Word study
Afflict
8 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: afflicted, afflict, afflicting. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “afflict” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- עָנִי ânîpoor, afflicted, humble, meektranslated this way 23 times of its 76 uses · Strong’s H6041Adjective · Translated: poor 33, afflicted 22, oppressed 7, humble 4Full study and all 74 verses →
2 Samuel 22:28 You save an afflicted people, but Your eyes are on the haughty to bring them down.
Job 34:28 They caused the cry of the poor to come before Him, and He heard the outcry of the afflicted.
- עָנָה ânâhbe occupied, busied withtranslated this way 19 times of its 80 uses · Strong’s H6031Verb · Translated: afflicted 15, humble 12, oppress 5, afflict 4Full study and all 78 verses →
Deuteronomy 26:6 But the Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us, putting us to hard labor.
1 Kings 8:35 When the skies are shut and there is no rain because Your people have sinned against You, and they pray toward this place and confess Your name, and they turn from their sins because You have afflicted them,
- נָכָה nâkâhsmitetranslated this way 7 times of its 496 uses · Strong’s H5221Verb · Translated: struck 145, strike 59, put 31, defeated 28Full study and all 460 verses →
Deuteronomy 28:27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured.
1 Samuel 5:6 Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the people of Ashdod and its vicinity, ravaging them and afflicting them with tumors.
- נָגַע nâgatouch, reach, striketranslated this way 5 times of its 144 uses · Strong’s H5060Verb · Translated: touches 35, touched 20, touch 19, Whoever touches 6Full study and all 136 verses →
Genesis 12:17 The LORD, however, afflicted Pharaoh and his household with severe plagues because of Abram’s wife Sarai.
2 Kings 15:5 And the LORD afflicted the king with leprosy until the day he died, so that he lived in a separate house while his son Jotham had charge of the palace and governed the people of the land.
- צָרַע tsârabe struck with leprosy, leproustranslated this way 2 times of its 19 uses · Strong’s H6879Verb · Translated: leprous 5, skin disease 3, leper 3, leprosy 3Full study and all 17 verses →
Leviticus 14:2 “This is the law for the one afflicted with a skin disease on the day of his cleansing, when he is brought to the priest.
Leviticus 14:3 The priest is to go outside the camp to examine him, and if the skin disease of the afflicted person has healed,
- נָגַף nâgaphstrike, smitetranslated this way 2 times of its 48 uses · Strong’s H5062Verb · Translated: defeated 17, strike 9, struck 6, routed 3Full study and all 46 verses →
Joshua 24:5 Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and afterward I brought you out.
2 Chronicles 21:18 After all this, the LORD afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels.
- רָעַע râabe evil, badtranslated this way 2 times of its 97 uses · Strong’s H7489Verb · Translated: wicked 9, harm 8, evil 8, evildoers 8Full study and all 97 verses →
Ruth 1:21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”
Micah 4:6 “On that day,” declares the LORD, “I will gather the lame; I will assemble the outcast, even those whom I have afflicted.
- צָרַר tsârarbind, tie up, be restricted, narrow, scant, crampedtranslated this way 2 times of its 53 uses · Strong’s H6887Verb · Translated: distress 5, foes 4, enemy 4, enemies 4Full study and all 52 verses →
2 Chronicles 28:20 Then Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came to Ahaz but afflicted him rather than strengthening him.
Psalm 143:12 And in Your loving devotion, cut off my enemies. Destroy all who afflict me, for I am Your servant.
Greek words (New Testament)
- θλίβω thlíbōI make narrow, persecute, press hardtranslated this way 3 times of its 10 uses · Strong’s G2346Verb · Translated: afflicted 2, oppressed 2Full study and all 10 verses →
2 Corinthians 1:6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which accomplishes in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we experience.
2 Thessalonians 1:6 After all, it is only right for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.