Dictionaries :: Anguish

International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia

Anguish:

an'-gwish: Extreme distress of body, mind or spirit; excruciating pain or suffering of soul, e.g. excessive grief, remorse, despair. Chiefly expressed in Old Testament, by four derivatives of tsuq, "straitened," "pressed," and tsar, and two derivatives signifying "straitness," "narrowness," hence distress; also shabhats, "giddiness," "confusion of mind"; hul "to twist" with pain, "writhe." So in the New Testament, thlipsis, "a pressing together," hence affliction, tribulation, stenochoria, "narrowness of place," hence extreme affliction; sunoche, "a holding together," hence distress. The fundamental idea in these various terms is pressure-being straitened, compressed into a narrow place, or pain through physical or mental torture. Used of the physical agony of child-birth (Jer 4:31; 6:24; 49:24; 50:43; Joh 16:21); of distress of soul as the result of sin and wickedness (Job 15:24; Pr 1:27; Ro 2:9); of anguish of spirit through the cruel bondage of slavery (Ex 6:9) and Assyrian oppression (Isa 8:22); of the anxiety and pain of Christian love because of the sins of fellow-disciples (2Co 2:4).

Written by Dwight M. Pratt

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Anguish:

See AFFLICTION (No. 4).

Anguish:

lit., "narrowness of place" (stenos, "narrow," chora, "a place"), metaphorically came to mean the "distress arising from that condition, anguish." It is used in the plural, of various forms of distress, 2Cr 6:4; 12:10, and of "anguish" or distress in general, Rom 2:9; 8:35, RV, "anguish" for AV, "distress." The opposite state, of being in a large place, and so metaphorically in a state of joy, is represented by the word platusmos in certain Psalms as, e.g., Psa 118:5; see also 2Sa 22:20.
See DISTRESS.

Anguish:

lit., "a holding together, or compressing" (sun, "together," echo, "to hold"), was used of the narrowing of a way. It is found only in its metaphorical sense, of "straits, distress, anguish," Luk 21:25, "distress of nations," and 2Cr 2:4, "anguish of heart."
See DISTRESS.

Note: Ananke is associated with thlipsis, and signifies a condition of necessity arising from some form of compulsion. It is therefore used not only of necessity but of distress, Luk 21:23; 1Th 3:7, and in the plural in 2Cr 6:4; 12:10.

Anguish:

akin to A, No. 2, lit., "to crowd into a narrow space," or, in the Passive Voice "to be pressed for room," hence, metaphorically, "to be straitened," 2Cr 4:8; 6:12 (twice), is found in its literal sense in two places in the Sept., in Jos 17:15; Isa 49:19, and in two places in its metaphorical sense, in Jdg 16:16, where Delilah is said to have pressed Samson sore with her words continually, and to have "straitened him," and in Isa 28:20.
See DISTRESS, STRAITENED.

Anguish:

akin to A, No. 3, lit., "to hold together," is used physically of being held, or thronged, Luk 8:45; 19:43; 22:63; of being taken with a malady, Mat 4:24; Luk 4:38; Act 28:8; with fear, Luk 8:37; of being straitened or pressed in spirit, with desire, Luk 12:50; Act 18:5; Phl 1:23; with the love of Christ, 2Cr 5:14. In one place it is used of the stopping of their ears by those who killed Stephen.
See CONSTRAIN, HOLD, KEEP, PRESS, SICK(ly), STOP, STRAIT (be in a), STRAITENED, TAKE, THRONG.

Anguish:

in the Middle and Passive Voices, signifies "to suffer pain, be in anguish, be greatly distressed" (akin to odune, "pain, distress"); it is rendered "sorrowing" in Luk 2:48; in Luk 16:24, 25, RV, "in anguish," for AV, "tormented;" in Act 20:38, "sorrowing."
See SORROW, TORMENT.