--- title: "What Does the Bible Say About Suffering? Job, the Lament Psalms and the Question Why" description: "The Bible gives several accounts of suffering and keeps them side by side. Romans 15:13, the lament psalms, Job, John 9, and what traditions teach." url: "https://biblenudge.com/blog/what-does-the-bible-say-about-suffering" lang: "en" published: "2026-03-27" modified: "2026-03-27" author: "Cal Hewitt" tags: ["suffering","job","psalm 88","lamentations 3","john 9","romans 15"] image: "https://biblenudge.com/og/blog-what-does-the-bible-say-about-suffering.jpg" alternates: es: "https://biblenudge.com/es/blog/que-dice-la-biblia-sobre-el-sufrimiento.md" --- # What Does the Bible Say About Suffering? Job, the Lament Psalms and the Question Why [Cal Hewitt](https://biblenudge.com/about/cal-hewitt)Published March 27, 2026 - suffering - job - psalm 88 - lamentations 3 - john 9 - romans 15 ![What Does the Bible Say About Suffering? Job, the Lament Psalms and the Question Why](https://biblenudge.com/blog/what-does-the-bible-say-about-suffering/featured.jpg) On Reddit's r/Christianity, one person asked ["What causes suffering?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1fgjz4b/) and another, ["Can someone explain in real simple words what suffering means ?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/dwrlwm/) On Christianity Stack Exchange the question is sharper: ["How does Christianity explain suffering that ends in death?"](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/15026/) The short answer is that the Bible gives several accounts of suffering, each in its own setting, and keeps them side by side. Lamentations ties Jerusalem's ruin to its wrongdoing. James and 1 Peter speak of trials that test. Job suffers without cause, and his friends are told they spoke wrongly. Psalm 88 ends in darkness with no reason given. In John 9 and at the end of Job, the explanation offered for one particular person is turned down. What they give you is words to bring your own suffering to God while you still do not know why. ## The short version ### A place to start [Romans 15:13](https://biblenudge.com/context/romans-15-13), a prayer that hope be given, to pray in the middle of whatever you face. ### Words to pray Psalm 22, Psalm 88 and Lamentations 3 speak from inside suffering. ### Job The friends who explained his losses were told they were wrong. ### Told it is your fault? John 9:1-3 sets aside both explanations offered for one blind man. ### If you are ill Ask the hospital or hospice for its chaplain or spiritual care team. ## A place to start: Romans 15:13 The passage this site offers for hope is a prayer: > Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul closes a call to patient, welcoming community with it. That section begins, "Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak, and not to please ourselves." The verse asks for hope to be given, in the middle of things as they are. Read it slowly with one question: where do you most need hope to be given rather than generated? [Bible verses for hope in hard times](https://biblenudge.com/blog/bible-verses-for-hope-in-hard-times) reads the verse closely. ## Words to pray before any explanation Psalm 22, headed as David's, opens: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" and goes on, "My God, I cry in the daytime, but you don’t answer." Psalm 88, whose heading names Heman the Ezrahite, begins "Yahweh, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you," and ends with no turn at all: "You have put lover and friend far from me, and my friends into darkness." Lamentations 3 speaks as "the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath," amid Jerusalem's devastation. At verse 21 it turns: "This I recall to my mind; therefore I have hope," then "his compassion doesn’t fail. They are new every morning." Verse 33 adds, "For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men." If you have no words of your own, any of these can be read aloud. [What the Bible says about grief](https://biblenudge.com/blog/what-does-the-bible-say-about-grief) reads Psalm 88 and Lamentations 3 for the bereaved. ![A mug of tea going cold on a kitchen table beside a folded dish towel](https://biblenudge.com/blog/what-does-the-bible-say-about-suffering/kitchen-table.jpg) *The lament psalms were written to be said, not studied.* ## Job, and the friends who explained too much When Job's three friends hear of his losses, they come and sit with him on the ground seven days and seven nights without a word, "for they saw that his grief was very great" (Job 2:13). Then they start talking, and for most of the book they explain his suffering as the result of something he did. When Yahweh answers "out of the whirlwind," it is with questions: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?" The speeches never account for Job's losses. At the end, in Job 42:7, God says to Eliphaz, "My wrath is kindled against you, and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has." Moshe Greenberg, at [My Jewish Learning](https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/the-book-of-job/), says the book "challenges the simple equation of suffering with punishment" and that the meaning of the divine speeches is "the subject of much theological speculation." Rabbi James Ponet, also at [My Jewish Learning](https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/job/), calls Job "a book that challenges the rest of the Bible by asking how a good God can permit so much suffering." [Matthew Henry](https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/matthew-henry/Job.42.7-Job.42.9), the Protestant commentator, reads chapter 42 as God vindicating Job against friends who had represented God wrongly. ## If you have been told it is your fault John 9 begins with a man blind from birth, and a question from Jesus' disciples: > His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither did this man sin, nor his parents; but, that the works of God might be revealed in him. Jesus then makes mud, sends the man to wash in the pool of Siloam, and he comes back seeing. The exchange sets aside the two explanations offered for this man. It answers for him, the one man standing in front of Jesus. [Bible verses after a sudden death](https://biblenudge.com/blog/bible-verses-for-sudden-death) reads Luke 13:1-5 on the tower of Siloam, for the same question after a death. ## Where the Bible does connect suffering with a purpose James writes "to the twelve tribes which are in the Dispersion" that "the testing of your faith produces endurance." [Enduring Word](https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/james-1/) glosses the Greek word for endurance, hypomonē, as "the ability to stay under a heavy load." Romans 5 is addressed to people "justified by faith": "suffering produces perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope." 1 Peter 4 calls it a "fiery trial" and speaks of suffering "for being a Christian," as distinct from suffering as a murderer or a thief. Some texts tie suffering to wrongdoing. Lamentations 1:5 says Yahweh afflicted Jerusalem "for the multitude of her transgressions." [GotQuestions](https://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-affliction.html), an evangelical publisher, writes "Affliction can be a direct consequence of sin" and "Affliction can be a judgment from God." Each is a reading of a particular text, written to a particular community. ## Groaning, and help with praying Romans 8 describes a creation that "groans and travails in pain together until now," and people who "groan within ourselves." Then: > In the same way, the Spirit also helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we ought. But the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which can’t be uttered. [Matthew Henry](https://www.biblegateway.com/resources/matthew-henry/Rom.8.17-Rom.8.25) reads verses 17 and 18 as the sufferings of this present time set against the glory to come. Verse 28, "all things work together for good," closes the passage; the Hope topic set it aside because it asks you to believe something about your own circumstances. Paul wrote of being "weighed down exceedingly, beyond our power, so much that we despaired even of life" (2 Corinthians 1:8), and of a "thorn in the flesh" he never names, answered with "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness" (12:9). Hebrews 5:7 says Jesus offered "prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears." If despair of life is close for you, the crisis lines at the end are there tonight. ![An unmade bed with a phone charger coiled on the nightstand and a curtain half drawn](https://biblenudge.com/blog/what-does-the-bible-say-about-suffering/nightstand.jpg) *Paul wrote that he despaired even of life.* ## What different traditions teach Traditions answer differently. Catholic: John Paul II's [Salvifici Doloris](https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1984/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_11021984_salvifici-doloris.html) (1984) speaks of a "salvific meaning" of suffering, yet says "man, in his suffering, remains an intangible mystery" and warns "how much care must be taken" with answers. The [Catechism](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P4J.HTM) (1505) says Christ's passion gives suffering "new meaning." Orthodox: the [Orthodox Church in America](https://www.oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/spirituality/sickness-suffering-and-death/suffering) calls the saints' suffering "a participation in the suffering of Christ." Evangelical: J. Hampton Keathley III at [Bible.org](https://bible.org/seriespage/20-doctrine-suffering) calls suffering "a tool for growth designed to cause us to rely on the Lord and His Word," and adds, "Suffering in itself does not remove the impurities." Jewish: the readings of Job by Greenberg and Ponet above. ## When what people say makes it heavier On "God won't give you more than you can bear," one Reddit commenter on r/Christianity [wrote](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/11bkukk/): "At one of my lowest times, this was repeated to me by several people. It doesn't comfort but makes the person question his or her faith. It was more than I could bear. I couldn't have made it on my own." Another [wrote](https://www.reddit.com/r/Christianity/comments/1gyrxl9/), "I dislike ‘Everything happens for a reason’ and ‘God won't give you more than you can handle’." A review titled [Medicine for the Spirit](https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/1/1/28) notes that people whose illness is judged to result from behavior their religion calls sinful can end up "in conflict with or shunned by their religious community." Harold Koenig's [1997 review](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9373580/) asks in its title whether being religious helps or hinders coping with chronic illness. If you are looking for better words for somebody else, [what not to say to someone grieving](https://biblenudge.com/blog/what-not-to-say-to-someone-grieving) may help. ## If you are ill, or caring for someone who is The [WHO](https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/palliative-care) says "Addressing suffering involves taking care of issues beyond physical symptoms," and [Marie Curie](https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/information/end-of-life/last-weeks-of-life) says "It might also help to speak to someone who can provide emotional or spiritual support, such as a faith leader or counsellor." The practical step is simple: ask the hospital or hospice for its chaplain or spiritual care team, or ask a minister or priest to visit. ![A folded blanket on a chair beside a hospital-style window with morning light](https://biblenudge.com/blog/what-does-the-bible-say-about-suffering/window-chair.jpg) *A chaplain can be asked for by name.* ## Questions people ask **Is pain of the body different from pain of the soul?** John Paul II draws that line in [Salvifici Doloris](https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/apost_letters/1984/documents/hf_jp-ii_apl_11021984_salvifici-doloris.html) 5, between physical suffering, where "the body is hurting," and moral suffering, "pain of the soul." **Is "God won't give you more than you can handle" in the Bible?** Those words are not a verse. The threads quoted above show how it can land. **Can I use these passages with a study group?** Yes. [Job 2:11-13](https://biblenudge.com/context/job-2-11-13) beside Job 42:7-9 gives a group the friends' whole arc in two short readings. ## Where to go next Read [Romans 15:13 with the verses around it](https://biblenudge.com/context/romans-15-13). If suffering has turned into thoughts of ending your life, please reach a person tonight. In the United States, call or text 988 for the [988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline](https://988lifeline.org/). In Canada, call or text 9-8-8 ([Talk Suicide Canada](https://talksuicide.ca/)). In the United Kingdom and Ireland, [Samaritans](https://www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/) is on 116 123. In Australia, [Lifeline](https://www.lifeline.org.au/) is 13 11 14. Anywhere else, [Find A Helpline](https://findahelpline.com/) or [Befrienders Worldwide](https://befrienders.org/) lists services by country. Or describe what you are carrying in your own words, and [Bible Nudge](https://biblenudge.com/) can suggest a single passage with its setting. [Find a passage](https://biblenudge.com/nudge). ## Words that come up here Tap a term to see what it means. **Yahweh.** The personal name of God in the Hebrew Bible, printed where many translations have "the LORD". **Dispersion.** Jewish communities living outside the land of Israel. ## Share this page If somebody you know is carrying this, the link goes straight to the passage and what surrounds it. Nothing here asks them to sign up for anything. [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbiblenudge.com%2Fblog%2Fwhat-does-the-bible-say-about-suffering)[Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbiblenudge.com%2Fblog%2Fwhat-does-the-bible-say-about-suffering&media=https%3A%2F%2Fbiblenudge.com%2Fblog%2Fwhat-does-the-bible-say-about-suffering%2Ffeatured.jpg&description=What%20Does%20the%20Bible%20Say%20About%20Suffering%3F%20Job%2C%20the%20Lament%20Psalms%20and%20the%20Question%20Why) ## Related Articles - [Why Does God Allow Suffering? The Answers People Give, the Critics Who Answered Back, and What the Traditions Teach](https://biblenudge.com/blog/why-does-god-allow-suffering): The main answers to why God allows suffering, who gave each and who answered back, what the churches and Jewish sources teach, and Romans 15:13 to pray. - [Why Do Christians Get Baptized? What the Bible Says, How Churches Differ, and Romans 15:13 for the Night Before](https://biblenudge.com/blog/why-do-christians-get-baptized): A baptism tomorrow? Romans 15:13 to say tonight, why Christians baptize, how churches differ, and what a guest or nervous candidate can ask. - [One Year After an Attack on Your Church: Keeping the Day Together, and Romans 15:13 as the Building Goes Back Up](https://biblenudge.com/blog/one-year-after-an-attack-on-your-church): A year-on day is coming for your congregation. Help routes, permission for how to keep it, Romans 15:13 to pray together, and lines for a neighbor.