“But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them.”
My Notes
What Does Job 36:13 Mean?
"But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them." Elihu contrasts two responses to God's discipline: the sincere sufferer who cries out to God (and is heard), and the hypocrite who silently accumulates bitterness. The hypocrite's problem isn't that they suffer — it's that they won't engage God in their suffering. They "cry not" — they refuse to bring their complaint to God. Instead, they heap up wrath internally, letting resentment build without ever directing it toward the one who can resolve it.
The phrase "heap up wrath" describes the spiritual danger of silent bitterness. The anger that's never expressed to God doesn't dissipate. It accumulates. The person who refuses to cry out in suffering doesn't achieve stoic holiness. They achieve toxic resentment.
Reflection Questions
- 1.Are you heaping up silent wrath in your suffering rather than crying out to God?
- 2.What's the difference between peaceful silence (trust) and toxic silence (accumulated bitterness)?
- 3.Why is screaming at God safer than going silent in your suffering?
- 4.What wrath have you been storing internally that needs to be expressed to God before it explodes elsewhere?
Devotional
They cry not when he binds them. The hypocrites suffer silently. Not with peace. With bitterness. They're being disciplined and they refuse to talk to God about it. They just pile up wrath — internally, invisibly, poisonously.
Elihu identifies something most people miss: the most dangerous response to suffering isn't screaming at God. It's going silent. The person who yells at God is at least still in the conversation. The person who goes quiet, who heaps up wrath without expressing it, who endures with clenched teeth and a closed mouth — that person is in far more danger.
Job has been screaming at God for thirty chapters. His friends think that's the problem. Elihu suggests the opposite: the problem would be if Job stopped screaming. Because silent suffering that doesn't cry out to God becomes a wrath reserve — resentment that compounds with interest, bitterness that grows in the dark, a rage that has no outlet because it refuses to engage the one person who could address it.
"They cry not when he bindeth them." The binding is God's discipline — his painful, purposeful restriction. The proper response is to cry out: why? how long? what are you doing? The improper response is to sit in silent fury, letting the wrath heap up like kindling waiting for a spark.
If you've been suffering in silence — not the peaceful silence of trust but the bitter silence of accumulated rage — Elihu says you're in more danger than Job. At least Job cried out. At least he directed his wrath at God rather than storing it internally. The cry is the safety valve. Without it, the pressure builds until something breaks.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath,.... Or "and the hypocrites" (s); for these are the same with the disobedient…
But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath - By their continued impiety they lay the foundation for increasing and…
But the hypocrites in heart - חנפי chanphey, the profligates, the impious, those who have neither the form nor the power…
Elihu, being to speak on God's behalf, and particularly to ascribe righteousness to his Maker, here shows that the…
Such afflictions indeed are sometimes the means of revealing what character men are of, ch. Job 5:2.
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture