'Affliction' in the Bible

The Angel of the Lord continued,“Behold, you are with child,And you will bear a son;And you shall name him Ishmael (God hears),Because the Lord has heard and paid attention to your persecution (suffering).

Leah conceived and gave birth to a son and named him Reuben (See, a son!), for she said, “Because the Lord has seen my humiliation and suffering; now my husband will love me [since I have given him a son].”

If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and [the Feared One] of Isaac, had not been with me, most certainly you would have sent me away now empty-handed. God has seen my affliction and humiliation and the [exhausting] labor of my hands, so He rendered judgment and rebuked you last night.”

He named the second [son] Ephraim (fruitfulness), for “God has caused me to be fruitful and very successful in the land of my suffering.”

The Lord said, “I have in fact seen the affliction (suffering, desolation) of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters (oppressors); for I know their pain and suffering.

So I said I will bring you up out of the suffering and oppression of Egypt to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’

So the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord was concerned about the Israelites and that He had looked [with compassion] on their suffering, then they bowed their heads and worshiped [the Lord].

You shall not eat leavened bread with it; instead, for seven days you shall eat the Passover with unleavened bread, the bread of affliction (for you left the land of Egypt in haste); [do this] so that all the days of your life you may remember [thoughtfully] the day when you came out of the land of Egypt.

Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers for help, and He heard our voice and saw our suffering and our labor and our [cruel] oppression;

Also the Lord will bring on you every sickness and every plague which is not written in this book of this law, until you are destroyed.

She made a vow, saying, “O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction (suffering) of Your maidservant and remember, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life; a razor shall never touch his head.”

whatever prayer or pleading is made by any individual, or by Your people Israel, each knowing the affliction of his own heart, and spreading his hands out toward this house;

and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this man in prison, and feed him sparingly with the bread and water until I return safely.”’”

For the Lord saw the affliction (suffering) of Israel as very bitter; there was no one left, bond or free, nor any helper for Israel.

Now listen, with great trouble I have prepared and provided for the house of the Lord 100,000 talents of gold, 1,000,000 talents of silver, and bronze and iron beyond weighing, for they are great in quantity. I have also prepared and provided timber and stone, and you may add to them.

then whatever prayer or request is made by any man or all of Your people Israel, each knowing his own suffering and his own pain, and stretching out his hands toward this house,

and say, ‘Thus says the king: “Put this man in prison and feed him just enough bread and water to survive until I return in peace (safely).”’”

‘If evil comes on us, or the sword of judgment, or plague, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your Name and Your Presence is in this house) and we will cry out to You in our distress, and You will hear and save us.’

But when he was in distress, he sought the Lord his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

“You saw our fathers’ affliction in Egypt,And You heard their cry by the Red Sea (Sea of Reeds).

for we have been sold, I and my people, to be destroyed, killed and wiped out of existence. Now if we had only been sold as slaves, men and women, I would have remained silent, for our hardship would not be sufficient to burden the king [by even mentioning it].”

“For affliction does not come forth from the dust,Nor does trouble spring forth from the ground.

‘If I am wicked, woe to me [for judgment comes]!And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head.For I am sated and filled with disgrace and the sight of my misery.

“And now my soul is poured out within me;The days of affliction have seized me.

“I am seething within and my heart is troubled and cannot rest;Days of affliction come to meet me.

“And if they are bound in bonds [of adversity],And held by cords of affliction,

“But the godless in heart store up anger [at the divine discipline];They do not cry [to Him] for help when He binds them [with cords of affliction].

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

“Take heed and be careful, do not turn to wickedness,For you have chosen this [the vice of complaining against God] rather than [learning from] affliction.

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.

Look upon my affliction and my trouble,And forgive all my sins.

I will rejoice and be glad in Your steadfast love,Because You have seen my affliction;You have taken note of my life’s distresses,

Why do You hide Your faceAnd forget our affliction and our oppression?

For great is Your lovingkindness and graciousness toward me;And You have rescued my life from the depths of Sheol [from death].

My eye grows dim with sorrow.O Lord, I have called on You every day;I have spread out my hands to You [in prayer].

Some dwelt in darkness and in the deep (deathly) darkness,Prisoners [bound] in misery and chains,

Yet He sets the needy securely on high, away from affliction,And makes their families like a flock.

This is my comfort in my affliction,That Your word has revived me and given me life.

If Your law had not been my delight,Then I would have perished in my time of trouble.

Resh.Look upon my agony and rescue me,For I do not forget Your law.

a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor, so that he lacks nothing of all that he desires, yet God has not given him the power or capacity to enjoy them [all those things which are gifts from God], but a stranger [in whom he has no interest succeeds him and] enjoys them. This is vanity and it is a [cause of] great distress.

Though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of oppression, yet your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will [constantly] see your Teacher.

“Indeed, I have refined you, but not as silver;I have tested and chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

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.

Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts,“Behold, I will refine them [through suffering] and test them;For how else should I deal with the daughter of My people?

The Lord said, “Surely [it will go well for Judah’s obedient remnant for] I will set you free for good purposes;Surely [Jeremiah] I will [intercede for you with the enemy and I will] cause the enemy to plead with you [for help]In a time of disaster and a time of distress.

[Then said Jeremiah] “O Lord, my Strength and my Stronghold,And my Refuge in the day of distress and need,The nations will come to YouFrom the ends of the earth and say,‘Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies and illusion,[Worthless] things in which there is no benefit!’

Judah has gone into exile under afflictionAnd under harsh servitude;She dwells among the [pagan] nations,But she has found no rest;All her pursuers have overtaken herIn the midst of [her] distress.

In the days of her affliction and homelessnessJerusalem remembers all her precious thingsThat she had from the days of old,When her people fell into the hand of the adversary,And no one helped her,The enemy saw her,They mocked at her downfall.

Her (ceremonial) uncleanness was on her skirts;She did not [seriously] consider her future.Therefore she has come down [from throne to slavery] in an astonishing manner;She has no comforter.“O Lord” [cries Jerusalem], “look at my affliction,For the enemy has magnified himself [in triumph]!”

I am [Jeremiah] the man who has seen afflictionBecause of the rod of His wrath.

Remember [O Lord] my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the gall (bitterness).

I will go away and return to My place [on high]Until they acknowledge their offense and bear their guilt and seek My face;In their distress they will earnestly seek Me, saying,

Who drink wine from sacrificial bowlsAnd anoint themselves with the finest oils [reflecting their unrestrained celebration];Yet they are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph (Israel).

Whatever [plot] you [Assyrians] devise against the Lord,He will make a complete end of it;Affliction [of God’s people by the hand of Assyria] will not occur twice.

I [Habakkuk, in my vision] saw the tents of Cushan under distress;The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling.

But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease and feel secure; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster [against the people of Israel].”

“And they will pass through the sea of distress and anxiety [with the Lord leading His people, as at the Red Sea]And He will strike the waves in the sea,So that all the depths of the Nile will dry up;And the pride of Assyria will be brought downAnd the scepter [of the taskmasters] of Egypt will pass away.

yet he has no [substantial] root in himself, but is only temporary, and when pressure or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he stumbles and falls away [abandoning the One who is the source of salvation].

“Then they will hand you over to [endure] tribulation, and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.

For at that time there will be a great tribulation (pressure, distress, oppression), such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will [again].

But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism [of suffering and death] with which I am baptized?”

for at that time there will be such tribulation as has not occurred, from the beginning of the creation which God made, until now—and never will [be again].

“But in those days, after [the suffering and distress of] that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light,

serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and trials which came on me because of the plots of the Jews [against me];

And not only this, but [with joy] let us exult in our sufferings and rejoice in our hardships, knowing that hardship (distress, pressure, trouble) produces patient endurance;

Who shall ever separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?

who comforts and encourages us in every trouble so that we will be able to comfort and encourage those who are in any kind of trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

For we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about our trouble in [the west coast province of] Asia [Minor], how we were utterly weighed down, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life [itself].

For our momentary, light distress [this passing trouble] is producing for us an eternal weight of glory [a fullness] beyond all measure [surpassing all comparisons, a transcendent splendor and an endless blessedness]!

For even when we were with you, we warned you plainly in advance that we were going to experience persecution; and so, as you know, it has come to pass.

For after all it is only just for God to repay with distress those who distress you,

for that [gospel] I am suffering even to [the point of] wearing chains like a criminal; but the word of God is not chained or imprisoned!

Pure and unblemished religion [as it is expressed in outward acts] in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit and look after the fatherless and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the [secular] world.

‘I know your suffering and your poverty (but you are rich), and how you are blasphemed and slandered by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan [they are Jews only by blood, and do not believe and truly honor the God whom they claim to worship].

Fear nothing that you are about to suffer. Be aware that the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested [in your faith], and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful to the point of death [if you must die for your faith], and I will give you the crown [consisting] of life.

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.