Top Examples of Complaint Prayers in the Bible
How Bible heroes complained to God
Moses’ Complaint Prayer in Exodus 5:22-23
Lord, why have you done evil to these people? Why is it that you have sent me? For since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has done evil to these people; neither have you delivered your people at all.
Moses’ Complaint Prayer in Numbers 11:10-15
LORD, why have you afflicted your servant? And why have I not found favour in your sight, that you laid the burden of all these people upon me?
Have I conceived all these people? Have I begotten them, that you should say unto me, Carry them in your bosom, as a nursing father bear the sucking child, unto the land which you swore unto their fathers?
Where should I have flesh to give unto all these people? For they weep unto me, saying, Give us flesh, that we may eat. I am not able to bear all these people alone, because it is too heavy for me.
And if you deal thus with me, kill me, I pray thee, out of hand, if I have found favour in your sight; and let me not see my wretchedness.
Moses’ Complaint Prayer in Numbers 11:21-22
The people, among whom I am, are six hundred thousand footmen; and you have said, I will give them flesh, that they may eat a whole month.
Shall the flocks and the herds be slain for them, to suffice them? Or shall all the fish of the sea be gathered together for them, to suffice them?
Joshua’s Complaint Prayer in Joshua 7:7-9
Alas, O Lord GOD, why have you at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan!
O Lord, what shall I say when Israel turns their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what will you do unto your great name?
Gideon’s Complaint Prayer in Judges 6:13
Oh my Lord, if the LORD be with us, why then is all this befallen us? And where are all his miracles which our fathers told us of, saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? But now the LORD has forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.
Gideon’s Complaint Prayer in Judges 6:15
Oh my Lord, with what shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.
The Israelites’ Complaint Prayer in Judges 21:3
O LORD God of Israel, why has this come to pass in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in Israel?
Elijah’s Complaint Prayer in 1 Kings 19:4
It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers.
Job’s Complaint Prayer in Job 6:8-10
Oh that I might have my request, and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!
Even that it would please God to destroy me; that he would let loose his hand, and cut me off!
Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.
Job’s Complaint Prayer in Job 7:7-21
O remember that my life is wind: mine eye shall no more see good.
The eye of him that has seen me shall see me no more: your eyes are upon me, and I am not.
As the cloud is consumed and vanishes away, so he that goes down to the grave shall come up no more.
He shall return no more to his house, neither shall his place know him any more.
Therefore, I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
Am I a sea, or a whale, that you set a watch over me?
When I say, My bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaint; then you scare me with dreams, and terrify me through visions, so that my soul chooses strangling, and death rather than my life.
I loathe it; I would not live always: let me alone; for my days are vanity.
What is man, that you should magnify him? and that you should set your heart upon him? And that you should visit him every morning, and try him every moment?
How long will you not depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle?
I have sinned; what shall I do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? Why have you set me as a mark against thee, so that I am a burden to myself? And why do you not pardon my transgression, and take away mine iniquity? For now shall I sleep in the dust; and you shall seek me in the morning, but I shall not be.
Job’s Complaint Prayer in Job 10:2-22
God, do not condemn me; show me why you contend with me.
Is it good unto you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
Have you eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees?
Are your days as the days of man? Are your years as man’s days, that you enquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?
You know that I am not wicked, and there is none that can deliver out of your hand.
Your hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet you destroy me.
Remember, I beseech you, that you have made me as the clay; and will you bring me into dust again?
Have you not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?
You have clothed me with skin and flesh, and have fenced me with bones and sinews.
You have granted me life and favour, and your visitation has preserved my spirit. And these things have you hidden in your heart: I know that this is with you.
If I sin, then you mark me, and you will not acquit me from my iniquity.
If I am wicked, woe unto me; and if I am righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore, see thou mine affliction, for it increases. You hunt me as a fierce lion, and again you show yourself marvellous upon me.
You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.
Why then have you brought me forth out of the womb? Oh, that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Aren’t my days few? Cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, before I go where I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.
Jeremiah’s Complaint Prayer in Jeremiah 1:6
Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
Jeremiah’s Complaint Prayer in Jeremiah 4:10
Ah, Lord GOD! surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, You shall have peace; whereas the sword reaches unto the soul.
Jeremiah’s Complaint Prayer in Lamentations 2:20-22
Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom you have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? Shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?
The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; you have slain them in the day of your anger; you have killed, and not pitied.
You have called my terrors round about as in a solemn day, so that in the day of the LORD’s anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up have mine enemy consumed.
Ezekiel’s Complaint Prayer in Ezekiel 4:14
Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul has not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth.
Jonah’s Complaint Prayer in Jonah 4:2-3
I pray thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore, I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that you are a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and one who repents of the evil.
Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.
Habakkuk’s Complaint Prayer in Habakkuk 1:2-4
O LORD, how long shall I cry, and you will not hear! Even cry out unto you of violence, and you will not save!
Why do you show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? for spoiling and violence are before me: and there are that raise up strife and contention.
Therefore, the law is slacked, and judgment never go forth: for the wicked do compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceed.
Habakkuk’s Complaint Prayer in Habakkuk 1:12-17
Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, you have established them for correction.
You are of purer eyes than to behold evil, and cannot look on iniquity: why do you look upon them that deal treacherously, and hold your tongue when the wicked devour the man that is more righteous than he? And make men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag: therefore, they rejoice and are glad.
Therefore, they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.
Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?
Jesus’ Complaint Prayer in Matthew 27:46
Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? That is to say, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?