'Afflicted' in the Bible

God said to Abram, “Know for sure that your descendants will be strangers [living temporarily] in a land (Egypt) that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years.

If there is any person who will not humble himself on this same day, he shall be cut off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them].

And the Egyptians treated us badly and oppressed us, and imposed hard labor on us.

I left full [with a husband and two sons], but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

But it happened that after they had taken it to Gath, the hand of the Lord was against the city, causing an extremely great panic [because of the deaths from the plague], for He struck the people of the city, both young and old, and tumors broke out on them.

“And You save the afflicted people;But Your eyes are on the haughty whom You abase (humiliate).

Then the king said to Abiathar the priest, “Go to Anathoth to your own fields, for you certainly deserve to die; but I will not put you to death this day, because you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father David, and you suffered everything that my father endured.”

So the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel (Jacob) and [repeatedly] afflicted them and handed them over to plunderers, until He had cast them out of His sight.

“For God has loosed His bowstring [attacking me] and [He has] afflicted and humbled me;They have cast off the bridle [of restraint] before me.

So that they caused the cry of the poor to come to Him,And He heard the cry of the afflicted.

“He does not prolong the life of the wicked,But gives the afflicted their justice.

“He rescues the afflicted in their affliction,And opens their ears [so that they pay attention to His voice] in times of oppression.

For He who avenges blood [unjustly shed] remembers them (His people);He does not forget the cry of the afflicted and abused.

Have mercy on me and be gracious to me, O Lord;See how I am afflicted by those who hate me,You who lift me up from the gates of death,

For You save an afflicted and humble people,But bring down those [arrogant fools] with haughty eyes.

For He has not despised nor detested the suffering of the afflicted;Nor has He hidden His face from him;But when he cried to Him for help, He listened.

The afflicted will eat and be satisfied;Those who [diligently] seek Him and require Him [as their greatest need] will praise the Lord.May your hearts live forever!

Turn to me [Lord] and be gracious to me,For I am alone and afflicted.

My soul makes its boast in the Lord;The humble and downtrodden will hear it and rejoice.

All my bones will say, “Lord, who is like You,Who rescues the afflicted from him who is too strong for him [to resist alone],And the afflicted and the needy from him who robs him?”

But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth (mourning garment);I humbled my soul with fasting,And I prayed with my head bowed on my chest.

May he judge Your people with righteousness,And Your afflicted with justice.

Vindicate the weak and fatherless;Do justice and maintain the rights of the afflicted and destitute.

Your wrath has rested heavily upon me,And You have afflicted me with all Your waves. Selah.

I was afflicted and close to death from my youth on;I suffer Your terrors; I am overcome.

Make us glad in proportion to the days You have afflicted us,And the years we have suffered evil.

He has exhausted my strength [humbling me with sorrow] in the way;He has shortened my days.

Fools, because of their rebellious way,And because of their sins, were afflicted.

I believed [and clung to my God] when I said,“I am greatly afflicted.”

Before I was afflicted I went astray,But now I keep and honor Your word [with loving obedience].

It is good for me that I have been afflicted,That I may learn Your statutes.

I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are fair,And that in faithfulness You have disciplined me.

I am greatly afflicted;Renew and revive me [giving me life], O Lord, according to Your word.

“Many times they have persecuted me (Israel) from my youth,”Let Israel now say,

“Many times they have persecuted me from my youth,Yet they have not prevailed against me.

I know [with confidence] that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted,And [will secure] justice for the poor.

Though He scoffs at the scoffers and scorns the scorners,Yet He gives His grace [His undeserved favor] to the humble [those who give up self-importance].

All the days of the afflicted are bad,But a glad heart has a continual feast [regardless of the circumstances].

Do not rob the poor because he is poor [and defenseless],Nor crush the afflicted [by legal proceedings] at the gate [where the city court is held],

For the Lord will plead their caseAnd take the life of those who rob them.

Otherwise they drink and forget the law and its decrees,And pervert the rights and justice of all the afflicted.

“Then what answer will one give the messengers of the [Philistine] nation?That the Lord has founded Zion,And the afflicted of His people will seek and find refuge in it.”

Shout for joy, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth,And break forth into singing, O mountains!For the Lord has comforted His peopleAnd will have compassion on His afflicted.

Therefore, now hear this, you who are afflicted,Who are drunk, but not with wine [but overwhelmed by the wrath of God].

But [in fact] He has borne our griefs,And He has carried our sorrows and pains;Yet we [ignorantly] assumed that He was stricken,Struck down by God and degraded and humiliated [by Him].

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,Yet He did not open His mouth [to complain or defend Himself];Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,And like a sheep that is silent before her shearers,So He did not open His mouth.

“O you afflicted [city], storm-tossed, and not comforted,Listen carefully, I will set your [precious] stones in mortar,And lay your foundations with sapphires.

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You do not see it?Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’Hear this [O Israel], on the day of your fast [when you should be grieving for your sins] you find something you desire [to do],And you force your hired servants to work [instead of stopping all work, as the law teaches].

And if you offer yourself to [assist] the hungryAnd satisfy the need of the afflicted,Then your light will rise in darknessAnd your gloom will become like midday.

“The sons of those who oppressed you will come bowing down to you [in submission],And all those who despised you and treated you disrespectfully will bow down at the soles of your feet,And they will call you the City of the Lord,The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,Because the Lord has anointed and commissioned meTo bring good news to the humble and afflicted;He has sent me to bind up [the wounds of] the brokenhearted,To proclaim release [from confinement and condemnation] to the [physical and spiritual] captivesAnd freedom to prisoners,

In all their distress He was distressed,And the angel of His presence saved them,In His love and in His compassion He redeemed them;And He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

Her adversaries have become her masters,Her enemies prosper;For the Lord has caused her griefBecause of the multitude of her transgressions;Her young children have goneInto captivity before the enemy.

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass this way?Look and see if there is any pain like my painWhich was severely dealt out to me,Which the Lord has inflicted [on me] on the day of His fierce anger.

You have covered Yourself with angerAnd pursued us;You have slain [without pity] and have not spared.

“In that day,” says the Lord,“I shall assemble the lame,And gather the outcasts [from foreign captivity],Even those whom I have caused pain.

This is what the Lord says,“Though they are at full strength and many in number,Even so, they will be cut off and pass away.Though I have afflicted you and caused you grief [O Jerusalem],I will afflict you no longer.

“But I will leave among youA humble and lowly people,And they will take refuge and trust confidently in the name of the Lord.

For the teraphim (household idols) speak wickedness (emptiness, worthlessness),And the diviners see lying visionsAnd tell false dreams;They comfort in vain.Therefore the people wander like sheep,They are afflicted and suffer because there is no shepherd.