Bitter; Bitterness bit'-er, bit'-er-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 derivati ves meri and meriri 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 pikraino = "to embitter"; the adjective pikros = "bitter," and the noun pikria, "bitterness," supply the same ideas in
Col 3:19,
Jas 3:11,
Jas 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) Nu 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.
Frank E. Hirsch
