Bitter

BITTER. Bitterness. I will send the Hab. i. Judg. xviii. 25. 2 Sam. xvii.Chaldeans against you that bitter nation; and in another place¹, take care left people, who are bitter of Soul amari animo, or, as in the Vulgate, animo concitati, run upon thee; and again, David in his flight was accompanied with men bitter of Soul, or chafed in their minds, as a Bear robbed of her Whelps. The energy of these expressions is sufficiently discernible; it denotes 1 Sam. i. 10.anger, vexation, fury. Sometimes bitterness of Soul signifies only grief. Thus Hannah the Mother of Samuel, was in bitterness 2 Kings iv. 27.of soul; and of Elisha’s Landlady, whose son was dead, it is said, her soul is vexed or bitter within her. Job complains that God wrote bitter things against him, that were matter of grief, sadness, and Job xiii. 26.affliction.

The waters of jealousy, which Women suspected of adultery were obliged to Numb. xv. James iii. Is. xxxviii. 17.drink, are called bitter waters, by reason of their effects, they produced great sorrows in those who were guilty. Bitter envying in S. James, denotes mortal and permanent hatred, the effects whereof cause abundance of bitterness to those who are the objects of it. King Hezekiah in his Hymn says, that in the midst of the peace which he enjoyed, he was attacked with great bitterness, that is to say, with a very dangerous disease, Ecce in pace amaritudo Jer. xi.mea amarissima. And Jeremiah, Learn how hard and bitter it is to be forsaken of the Lord ; to how many evils and calamities this exposes you.

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