Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Romans 9:2
That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
2. that I have, &c.] More lit. that I have great grief, and my heart has incessant pain. Very wonderful, and profoundly true, is this expression of intense grief just after the “joy unspeakable” of ch. 8. The heart is capable of a vast complexity of emotions, and none the less so when it is “spiritual.” Cp. 1Pe 1:6. No doubt the expressions here are the more intense because of the contrasted recent view of the coming glory of believers, and their security in the love and covenant of God.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Great heaviness – Great grief.
Continual sorrow – The word rendered continual here must be taken in a popular sense. Not that he was literally all the time pressed down with this sorrow, but that whenever he thought on this subject, he had great grief; as we say of a painful subject, it is a source of constant pain. The cause of this grief, Paul does not expressly mention, though it is implied in what he immediately says. It was the fact that so large a part of the nation would be rejected, and cast off.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
His grief for his nation and people he expresseth,
1. By the greatness of it; it was such as a woman hath in travail so the word imports.
2. By the continuance of it; it was continual, or without intermission.
3. By the seat of it; it was in his heart, and not outward in his face. The cause he doth not here set down, but it is easily gathered from what follows, viz. the obstinacy and infidelity, together with the rejection, of the Jews.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. That I have, &c.”ThatI have great grief (or, sorrow) and unceasing anguish in myheart”the bitter hostility of his nation to the gloriousGospel, and the awful consequences of their unbelief, weighingheavily and incessantly upon his spirit.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. This is the thing he appeals to Christ for the truth of, and calls in his conscience and the Holy Ghost to bear witness to. These two words, “heaviness” and “sorrow”, the one signifies grief, which had brought on heaviness on his spirits; and the other such pain as a woman in travail feels: and the trouble of his mind expressed by both, is described by its quantity, “great”, it was not a little, but much; by its quality it was internal, it was in his “heart”, it did not lie merely in outward show, in a few words or tears, but was in his heart, it was a heart sorrow; and by its duration, “continual”, it was not a sudden emotion or passion, but what had been long in him, and had deeply affected and greatly depressed him: and what was the reason of all this? it is not expressed, but may pretty easily be understood; it was because of the obstinacy of his countrymen the Jews, the hardness of their hearts, and their wilful rejection of the Messiah; their trusting to their own righteousness, to the neglect and contempt of the righteousness of Christ, which he knew must unavoidably issue in their eternal destruction; also what greatly affected his mind was the utter rejection of them, as the people of God, and the judicial blindness, and hardness of heart, he full well knew was coming upon them, and which he was about to break unto them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Sorrow (). Because the Jews were rejecting Christ the Messiah. “We may compare the grief of a Jew writing after the fall of Jerusalem” (Sanday and Headlam).
Unceasing pain in my heart ( ). Like angina pectoris. is old word for consuming grief, in N.T. only here and and 1Ti 6:10.
Unceasing (). Late and rare adjective (in an inscription 1 cent. B.C.), in N.T. only here and 2Ti 1:3. Two rare words together and both here only in N.T. and I and II Timothy (some small argument for the Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles).
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Heaviness, sorrow [ ] . Heaviness, so Wyc. and Tynd., in the earlier sense of sorrow. So Chaucer :
“Who feeleth double sorrow and heaviness But Palamon?”
“Knight’s Tale,” 1456
Shakespeare :
“I am here, brother, full of heaviness.”
2 “Henry iv,” 4, 5, 8
Rev., sorrow. Odunh is better rendered pain. Some derive it from the root ed eat, as indicating, consuming pain. Compare Horace, curae edares devouring cares. Only here and 1Ti 6:10, Heart. See on ch. Rom 1:21.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “That I have great heaviness,” (hoti lupe moi estin megale) That I have, hold, or contain great grief,” grief that burdened his soul and body, that caused him to sow in tears with assurance of a good day of reward, Psa 126:5-6; Ecc 11:1; Ecc 11:6; Rom 1:14-16. This is the key to persistent soul-winning, Jer 9:11; La 2:11; Eze 9:4.
2) “And continual sorrow,” (kai adialeiptos odune) “and unending, unceasing, or incessant pain,” soul-care, soul-concern for Israel. None could say among the Jews at that time “no man cared for my soul,” Psa 142:4. As our Lord had compassion and was moved and wept with care for his people Israel, so did Paul.
3) “In my heart,” (te kardia mou) “in (the) my heart or seat of emotions,” that his own people might receive salvation of Christ, even as he had, Rom 10:1. In this spirit of Christ he sought to win men wherever he went, 1Co 9:20-23.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
2. That I have great sorrow, etc. He dexterously manages so to cut short his sentence as not yet to express what he was going to say; for it was not as yet seasonable openly to mention the destruction of the Jewish nation. It may be added, that he thus intimates a greater measure of sorrow, as imperfect sentences are for the most part full of pathos. But he will presently express the cause of his sorrow, after having more fully testified his sincerity.
But the perdition of the Jews caused very great anguish to Paul, though he knew that it happened through the will and providence of God. We hence learn that the obedience we render to God’s providence does not prevent us from grieving at the destruction of lost men, though we know that they are thus doomed by the just judgment of God; for the same mind is capable of being influenced by these two feelings: that when it looks to God it can willingly bear the ruin of those whom he has decreed to destroy; and that when it turns its thoughts to men, it condoles with their evils. They are then much deceived, who say that godly men ought: to have apathy and insensibility, ( ἀπάθειαν καὶ ἀναλγησίαν) lest they should resist the decree of God.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
2 That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
Ver. 2. Continual sorrow ] Such as a woman in travail hath, . So Gal 4:19 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Rom 9:2 . The fact of Paul’s sorrow is stated here; the cause of it is revealed in Rom 9:3 . Weiss remarks on the triple climax: being intensified in , in , and in . Paul cannot find words strong enough to convey his feeling.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
heaviness = sorrow.
continual. Greek. adialeiptos. Only here and 2Ti 1:3.
sorrow = pangs. Greek. odune. Only here and 1Ti 6:10.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Rom 9:2. , grief, [heaviness]) In spiritual things grief and (see the end of the eighth chapter) joy in the highest degree may exist together. Paul was sensible, from how great benefits, already enumerated, the Jews excluded themselves, and at the same time he declares [makes it evident], that he does not say those things, which he has to say, in an unfriendly spirit towards his persecutors.– , to me-in my heart) These are equivalent in each half of the verse.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Rom 9:2
Rom 9:2
that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart.-The cause of Pauls sorrow and anguish of heart for the Jews was because they rejected Christ and were not in a saved state. [How noble Paul appears here, with his hearty love for those who from the day of his conversion had persecuted him with relentless hatred!]
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Rom 10:1, 1Sa 15:35, Psa 119:136, Isa 66:10, Jer 9:1, Jer 13:17, Lam 1:12, Lam 3:48, Lam 3:49, Lam 3:51, Eze 9:4, Luk 19:41-44, Phi 3:18, Rev 11:3
Reciprocal: 2Ki 8:11 – wept 2Ki 22:19 – wept Ezr 10:1 – weeping Est 8:6 – For how Est 10:3 – seeking Psa 13:2 – sorrow Psa 31:10 – my life Jer 4:19 – My bowels Eze 19:14 – This is Dan 7:15 – was grieved Dan 10:2 – I Daniel Joh 11:35 – General Joh 13:21 – he was 2Co 2:4 – out 2Co 6:10 – sorrowful 2Co 12:21 – that I Phi 2:26 – full 1Pe 1:6 – ye are
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Rom 9:2. Great grief and continual sorrow. The cause of this grief obviously is the unbelief of his countrymen, their practical exclusion from the Messianic salvation. This feeling was respecting those who had for years persecuted him with relentless hatred, and who, shortly after this time occasioned him a long imprisonment, thus becoming the immediate cause of his martyrdom.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
The original word signifies such sorrow as is found with women in travail; a sorrow continually affecting his heart, and afflicting his spirit, for his countrymen and kinsmen the Jews, upon the account of their obstinate infidelity, obduration of heart, and spirit of slumber which was fallen upon them, which had provoked God to resolve to cast them off, to reject their nation, and to scatter them up and down throughout the world.
Behold here, 1. What are the dismal effects and dreadful consequences of obstinate unbelief, under the offers of Christ tendered to persons in and by the dispensation of the gospel, without timely repentance; the issue will be final rejection, inevitable condemnation, and unutterable.
Behold, 2. The true spirit of Christianity: it puts men upon mourning for the sins and calamities of others in a very sensible and affectionate manner. Good men ever have been, and are men of tender and compassionate dispositions; a stoical apathy, an indolency of heart, or want of natural affection, is so far from being a virtue, or matter of just commendation unto any man, that the deepest sorrow and heaviness of soul, in some cases, well becomes persons of the greatest piety and wisdom.
Learn, 3. That great sorrow and continual heaviness of heart of the miseries of others, whether imminent or incumbent, but especially for the sins of others, is an undoubted argument, sign, and evidence of a strong and vehement love towards them. The apostle’s great heaviness and continual sorrow for the Jews, his brethren, was a great instance and evidence of his unfeigned love and affection to them.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Vv. 2. Rom 9:2-3 contain the matter of that truth so solemnly announced in Rom 9:1. The parallelism of the two propositions of the verse, as always, is the indication of a rising feeling. A triple gradation has been remarked between the two propositions. First, between the two subjects: , grief, which denotes an inward sadness; , lamentation, which refers to the violent outburst of grief, though it should only be inwardly; then a gradation between the two epithets , great, and , continual: it is so intense that it accompanies all the moments of his life; finally, between the two regimens , to me, and , to my heart, the latter term denoting the deepest spring of the emotions of the me.
Here still Paul leaves us to read between the lines the tragical word which expresses the cause of this grief.
Vv. 3. For I could wish that myself were anathema away from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.
This inward fact is the proof of the intensity of the feeling expressed in Rom 9:2 (for); and it is to this almost incredible fact that the exceptional affirmations of Rom 9:1 applied.
The imperfect indicative , literally, I was wishing, has in Greek the force of throwing this wish into the past, and into a past which remains always unfinished, so that this expression takes away from the wish all possibility of realization. The meaning therefore is: I should wish, if such a desire could be realized. If the apostle had meant to speak of a wish really formed by him, though under certain conditions, he would have expressed this idea by the present optative , or by the aorist with (Act 26:29); comp. Gal 4:20, and also Act 25:22 (where Agrippa expresses his desire, while stating it as unrealizable, that he might not have the appearance of encroaching on the authority of Festus). It is from not understanding or applying the meaning of the Greek imperfect indicative that recourse has been had to so many unnatural explanations, intended to spare the apostle a wish which seemed to have in it something offensive to Christian feeling. Thus the interpretation of the Itala (optabam), Ambrosiaster, Pelagius, the Vulgate, Luther, Chalmers: I wished (formerly when in my blind fanaticism I persecuted the church of Christ). The apostle would, on this view, be recalling the fact that it was his ardent love for his people which had then driven him away from the Christ (who had appeared in Jesus). But it is not of what he was formerly, it is of what he is now, as the apostle of the Gentiles, that Paul wishes to bear testimony; and that the expression: far from Christ, may prove the strength of his love to Israel, the testimony must go forth from a heart which has recognized Jesus as the Christ, and is able to appreciate Him at His proper value. Finally, some indication or other of the time when he formed this wish would have been necessary (, formerly, Rom 7:9).
Some English expositors, among the last Morison and Tregelles, have made the first half of Rom 9:3 a parenthesis, and joined the end of the verse for my brethren…, with Rom 9:2. What Paul, according to this view, meant to express by the wish, was the profound misery of Israel, a misery in which he himself also was formerly involved. But Morison has withdrawn this explanation, which is really inadmissible, and he now proposes to translate: I might desire (to go all that length). The examples which he quotes to justify this meaning appear to me insufficient, and the idea itself lacks precision. Finally, Lange, after Michaelis, has made a still more unfortunate attempt. He translates: I made a vow, and explains it of an engagement, accompanied no doubt with an imprecation, which he took, it is held, at the hands of the high priest when he was preparing to set out to Damascus, there to persecute the Christians (Act 9:2). He undertook in some way or other, at the peril of his Messianic blessedness, to save Judaism by extirpating the heresy. To set aside such an explanation it is enough to point to the imperfect , which would require, since the matter in question is a positive fact, to be replaced by the aorist , or at least accompanied with some kind of chronological definition.
It need not be asked how this vow could ever be realized. Paul himself declares that it is an impossibility; but if its accomplishment depended only on his love, he would certainly express such a wish before the Lord.
The word , anathema, from , to expose, to set in view, always denotes an object consecrated to God. But this consecration may have in view either its preservation as a pious offering in a sanctuary (donaria)in this case the LXX. and the N. T. use the form , for example 2Ma 5:16, and Luk 21:5or it may be carried out by the destruction of the consecrated object, as in the case of the ban (chrem); the LXX. and the N. T. prefer in that sense using the form (for example, Jos 7:12; Gal 1:8-9; 1Co 16:22). This distinction between the two forms of the word did not exist in classic Greek.
The expression is so strong, especially with the regimen , away from Christ, that it is impossible to apply it either, with Grotius, to ecclesiastical excommunication, or, with Jerome, to a violent death inflicted by Christ (substituting , by, for , for from). Paul has evidently in mind the breaking of the bond which unites him to Christ as his Saviour. He would consent, if it were possible, to fall back again forever into the state of condemnation in which he lived before his conversion, if by the sacrifice of his salvation he could bring about the conversion of his people Israel. The words: away from Christ, express the bitterness that such an anathema would have for his heart; and yet he would face it, if it were possible thus to exchange lots with his people. Here is, as it were, the paroxysm of patriotic devotion. The pronoun myself, if placed, as in the Byz. text, before the term: to be anathema, sets Paul in contrast to the Jews who are really in this state: I should myself like to be anathema (rather than they). But if, with the other documents, it be placed after the words: to be anathema, it serves to contrast the real with the alleged Paul, who was made the mortal enemy of the Jews in consequence of the mission which he carried out among the Gentiles: to be anathema myself, I who am represented as the despiser of my nation, and who have in fact the sad mission of consecrating the divorce between Israel and her God! To the notion of spiritual and theocratic kinship denoted by the title brethren, the expression: kinsmen according to the flesh, adds the idea of natural human kinship by blood and nationality.
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. [Paul, in the depth of his passion, does not deliberately state the cause of his grief, but leaves it to be implied. His grief was that the gospel had resulted in the rejection of his own people, the Jews. He had closed the first part of his Epistle in a triumphant outburst of praise at the glorious salvation wrought by the gospel of belief in Christ, but ere praise has died on his lips, this minor wail of anguish opens the second part of his Epistle because Israel does not participate in this glad salvation. “The grief for his nation and people,” says Poole, “he expresseth, 1. By the greatness of it; it was such as a woman hath in travail; so the word imports. 2. By the continuance of it; it was continual, or without intermission. 3. By the seat of it; it was in his heart, and not outward in his face.” And why does Paul asseverate so strongly that he feels such grief? 1. Because only himself and God (and God had to do with him through Christ and the Holy Spirit) knew the hidden secrets of his bosom. 2. Because without some such asseveration the Jews would hardly believe him in this respect. Even Christian Jews looked upon his racial loyalty with suspicion (Act 21:20-21); what wonder, then, if unbelieving Jews recorded him as the most virulent enemy of their race (Acts 28:17-19), and believed him capable of corrupting any Scripture to their injury, of inventing any doctrine to their prejudice, of perverting any truth into a lie to work them harm? (See 2Co 6:8; 2Co 1:17; 2Co 2:17; 2Co 4:1-2; 2Co 7:2; etc.) In their estimation Paul was easily capable of giving birth to this doctrine of salvation by faith for no other end than the joy of pronouncing their damnation for their unbelief. Yea, they could readily believe that his joy expressed at Rom 8:31-39 was more due to the fact that Israel was shut out from salvation, than that there was salvation. To thoroughly appreciate the full bitterness of the Jewish mistrust and hatred toward Paul we must remember the constancy with which for years they persecuted him, and that very soon after the writing of this Epistle they occasioned his long imprisonment in Rome, and relentlessly persisted in their accusations against him till they became the immediate cause of his martyrdom. Therefore, in expressing his sorrow over the rejection of Israel, Paul pledges his truthfulness in Christ for whom he had suffered the loss of all things, and in the Holy Spirit who was wont to strike down all lying Ananiases (Act 5:3-5), for it was necessary, before another word be said, that every Jew should know that Paul’s doctrine was not his own, that it did not arise in his mind because of any spleen, malice, hostility, illwill, or even mild distaste for the Jewish people. On the contrary, his personal bias was against the doctrine which he taught; and none knew this so well as the Christ with whom the doctrine arose, and the Holy Spirit who inspired Paul to teach it.]
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Paul’s sorrow and grief over Israel’s condition contrast with his joy and exultation over his own condition (Rom 8:38-39).