Bitter, Bitterness
Bitter, Bitterness
biter, biter-nes (, mar, or , marah = bitter (literally or figuratively); also (noun) bitterness or (adverb) bitterly; angry, chafed, discontented, heavy (Gen 27:34; Exo 15:23; Num 5:18, Num 5:19, Num 5:23, Num 5:24, Num 5:27; Est 4:1; Job 3:20; Psa 64:3; Pro 5:4; Pro 27:7; Ecc 7:26; Isa 5:20; Jer 2:19; Jer 4:18; Eze 27:31; Amo 8:10; Hab 1:6); the derivatives , marar, , meror, and , merorah, used with the same significance according to the context, are found in Exo 1:14; Exo 12:8; Num 9:11; Job 13:26; Isa 24:9. The derivatives mer and merr occur in Deu 32:24; Job 23:2 (margin); and , tamrur, is found in Jer 6:26; Jer 31:15. In the New Testament the verb , pikrano = to embitter; the adjective , pikros = bitter, and the noun , pikra, bitterness, supply the same ideas in Col 3:19; Jam 3:11, Jam 3:14; Rev 8:11; Rev 10:9, Rev 10:10): 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) Num 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.