];
Therefore I will [fervently] remember You from the land of the Jordan
And the peaks of [Mount] Hermon, from Mount Mizar.
Verse ConceptsDespondency, Examples OfDepression, Solutions ToHealthI Am SadThe Region Of JordanDepressionDespairwaterfalls


I have sunk in deep mire, where there is no foothold;
I have come into deep waters, where a flood overwhelms me.
Verse ConceptsChaosMarshes


When I considered how to understand this,
It was too great an effort for me and too painful
Verse ConceptsStriving With GodUnintelligibleness

By the rivers of Babylon,
There we [captives] sat down and wept,
When we remembered Zion [the city God imprinted on our hearts].
Verse ConceptsGesturesBabylon, Israel Exiled ToempiresLove, And The WorldSorrowWeepingPainful MemoriesPeople RememberingRiversExamples Of Patriotismartists

Also [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up). He said, In a certain city there was a judge who neither reverenced and feared God nor respected or considered man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, Protect and defend and give me justice against my adversary. read more.
And for a time he would not; but later he said to himself, Though I have neither reverence or fear for God nor respect or consideration for man, Yet because this widow continues to bother me, I will defend and protect and avenge her, lest she give me intolerable annoyance and wear me out by her continual coming or at the last she come and rail on me or assault me or strangle me. Then the Lord said, Listen to what the unjust judge says! And will not [our just] God defend and protect and avenge His elect (His chosen ones), who cry to Him day and night? Will He defer them and delay help on their behalf? I tell you, He will defend and protect and avenge them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find [ persistence in] faith on the earth?

Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble and tottering knees. Say to those who are of a fearful and hasty heart, Be strong, fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance; with the recompense of God He will come and save you.

So then, brace up and reinvigorate and set right your slackened and weakened and drooping hands and strengthen your feeble and palsied and tottering knees, And cut through and make firm and plain and smooth, straight paths for your feet [yes, make them safe and upright and happy paths that go in the right direction], so that the lame and halting [limbs] may not be put out of joint, but rather may be cured.


Woe to me, my mother, that you have given birth to me
To be a man of strife and a man of contention to all the earth!
I have not loaned, nor have men lent money to me,
Yet everyone curses me.
Verse ConceptsdoubtersHealthInterestLonelinessSadnessSelf PitySuicideCynicismNever Being BornRegretting BirthBorrowingLending And BorrowingUngodly CursingFighting One AnotherConflictlent

Woe is me (judgment is coming)! For I am
Like one who gathers the summer fruits, like one who gleans the vintage grapes.
There is not a cluster of grapes to eat,
No first-ripe fig which my appetite craves.
Verse ConceptsGleaningFruitFig treeGrapesLonelinessSummerVintageNot Reaping What You Sow

“I am disgusted with my life and loathe it!
I will give free expression to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Verse ConceptsComplaintsHealthBeing BitterResentment, Against GodSelf PitySuicideWeariness Of LifeLife DespisedDeath DesiredComplainingBitternesstiredventing


For my life is spent with sorrow
And my years with sighing;
My strength has failed because of my iniquity,
And even my body has wasted away.
Verse ConceptsIniquity, Punishment ForAgony, Of BodyGriefSighingI Am SadCauses of failure ingrieving

But Moses said to the Lord, “Look, [my own people] the Israelites have not listened to me; so how then will Pharaoh listen to me, for I am unskilled and inept in speech?” Verse ConceptsEloquencedoubtersHesitationLipsDoubtShynessTimidityUncircumcised In Heart

Then Moses answered [the Lord] and said, “What if they will not believe me or take seriously what I say? For they may say, ‘The Lord has not appeared to you.’” Verse ConceptsdoubtersHesitationMoses, Life OfUnbelief, As Response To GodGod AppearingNot Believing People

Then Moses said to the Lord, “Please, Lord, I am not a man of words (eloquent, fluent), neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and tongue.” Verse ConceptsExcusesEloquenceMoses, Significance OfMutenessHumility, Examples OfSelf AbasementSpeech ImpedimentsNervousnessSpeech

But he said, “Please my Lord, send the message [of rescue to Israel] by [someone else,] whomever else You will [choose].” Verse ConceptsIndecisionAaron, PositionDifferent PersonGod Sending Prophets

So if this is the way You are going to deal with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness.” Verse ConceptsHope, Results Of Its AbsenceUniversality Of DeathDepression, SymptomsUnwise PrayersApproval To Kill Oneself

But he himself traveled a day’s journey into the wilderness, and he came and sat down under a juniper tree and asked [God] that he might die. He said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” Verse ConceptsDisappointments, Examples OfHope, Results Of Its AbsenceJourneyUniversality Of DeathLonelinessPrayer, As Asking GodPrayer, Doubts AboutSelf PitySittingTreesComplaintsUnwise PrayersDesire For DeathDimensions Of Other ThingsTemporary Stay In The WildernessDeathDepression

When the water in the bottle was all gone, Hagar caused the youth to lie down under one of the shrubs. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about a bowshot, for she said, Let me not see the death of the lad. And as she sat down opposite him, he lifted up his voice and wept and she raised her voice and wept.

Then Cain said to the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, You have driven me out this day from the face of the land, and from Your face I will be hidden; and I will be a fugitive and a vagabond and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.

Then Jesus asked them, “What are you discussing with one another as you walk along?” And they stood still, looking brokenhearted. Verse ConceptsHealthSadnessUnhappinessWalkingMotionlessnessComing To RestConversationWhat Is The Matter?Other Sad People

Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord God, why have You brought this people across the Jordan at all, only to hand us over to the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been willing to live beyond the Jordan! Verse ConceptsSadnessCrossing Into The Promised LandGod Will Cause DefeatWhy Does God Do This?


When the sun came up God prepared a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he fainted and he wished to die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” Verse ConceptsFaintingeastDespondency, Examples OfHeatHopelessnessThe SunWeather, God's Sovereignty OverWindCynicismWanting To DieAdvantagesOut Of The EastGod Dispensing WindDesire For DeathHot WeatherGod Appointing OthersLife DespisedrelaxingjonahThe East Wind

But he himself traveled a day’s journey into the wilderness, and he came and sat down under a juniper tree and asked [God] that he might die. He said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.” Verse ConceptsDisappointments, Examples OfHope, Results Of Its AbsenceJourneyUniversality Of DeathLonelinessPrayer, As Asking GodPrayer, Doubts AboutSelf PitySittingTreesComplaintsUnwise PrayersDesire For DeathDimensions Of Other ThingsTemporary Stay In The WildernessDeathDepression

Since neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small storm kept raging about us, from then on all hope of our being saved was [growing worse and worse and] gradually abandoned. Verse ConceptsDespair, Description OfHope, Results Of Its AbsencePessimismDark DaysWithout HopeNavigationNatural DisastersFeeling Lost

The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to move forward [toward the sea]. Verse ConceptsFaith, Origins OfDespondency, Examples OfGoing ForwardNot PrayingMoving OnMoving To A New Place

So if this is the way You are going to deal with me, please kill me at once, if I have found favor in your sight, and do not let me see my wretchedness.” Verse ConceptsHope, Results Of Its AbsenceUniversality Of DeathDepression, SymptomsUnwise PrayersApproval To Kill Oneself

Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their impatience and despondency, and because of their forced labor. Verse ConceptsdiscouragementAnguish, CauseOther Sad PeopleDepression