Despondency

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

General scriptures concerning

• Numbers 17:12–13 Then the Israelites declared to Moses, “Look, we are perishing! We are lost; we are all lost! Anyone who comes near the tabernacle of the LORD will die. Are we all going to perish?”
• Deuteronomy 28:65–67 Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul. So your life will hang in doubt before you, and you will be afraid night and day, never certain of survival. In the m…
• Job 3:1–26 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And this is what he said: “May the day of my birth perish, and the night it was said, ‘A boy is conceived.’ If only that day had turned to darkness! May God above disregard it; may no light shine upon it. May darkness and gloom recla…
• Job 17:13–16 If I look for Sheol as my home, if I spread out my bed in darkness, and say to corruption, ‘You are my father,’ and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’ where then is my hope? Who can see any hope for me? Will it go down to the gates of Sheol? Will we go down together into the dust?”
• Psalm 31:22 In my alarm I said, “I am cut off from Your sight!” But You heard my plea for mercy when I called to You for help.
• Psalm 77:7–9 “Will the Lord spurn us forever and never show His favor again? Is His loving devotion gone forever? Has His promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has His anger shut off His compassion?” Selah
• Proverbs 13:12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.
• Isaiah 2:19 Men will flee to caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth.
• Jeremiah 2:25 You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’
• Jeremiah 8:20 “The harvest has passed, the summer has ended, but we have not been saved.”

See AFFLICTION

See Resignation

See Sorrow

See Suffering

Instances of

Cain, when God pronounced judgment upon him for the murder of Abel

• Genesis 4:13–14 But Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, this day You have driven me from the face of the earth, and from Your face I will be hidden; I will be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

Hagar, when cast out of the household of Abraham on account of the jealousy of Sarah

• Genesis 21:15–16 When the water in the skin was gone, she left the boy under one of the bushes. Then she went off and sat down nearby, about a bowshot away, for she said, “I cannot bear to watch the boy die!” And as she sat nearby, she lifted up her voice and wept.

Moses

When sent on his mission to the Israelites

• Exodus 4:1 Then Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to my voice? For they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”
• Exodus 4:10 “Please, Lord,” Moses replied, “I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and tongue.”
• Exodus 4:13 But Moses replied, “Please, Lord, send someone else.”
• Exodus 6:12 But in the LORD’s presence Moses replied, “If the Israelites will not listen to me, then why would Pharaoh listen to me, since I am unskilled in speech?”

At the Red Sea

• Exodus 14:15 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.

When the people craved for meat

• Numbers 11:15 If this is how You are going to treat me, please kill me right now — if I have found favor in Your eyes — and let me not see my own wretchedness.”

The Israelites, on account of the cruel oppressions of the Egyptians

• Exodus 6:9 Moses relayed this message to the Israelites, but on account of their broken spirit and cruel bondage, they did not listen to him.

Elijah, when he fled from Jezebel to the wilderness and sat under the juniper tree, and wanted to die

• 1 Kings 19:4 while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

Jonah after he had preached to the Ninevites

• Jonah 4:3 And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”
• Jonah 4:8 As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

The sailors with Paul

• Acts 27:20 When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the great storm continued to batter us, we abandoned all hope of being saved.

Job, see the above extracts from the Book of Job

Jeremiah, see the above extracts from the Lamentations of Jeremiah

Comfort in

• Isaiah 35:3–4 Strengthen the limp hands and steady the feeble knees! Say to those with anxious hearts: “Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With divine retribution He will come to save you.”
• Luke 18:1–8 Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray at all times and not lose heart: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected men. And there was a widow in that town who kept appealing to him, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ For a while he refused, but l…
• Hebrews 12:12–13 Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

See AFFLICTION, CONSOLATION IN

See RIGHTEOUS, PROMISES TO