'Burden' in the Bible
“I hate [the hypocrisy of] your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts.They have become a burden to Me;I am weary of bearing them.
For You will break the yoke of Israel’s burden and the staff (goad) on their shoulders,The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian.
So it will be in that day, that the burden of the Assyrian will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because of the fat.
The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw [in a prophetic vision]:
to break the Assyrian in My land, and on My mountains I will trample him underfoot. Then the Assyrian’s yoke will be removed from them (the people of Judah) and his burden removed from their shoulder.
In the year that King Ahaz [of Judah] died this [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) came:
The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Moab:Because in a night Ar of Moab is devastated and ruined;Because in a night Kir of Moab is devastated and ruined.
The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Damascus [capital of Aram (Syria), and Israel’s defense against Assyria].“Listen carefully, Damascus will cease to be a cityAnd will become a fallen ruin.
The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Egypt:Listen carefully, the Lord is riding on a swift cloud and is about to come to Egypt;The idols of Egypt will tremble at His presence,And the heart of the Egyptians will melt within them.
The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the Desert of the Sea (the seasonally flooded plains just south of Babylon):As windstorms in the Negev (the South) sweep through,So it (God’s judgment) comes from the desert, from [the hostile armies of] a terrifying land.
The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Dumah (Edom):Someone keeps calling to me from Seir (Edom),“Watchman, what is left of the night [of Assyrian oppression]?Watchman, what is left of the night? [How long until morning?]”
The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Arabia:In the thickets of Arabia you must spend the night,Caravans of Dedanites.
The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning the Valley of Vision:What is the matter with you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops,
In that day,” declares the Lord of hosts, “the peg (Eliakim) that was driven into the firm place will give way; it will even break off and fall, and the burden hanging on it will be cut off, for the Lord has spoken.”
The [mournful, inspired] oracle (a burden to be carried) concerning Tyre:Wail, O ships of Tarshish,For Tyre is destroyed, without house, without harbor;It is reported to them from the land of Cyprus (Kittim).
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.
Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over;Their idols are on the beasts [of burden] and on the cattle.Your burdens [of idols] are loaded [on them],Burdens on the weary animals.