What does it mean to vex / be vexed?

Who would have imagined from the record in the Old Testament that we should read in the New Testament that “Lot” was “vexed with the filthy conversation [manner of life, including talk but embracing the whole life] of the wicked”—that he “vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds”? (2 Peter 2:7-8).

Jan’nes - He vexed: he oppressed

There is also another word za-aph (displeasure), but not so strong as za-am (punitive anger). Ra-gaz (he moved with a violent commotion) is more the excitement of anger - rage - he shook with rage. Ka-as (vexation) is ill humours.

The Word also says that Ahab was "vexed." The king's grief was not the kind that leads to repentance, but to vexation. Against whom? Against God. Would the king then meet with God on his pathway all the time? "Come," says the world, "tell us of the love of God when He takes away our health, our loved ones, or our wealth!" Really! Wouldn't it be better to do evil like everyone else instead of trying to behave ourselves well, since God treats us so unjustly?" This is one of the thousand varieties of this vexation that fills men's hearts against God. But when there is a certain knowledge of the Word, as in Ahab's case, one can no longer be diverted by doing evil. This had been easy in times past before the sudden appearance of Elijah who came to "trouble Israel." Now the Word is there; one cannot shake it off; it gnaws at the heart, allowing one no rest. This word of the prophet has unveiled the future. Nothing, perhaps, will come of it … but who can know? One thing is certain in the life of this monarch: this Word is constantly being fulfilled, and so often in undeserved blessings to which he has not paid attention. Will the threats be fulfilled too? The prophet had said, "Thy life shall be for his life." He did not say when. What if it were today? Or tomorrow? Couldn't he just leave me alone? There is well reason for being "sullen and vexed." The gnawing worm is there; it has begun its work, that worm that never, never dies.

Verse 4 shows us the effect produced by unrealizable covetousness on the heart of a man without God: "And Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed." Here we find again the same words as at the end of 1 Kings 20. Oh, the poor heart of man, overwhelmed with sorrow, swollen up with vexation! And that is all that it can hold unless Satan, in order to keep his sway over him, comes to him to whisper of new deceptive lusts. Ahab is sullen at seeing the object of his desire placed out of his reach; vexed with a will that presents an obstacle to him that he cannot make give way because, in short, it is the will of God.

There is however the other side to try our hearts. We can not, ought not regard "a fool's vexation" with complacency, but feel its grievous impropriety. "A stone is heavy, and the sand weighty," little as its particles be. But that, groundless as it is, exceeds both in its dead weight and intolerable unbecomingness.

(V. 26). We are to beware of sinning through anger. There is such a thing as being rightly angry, but such anger is indignation against evil, not against the evil-doer, and behind such anger there is grief on account of the evil. Thus we read of the Lord that He looked on the wicked leaders of the synagogue “with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts” (Mark 3:5). The anger of the flesh ever has self in view; it is not grief on account of evil, but resentment against one that has been offensive. This fleshly anger against the evildoer will only lead to bitterness that occupies the soul with thoughts of revenge. The one entertaining such thoughts finds himself continually fretting, and in this sense lets the sun go down upon his wrath. Anger against evil will lead to grief that finds its resource in turning to God, where the soul finds rest.

His was a day when the iniquities of the professing people of God were moving the holy anger and sorrow of this man of God. And yet, while his soul was thus vexed with their evil conversation, his heart would feel for their misery, and he would earnestly make their cause his own.

Thus, then, those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart are clearly marked out. We can only discern the heart in the practical life; and here are those who, naming the name of the Lord, withdraw from iniquity. We have here, therefore, the company of those who can walk with one another, necessarily a company more and more separate from the great mass of profession round about them, and it may be comparatively a smaller and smaller company as the days darken and evil increases, the love of many waxing cold. But there is need of further guiding as to things which may have often a special reference to those who have learned that they have to prove all things if they would "hold fast that which is good." This, too, might degenerate into needless and idle questions, things debated about, which gender unnecessary strife; and in this sense "the servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing, in meekness setting right those that oppose themselves." It is very plain that there may be the advocacy of that which is in itself right and true, nay, most important, and yet in a far different spirit from this. The testing of things must be really in order to "take forth the precious from the vile," and therefore the occupation must be with that which is precious, and the owning of that which is so, even when it is found in connection with what is far otherwise. How blessed to know that as this is the Lord's rule for His people, we may be perfectly sure it is that of His own action towards all. In fact, it is as taking forth the precious from the vile that we shall "be as His mouth." We shall be able to speak for Him, in His name, who could speak of a Lot in Sodom as a "righteous man," who, "seeing and hearing, vexed. his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;" and yet Lot certainly was not one who separated himself, according to the divine thought, from the iniquity that he judged. Why was he there, to vex his soul with it? How many there are who vex themselves with things, (and congratulate themselves upon this,) — things that they should simply turn their back upon and leave, but which they will not! Yet God owns all that He can own. If He did not, how sad a thing it would be for any of us, when we realize the apostle's own words, that even one's unconsciousness of anything wrong is not that which justifies us, "but He that judgeth is the Lord." With hearts so capable of deception as our own hearts are, how well to realize that there is One who is "greater than our heart, and knoweth all things," but One who will, therefore, not confound even the least bit of good that He can find with the evil which may seem almost to envelop it. The mere chafing of the soul by evil does not give power over it. The one who is really with God will always, as the apostle shows us here, be looking for the work of God amongst those from whom he may have to be entirely separate. Yet God may some time give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth, and we must be careful that by our own conduct we put no hindrance in the way of their recovery. Be it that they are in the snare of the devil, yet they may awake up out of it, even those at present taken captive by him for his will.

How is Noah described? As "a preacher of righteousness." Noah was not a preacher of grace. The grand truth that Noah proclaimed was that God was going to destroy the world by the deluge. That was exactly the right message. I do not think we are entitled to say he said nothing more, but the characteristic of Noah was that he was "a preacher of righteousness." This is precisely what occurs in Peter; he does not bring out the grace of God at all, in his chapter. He is thundering at unrighteousness. He is giving with that trumpet of righteousness a very clear sound indeed. He is evidently giving out, in very dark and solemn words, the destruction that shall await the wicked at the great change; and he shows that the same thing has happened before, and he begins, as far as man is concerned, not with Israel saved out of Egypt by God, but looks at the whole world destroyed. He is looking at the universality of unrighteousness, and not at the gradual departure of the people that were saved, saved first and lost afterwards. "He saved Noah, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly." Peter then looks at the cities of the plain — more particularly Sodom and Gomorrah. He does not say anything about the special iniquity, but looks at it in a general way. "And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned [them] with an overthrow, making [them] an ensample unto those that after should live ungodlily; and delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds" (2 Peter 2:4-8).