Romans 9:2

“That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.] This is the thing he appeals to Christ for the truth of, and calls in his conscience and the Holy Ghost to bear witness to. These two words, “heaviness” and “sorrow”, the one signifies grief, which had brought on heaviness on his spirits; and the other such pain as a woman in travail feels: and the trouble of his mind expressed by both, is described by its quantity, “great”, it was not a little, but much; by its quality it was internal, it was in his “heart”, it did not lie merely in outward show, in a few words or tears, but was in his heart, it was a heart sorrow; and by its duration, “continual”, it was not a sudden emotion or…”

“That I have, &c.--"That I have great grief (or, sorrow) and unceasing anguish in my heart"--the bitter hostility of his nation to the glorious Gospel, and the awful consequences of their unbelief, weighing heavily and incessantly upon his spirit.”

“Great heaviness - Great grief. Continual sorrow - The word rendered “continual” here must be taken in a popular sense. Not that he was literally all the time pressed down with this sorrow, but that whenever he thought on this subject, he had great grief; as we say of a painful subject, it is a source of constant pain. The cause of this grief, Paul does not expressly mention, though it is implied in what he immediately says. It was the fact that so large a part of the nation would be rejected, and cast off. return to 'Top of Page'”

“I have great sorrow - A high degree of spiritual sorrow and of spiritual Joy may consist together, Rom 8:39. By declaring his sorrow for the unbelieving Jews, who excluded themselves from all the blessings he had enumerated, he shows that what he was now about to speak, he did not speak from any prejudice to them. Romans 9:3”

“9:2-3 Paul does not explicitly say why he has such bitter sorrow for his Jewish brothers and sisters. Yet his willingness to become cursed on their behalf if that would save them makes clear that the failure of most Jews to respond to Jesus and be saved stimulated his agony (see also 10:1).”

“Rom 10:1; Sa1 15:35; Psa 119:136; Isa 66:10; Jer 9:1, Jer 13:17; Lam 1:12; Lam 3:48, Lam 3:49, Lam 3:51; Eze 9:4; Luk 19:41-44; Phi 3:18; Rev 11:3 Romans 9:3”