63 Bible Verses about Complaints

Do everything without complaining or arguing

I am not saying this because I am in any need, for I have learned to be content in whatever situation I am in.

In everything be thankful, because this is God's will for you in the Messiah Jesus.

Eventually, the people began complaining about their distress, and the LORD heard them. When the LORD heard, his anger flared up and the LORD's fire incinerated some of them within the outskirts of the camp.

Then the LORD told Moses and Aaron, "How long will this wicked assembly keep complaining about me? I've heard the complaints of the Israelis that they've been murmuring against me.

Moses also said, "When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening, and bread in the morning to satisfy you, the LORD will hear your complaints directed against him. Who are we? Your complaints aren't against us, but rather against the LORD."

the people complained against the LORD and Moses. "Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?" they asked. "There's no food and water, and we're tired of this worthless bread."

You must stop complaining, as some of them were doing, and were annihilated by the destroyer. These things happened to them to serve as an example, and they were written down as a warning for us in whom the culmination of the ages has been attained.

so he asked the LORD, "Why did you bring all this trouble to your servant? Why haven't I found favor in your eyes? After all, you're putting the burden of this entire people on me! Did I conceive this people or give birth to them, so that you would tell me to carry them near my heart like a wet nurse carries a suckling baby to the land that you promised to their forefathers? Where am I going to get meat to give this people? After all, they're crying in front of me, "Give us meat to eat!' read more.
I cannot carry this whole nation! The burden is too heavy for me! If this is how you treat me, please kill me right now, if I've found favor in your eyes, because I don't want to keep staring at all of this misery!"

and ran for a day's journey deep into the wilderness. He found a juniper tree, sat down under it, and prayed that he could die. He asked God, "Enough! LORD! Take my life, because I'm not better than my ancestors!"

"I am disgusted with living, so I'm going to talk about my complaint freely. I'll speak out from the bitterness of my soul. I'll say to God, "Don't condemn me! Let me know why you are fighting me.

"In addition, I won't keep my opinion to myself; I'll speak from my distressed spirit; I'll complain with my bitter soul. Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you keep watching me? For I've said, "My bed will comfort me; my couch will ease my burdens while I complain.'read more.
But then you scared me with dreams; you terrified me with visions. I would rather die by strangulation than continue living. I hate the thought of living forever! Leave me alone, because my days are pointless." "What is a human being, that you make so much of him; that you set your affections on him, visit him every morning, and test him continually? Why won't you look away from me? Why don't you leave me alone so I can swallow my saliva? So what if I sin? What have I done against you, you observer of humankind? Why have you made me your target? Why burden yourself with me? Why haven't you pardoned my transgression and taken away my iniquity? Now I'm about to lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I won't be around!"

If I were to say, "Let me forget my complaint,' change the expression on my face, and look cheerful, then I still dread all of my suffering; I know you still won't acquit me.

After all, isn't my complaint against a human being? If so, why shouldn't I be impatient?

"I'm still complaining bitterly today; my hand is heavy because of groaning.

Why are you arguing with him? He doesn't have to give explanations for what he does to you!

Hear, God, as I express my concern; protect me from fear of the enemy.

I kept my heart pure for nothing and kept my hands clean from guilt. For I suffer all day long and I am punished every morning. If I say, "I will talk like this," I would betray a generation of your children.read more.
When I tried to understand this, it was too difficult for me until I entered the sanctuaries of God. Then I understood their destiny. You have certainly set them in slippery places; you will make them fall to their ruin. How desolate they quickly become, completely destroyed by calamities. Like a dream when one awakens, Lord, you will despise their image when you arise. When I chose to be bitter I was emotionally pained.

I pour out my complaint to him, telling him all of my troubles.

You are righteous, LORD, even when I bring a complaint to you. But I want to discuss justice with you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper, while all who are treacherous are at ease? You plant them and they take root, they grow and bear fruit. "You are near to us," they say with their mouths, but the truth is that you're far from their hearts. You know me, LORD. You see me and test my thoughts toward you. Pull the wicked out like sheep for slaughter; set them apart for the day of butchering.read more.
How long will the land mourn and the vegetation of every field dry up? Because of the wickedness of those who live in it, animals and birds are swept away. For they say, "He does not see our future."

Greatly displeased, Jonah flew into a rage. So he prayed to the LORD, "LORD, isn't this what I said while I was still in my home country? That's why I fled previously to Tarshish, because I knew you're a compassionate God, slow to anger, overflowing with gracious love, and reluctant to send trouble. Therefore, LORD, please kill me, because it's better for me to die than to live!"

The Pharisees saw this and asked his disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?"

When the scribes and the Pharisees saw him eating with sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples, "Why does he eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"

The Pharisees and their scribes started complaining to Jesus' disciples, "Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?"

When the Pharisees saw this, they told him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!"

The Pharisees asked him, "Look! Why are they doing what is not lawful on Sabbath days?"

Some of the Pharisees asked, "Why are you doing what isn't lawful on Sabbath days?"

"Why do your disciples disregard the tradition of the elders? They don't wash their hands when they eat."

So the Pharisees and the scribes asked Jesus, "Why don't your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat with unclean hands."

"Why does this man talk this way? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"

Then some of the scribes told themselves, "This fellow is blaspheming!"

But the Pharisees and the scribes kept complaining, "This man welcomes sinners and eats with them."

Then the Jewish leaders began grumbling about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven." They kept saying, "This is Jesus, the son of Joseph, isn't it, whose father and mother we know? So how can he say, "I have come down from heaven'?" Jesus answered them, "Stop grumbling among yourselves.

In those days, as the number of the disciples was growing larger and larger, a complaint was made by the Hellenistic Jews against the Hebraic Jews that their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food.

But the people were thirsty there for water, so they complained against Moses: "Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"

They also told Moses, "Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you took us out to die in the desert? What have you done to us, by bringing us out of Egypt? Is this not what we told you in Egypt, when we said, "Leave us alone!' and "Let us serve the Egyptians!'? Indeed, it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!"

Then the people complained against Moses: "What are we to drink?"

The whole congregation of the Israelis complained against Moses and Aaron in the desert. The Israelis told them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt when we sat by the cooking pots, when we ate bread until we were filled because you brought us to this desert to kill this entire congregation with hunger."

Paul was about to speak when Gallio admonished the Jewish leaders, "If there were some misdemeanor or crime involved, it would be reasonable to put up with you Jews. But since it is a question about words, names, and your own Law, you will have to take care of that yourselves. I refuse to be a judge in these matters."

The whole congregation of the Israelis complained against Moses and Aaron in the desert.

You murmured in your tents, "The LORD hates us. He brought us out of the land of Egypt in order to deliver us to the Amorites so he could destroy us.

If their fathers or brothers come complaining to us, we'll tell them "Be generous! Give them to us voluntarily, because we didn't take anyone to be a wife for the men of the tribe of Benjamin as a result of the battle. And you haven't incurred guilt by giving your daughters to them.'"

Don't consider your maid servant a worthless woman. Rather, all this time I've been speaking because I'm very anxious and distressed."

"In addition, I won't keep my opinion to myself; I'll speak from my distressed spirit; I'll complain with my bitter soul. Am I the sea, or a sea monster, that you keep watching me? For I've said, "My bed will comfort me; my couch will ease my burdens while I complain.'

If I were to say, "Let me forget my complaint,' change the expression on my face, and look cheerful,

"I am disgusted with living, so I'm going to talk about my complaint freely. I'll speak out from the bitterness of my soul.

Pay attention to me and answer me. I moan and groan in my thoughts,

I remember God, and I groan; I meditate, while my spirit grows faint. Interlude

LORD, hear my prayer! May my cry for help come to you.

May our cattle grow heavy with young, with no damage or loss. May there be no cry of anguish in our streets!

Why should anyone living complain, any mortal, about being punished for sin?

But Martha was worrying about all the things she had to do, so she came to him and asked, "Lord, you do care that my sister has left me to do the work all by myself, don't you? Then tell her to help me."

But all the people who saw this began to complain: "Jesus is going to be the guest of a notorious sinner!"

These people are complainers and faultfinders, following their own desires. They say arrogant things and flatter people in order to take advantage of them.

Then the people approached Moses and admitted, "We've sinned by speaking against the LORD and you. Pray to the LORD, that he'll remove the serpents from us." So Moses prayed in behalf of the people.

But Moses responded to the LORD, "When Egypt hears that you've brought this people out from among them with a mighty demonstration of power, they'll also proclaim to the inhabitants of this land that they've heard you're among this people, LORD, whom they've seen face to face, since your cloud stands guard over them. You've guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night. But if you slaughter this people all at the same time, then the nations who heard about your fame will say, read more.
"The LORD slaughtered this people in the wilderness because he wasn't able to bring them to the land that he promised them.' "Now, let the power of the LORD be magnified, just as you promised when you said, "The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in faithful love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he won't acquit the guilty. He recalls the iniquity of fathers to the third and fourth generation.' "Forgive, please, the iniquity of this people, according to your great, faithful love, in the same way that you've carried this people from Egypt to this place." The LORD responded, "I've forgiven them based on what you've said. But just as I live, and just as the whole earth will be filled with the LORD's glory, none of those men who saw my glory and watched my miracles that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness even though they've tested me these ten times and never listened to my voice will ever see the land that I promised to their ancestors. Those who spurned me won't see it. Now as to my servant Caleb, because a different spirit is within him and he has remained true to me, I'm going to bring him into the land that he explored, and his descendants are to inherit it. Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite live in the valley. Tomorrow, turn and then travel to the wilderness in the direction of the Reed Sea." Then the LORD told Moses and Aaron, "How long will this wicked assembly keep complaining about me? I've heard the complaints of the Israelis that they've been murmuring against me. So tell them that as long as I live consider this to be an oracle from the LORD as certainly as you've spoken right into my ears, that's how I'm going to treat you. Your corpses will fall in this wilderness every single one of you who has been counted among you, according to your number from 20 years and above, who complained against me. You will certainly never enter the land about which I made an oath with my uplifted hand to settle you in it, except for Jephunneh's son Caleb and Nun's son Joshua. However, I'll bring your little ones the ones whom you claimed would become war victims into the land so that they'll know by experience the land that you've rejected. "Now as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness and your children will wander throughout the wilderness for 40 years. They'll bear the consequences of your idolatries until your bodies are entirely consumed in the wilderness. Just as you explored the land for 40 days, you'll bear the consequences of your iniquities for 40 years one year for each day as you experience my hostility. I, the LORD, have spoken. I will indeed do this to this evil congregation, who gathered together against me. They'll be eliminated in this wilderness and will surely die." After this, the men whom Moses sent out to explore the land, who returned and made the whole congregation complain against him by bringing an evil report concerning the land, and who produced an evil report about the land, died of pestilence in the LORD's presence. However, Nun's son Joshua and Jephunneh's son Caleb, who had explored the land, remained alive. After Moses had told all of this to the Israelis, the people deeply mourned.

Nevertheless, the very next day, the whole congregation of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, "You've killed the LORD'S people!" When the community gathered together against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the Tent of Meeting. All of a sudden, a cloud covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared. Then Moses and Aaron entered the Tent of Meeting.read more.
The LORD told Moses, "Leave this community, so I can annihilate them in a moment." But they fell upon their faces. Then Moses told Aaron. "Take the censer, put fire on it from the altar, and burn some incense. Then walk quickly to the congregation and atone for them, because wrath has already come out from the LORD the plague has begun." So Aaron took the censer, just as Moses had spoken, and ran out to the center of the assembly, where a plague had begun among the people. He set the incense on fire and atoned for the people. He stood between the dead and the living and restrained the plague. Those who died due to the plague numbered 14,700, not counting those who died due to the matter with Korah. Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting after the slaughter had been restrained.

When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter. (That is why it's called Marah.) Then the people complained against Moses: "What are we to drink?" Moses cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree, which he threw into the water, and the water became sweet.

The entire community of the Israelis entered the Zin wilderness during the first month. The people stayed in Kadesh. Miriam died and was buried there. But there was no water for the community, so they gathered together against Moses and Aaron. As the people argued with Moses, they told him, "We wish that we had died when our relatives died in the LORD's presence! read more.
Why did you bring the assembly of the LORD into this wilderness? So we and our cattle could die here? Why did you take us out of Egypt and bring us to this terrible place? There's no place to plant seeds, fig trees, vines, or pomegranates! And there's no water to drink!" Then Moses and Aaron went into the presence of the community at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and fell on their faces. Then the glory of the LORD appeared to them. The LORD told Moses, "Take the rod, gather the community together, and then you and your brother Aaron are to speak to the rock right before their eyes. It will release water. As you bring water to them from the rock, the community and the cattle will be able to drink." So Moses took the rod in the LORD's presence, just as he had commanded. Then Moses and Aaron gathered the community together in front of the rock. "Pay attention, you rebels!" Moses told them. "Are we to bring you water from this rock?" Then Moses raised his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod. Lots of water gushed out, and both the community and their cattle were able to drink. But the LORD rebuked Moses and Aaron, telling Moses: "Because you both didn't believe me, because you didn't consecrate me as holy in the presence of the Israelis, you won't be the ones to bring this congregation into the land that I'm about to give them." Because the Israelis argued with the LORD and he was set apart among them, this place was called the Meribah Springs.

The people quarreled with Moses: "Give us water to drink." Moses told them, "Why are you quarreling with me? Why are you testing the LORD?" But the people were thirsty there for water, so they complained against Moses: "Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?" So Moses cried out to the LORD: "What am I to do with these people? Just a little more and they'll stone me."read more.
Then the LORD told Moses, "Go over in front of the people and take some of the elders of Israel with you. Take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. I'll be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb. You are to strike the rock and water will come out of it, so the people can drink." Moses did this in front of the elders of Israel. He named the place Massah and Meribah, because the Israelis quarreled and tested the LORD by saying: "Is the LORD really among us or not?"

At this, the entire assembly complained, started to shout, and cried through the rest of that night. All the Israelis complained against Moses and Aaron. Then the entire assembly responded, "We wish that we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness. What's the point in the LORD bringing us to this land? To die by the sword so our wives and children would become war victims? Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt?"read more.
Then they told each other, "Let's assign a leader and go back to Egypt." Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in front of the entire assembly of the congregation of Israel.

so he asked the LORD, "Why did you bring all this trouble to your servant? Why haven't I found favor in your eyes? After all, you're putting the burden of this entire people on me! Did I conceive this people or give birth to them, so that you would tell me to carry them near my heart like a wet nurse carries a suckling baby to the land that you promised to their forefathers? Where am I going to get meat to give this people? After all, they're crying in front of me, "Give us meat to eat!' read more.
I cannot carry this whole nation! The burden is too heavy for me! If this is how you treat me, please kill me right now, if I've found favor in your eyes, because I don't want to keep staring at all of this misery!" Then the LORD told Moses, "Gather together for me 70 men who are elders of Israel, men whom you know to be elders of the people and officers over them. Then bring them to the Tent of Meeting and let them stand there with you. Then I'll come down and speak with you. I'll take some of the spirit that rests on you and apportion it among them, so that they may help you bear the burden of the people. That way, you won't bear it by yourself." "But give this command to the people: "You are to consecrate yourselves, because tomorrow you're going to eat meat, since you've complained where the LORD can hear it, "Who can give us meat to eat? After all, life was better with us in Egypt." Therefore, the LORD is going to give you meat and you'll eat not only for a day, or for two days, or for five days, or for ten days, or for 20 days, but for a whole month until it comes out your nostrils and makes you vomit. This is because you've despised the LORD, who is among you, and you cried out in his presence by complaining, "Why did we ever leave Egypt?"'" Moses responded, "I'm with 600,000 people on foot and you're saying I am to give them enough meat to eat for a whole month? What if we were to slaughter our entire inventory of flocks and herds for them? Would that be enough? What if we could gather all the fish in the sea in nets for them? Would that be enough, either?" But the LORD responded to Moses, "Is the LORD short on power? You're now going to witness whether what I say will come to pass or not." So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He gathered 70 men from the elders of the people and stationed them around the tent. The LORD came down in a cloud, spoke to Moses, and made an apportionment from the spirit who rested on him to the 70 elders. When the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but that was it. Now two men had remained in camp. One was named Eldad and the other was named Medad. When the spirit rested on them, since they were among those who were listed but had not gone out to the tent, they stayed behind and prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and reported to Moses, "Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!" In response, Nun's son Joshua, Moses' attendant and one of his choice men, exclaimed, "My master Moses! Stop them!" "Are you jealous on account of me?" Moses asked in reply. "I wish all of the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!" Then Moses that is, he and the elders of Israel returned to the camp. Just then, a wind burst forth from the LORD, who brought quails from the sea and spread them all around the camp, about a day's journey in each direction, completely encircling the camp about two cubits deep on top of the ground! The people stayed up all that day, all that night, and all through the next day, gathering quails. The one who gathered least gathered enough to fill ten omers, as they spread out all around the camp. But even as they were chewing the meat and before they had swallowed it, the LORD became very angry with the people and struck them with a disastrous plague. That's why the place was named Kibroth-hattaavah, because they buried the people there who had an insatiable appetite for meat. Later, the people left Kibroth-hattaavah for Hazeroth and camped there.

After this, they traveled from Mount Hor along the caravan route by way of the Sea of Reeds and went around the land of Edom. But when the people got impatient because it was a long route, the people complained against the LORD and Moses. "Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?" they asked. "There's no food and water, and we're tired of this worthless bread." In response, the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people to bite them. As a result, many people of Israel died. read more.
Then the people approached Moses and admitted, "We've sinned by speaking against the LORD and you. Pray to the LORD, that he'll remove the serpents from us." So Moses prayed in behalf of the people.