'Anguish' in the Bible

And they said to one another, “Truly we are guilty regarding our brother [Joseph], because we saw the distress and anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us [to let him go], yet we would not listen [to his cry]; so this distress and anguish has come on us.”

Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their impatience and despondency, and because of their forced labor.

This day I will begin to put the dread and the fear of you on the peoples (pagans) under the whole heaven, who, when they hear the reports about you, will tremble and be in anguish because of you.’

“Therefore I will not restrain my mouth;I will speak in the anguish of my spirit,I will complain in the bitterness of my soul [O Lord].

“Distress and anxiety terrify him,They overpower him like a king ready for battle.

I am poured out like water,And all my bones are out of joint.My heart is like wax;It is melted [by anguish] within me.

The cords and sorrows of death encompassed me,And the terrors of Sheol came upon me;I found distress and sorrow.

Trouble and anguish have found me,Yet Your commandments are my delight and my joy.

When your dread and panic come like a storm,And your disaster comes like a whirlwind,When anxiety and distress come upon you [as retribution].

Then they will look to the earth, they will see only distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness and overwhelming night.

But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish [for with judgment comes the promise of salvation]. In earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He will make them honored [by the presence of the Messiah], by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles.

Therefore [continues Isaiah] my loins are filled with anguish;Pains have seized me like the pains of a woman in childbirth;I am so bent and bewildered that I cannot hear, I am so terrified that I cannot see.

A [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the beasts of the Negev (the South):Through a land of trouble and anguish,From where come lioness and lion, viper and [fiery] flying serpent,They carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeysAnd their treasures on the humps of camels,To a people (Egyptians) who cannot benefit them.

“Indeed, My servants will shout for joy from a happy heart,But you will cry out with a heavy heart,And you shall wail and howl from a broken spirit.

My soul, my soul! I writhe in anguish and pain! Oh, the walls of my heart!My heart is pounding and throbbing within me;I cannot be silent,For you have heard, O my soul,The sound of the trumpet,The alarm of war.

For I heard a cry like a woman in labor,The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,The cry of the Daughter of Zion (Jerusalem), who gasps for breath,Who stretches out her hands, saying,“Woe is me [my judgment comes]! I faint [in fear] before the murderers.”

We have heard the report of it;Our hands become limp and helpless.Anguish has gripped us,Pain like that of a woman in childbirth.

“I will make their widows more numerous before MeThan the sand of the seas;I will bring against them, against the mother of the young men,A destroyer at noonday;I will suddenly cause anguish and terrorTo fall on her.

“Damascus has become helpless;She has turned away to flee,Terror (panic) has seized her;Anguish and distress have gripped herLike a woman in childbirth.

“The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,And his hands fall limp and helpless;Anguish has seized him,And agony like that of a woman in childbirth.

He has besieged and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

“A sword will come upon Egypt,And anguish and trembling will be in Ethiopia (Cush),When the slain fall in EgyptAnd they [of Babylon] carry away her great mass of people and her richesAnd her foundations are torn down.

On that day [swift] messengers will go from Me in ships to frighten the careless and unsuspecting Ethiopians, and there will be anguish and trembling in them as in the day of [judgment for] Egypt; for behold, it is coming!”

“I will set fire to Egypt;Pelusium will writhe in [great] anguish,Thebes shall be torn openAnd Memphis shall be in daily distress.

When he had come near the den, he called out to Daniel with a troubled voice. The king said to Daniel, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you constantly serve, been able to rescue you from the lions?”

Before them the people are in anguish;All faces become pale [with terror].

She is emptied! She is desolate and waste!Hearts melting [in fear] and knees knocking!Anguish is in the whole body,And the faces of all grow pale!

That day is a day of [the outpouring of the] wrath [of God],A day of trouble and distress,A day of destruction and devastation,A day of darkness and gloom,A day of clouds and thick darkness,

But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs [of the intolerable anguish and the time of unprecedented trouble].

And at that time the sign of the Son of Man [coming in His glory] will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth [and especially Israel] will mourn [regretting their rebellion and rejection of the Messiah], and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory [in brilliance and splendor].

After screaming out and throwing him into a terrible convulsion, it came out. The boy looked so much like a corpse [so still and pale] that many [of the spectators] said, “He is dead!”

For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. These things are the beginning of the birth pangs [the intolerable anguish and suffering].

And he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in severe agony in this flame.’

But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things [all the comforts and delights], and Lazarus likewise bad things [all the discomforts and distresses]; but now he is comforted here [in paradise], while you are in severe agony.

Woe to those women who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For great trouble and anguish will be on the land, and wrath and retribution on this people [Israel].

“There will be signs (attesting miracles) in the sun and moon and stars; and on the earth [there will be] distress and anguish among nations, in perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea and the waves,

A woman, when she is in labor, has pain because her time [to give birth] has come; but when she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of her joy that a child has come into the world.

There will be tribulation and anguish [torturing confinement] for every human soul who does [or permits] evil, to the Jew first and also to the Greek,

that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

Listen carefully, I will throw her on a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her [I will bring] into great anguish, unless they repent of her deeds.

She was with child (the Messiah) and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth.

and they blasphemed the God of heaven because of their anguish and their sores (abscesses, boils); and they did not repent of what they had done nor hate their wickedness.

To the degree that she glorified herself and reveled and gloated in her sensuality [living deliciously and luxuriously], to that same degree impose on her torment and anguish, and mourning and grief; for in her heart she boasts, ‘I sit as a queen [on a throne] and I am not a widow, and will never, ever see mourning or experience grief.’

For this reason in a single day her plagues (afflictions, calamities) will come, pestilence and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire and completely consumed; for strong and powerful is the Lord God who judges her.

and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be death; there will no longer be sorrow and anguish, or crying, or pain; for the former order of things has passed away.”