The Bible gives no neat reason, but a promise: “In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!” In John 16:33, the Greek word is thlipsis (G2347): trouble that presses in: affliction, distress, hardship. Strong’s gives its first sense as ‘pressure’.
Get DeepWordWhat the original says
Behind the word “tribulation” in this verse is the Greek word thlipsis (said THLIP-sis).
It means trouble that presses in: affliction, distress, hardship. Strong’s gives its first sense as ‘pressure’.
This form, thlipsin, is a noun, the thing ‘you have’. In the Greek Jesus says it as a plain statement, ‘in the world you have tribulation’; the Berean puts it as “you will have”.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘trouble’ 10 times, ‘tribulation’ 9 times and ‘affliction’ 8 times. Paul praises God “who comforts us in all our troubles” with this word (2 Corinthians 1:4):
Word by word
| ἐν | τῷ | κόσμῳ | θλῖψιν | ἔχετε | ἀλλὰ | θαρσεῖτε |
| in | the | world | tribulation | you have | but | take courage |
Original form
What this tells us
It is the night before the cross. Jesus has eaten a last meal with his friends and talked with them for a long time, and he knows what is coming: “Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone” (John 16:32). These are the last words of that long talk. The word for “tribulation” is thlipsis: trouble that presses in, the feeling of being squeezed with no room to move. Jesus does not say his friends might meet it. He says “you will have tribulation.” He gives no explanation of why. What he gives is a person to hold on to: “in Me you may have peace.” Earlier that night he used a picture: “A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy” (John 16:21). The pain is real, and it is not the end of the story. Christians have long given different answers to why God allows pain at all, and the Bible does not settle it in one sentence; it keeps pointing to what God has done about it. Jesus does not ask you to pretend. He says trouble is part of life in this world, and then, “take courage; I have overcome the world!” What would it mean to hold on to the second half while you are living the first?
What the original says
Behind “have You forsaken me” in this verse is the Hebrew word azav (said ah-ZAHV).
It means to leave, to let go, to abandon someone. Strong’s gives its first sense as ‘to loosen’.
This form, azavtani, is a finished action spoken to one person, ‘you have forsaken’, with ‘me’ joined to the end. It is the line Jesus prayed on the cross, in Aramaic, in Matthew 27:46.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘forsaken’ 48 times, ‘leave’ 45 times and ‘abandon’ 37 times. It is the word in God’s promise to Joshua: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:5):
Word by word
| אֵלִי | אֵלִי | לָמָה | עֲזַבְתָּנִי | רָחוֹק | מִישׁוּעָתִי | דִּבְרֵי |
| God · my | God · my | why | have you forsaken · me | far | from · deliverance · my | words of |
Original form
What this tells us
Psalm 22 is a prayer from the bottom of the pit. The writer prays day and night and hears nothing back: “I cry out by day, O my God, but You do not answer, and by night, but I have no rest” (Psalm 22:2). He feels surrounded and mocked, and he says so to God without softening it. The words “have You forsaken me” translate azav: to leave, to abandon, to walk away from someone. It is the language of being left behind. And yet it is a prayer. The writer says it to God, not about him, and he still calls him “My God, my God.” On the cross Jesus prayed this very line: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46). The psalm does not stay in the dark. Later it says of God, “He has not hidden His face from him, but has attended to his cry for help” (Psalm 22:24). Christians hear Jesus’ cry in different ways, some stressing the real weight he carried, others that he was praying the whole psalm, which ends in trust; many hold both. If you feel abandoned, the Bible gives you words to say it out loud, to God. Asking him ‘why?’ is not the end of faith. It is one of the oldest prayers there is.
What the original says
Behind the words “or grieve” in this verse is the Hebrew word yagah (said yah-GAH).
It means to cause grief, to make someone sorrowful.
This form, vayyageh, is ‘and’ joined to a verb about him: ‘and he grieved’. With ‘not’ at the start of the verse, it reads word for word ‘he does not afflict from his heart, nor grieve the sons of men’.
It is a rare word: the Berean has it only 8 times, ‘grieve’ 3 times, as here. The verse before uses it too: “Even if He causes grief” (Lamentations 3:32):
Word by word
| כִּי | לֹא | עִנָּה | מִלִּבּוֹ | וַיַּגֶּה | בְנֵי | אִישׁ |
| for | not | he has afflicted | from · heart · his | and · he has grieved | children of | a man |
Original form
What this tells us
Lamentations is a book of grief, written after Jerusalem fell and its temple burned. Chapter 3 opens, “I am the man who has seen affliction under the rod of God’s wrath” (Lamentations 3:1). The writer does not hide his pain or his questions, and for many verses he simply describes how dark it is. Then, in the middle of the poem, the tone turns: “Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail” (Lamentations 3:22). And then this verse. The word for “grieve” is yagah: to cause grief, to make someone sorrowful. The writer says God does not do it “willingly”, word for word ‘from his heart’. The verse before holds two things side by side: “Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion according to His abundant loving devotion” (Lamentations 3:32). Suffering has come, and it is not what God delights in. Christians weigh these lines differently when they ask how much God sends and how much he allows, and the poem does not tidy them up; it lets both stand. If you wonder whether God is cold toward your pain, this verse says plainly that he takes no pleasure in it. His heart is not in the hurt, but in the compassion that follows it.
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Download on the App StoreWhat the original says
Behind “of sorrows” in this verse is the Hebrew word makh’ov (said makh-OHV).
It means pain, anguish, sorrow: pain of the body or of the heart.
This form, makh’ovot, is plural: not one sorrow but many. Word for word the servant is ‘a man of sorrows’, a life marked by them.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘pain’ 6 times and ‘sorrow’ 4 times, counting their other forms. The next verse uses it again: “carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4):
Word by word
| וַחֲדַל | אִישִׁים | אִישׁ | מַכְאֹבוֹת | וִידוּעַ | חֹלִי | וּכְמַסְתֵּר |
| and · rejected of | people | a man of | pains | and · acquainted with | sickness | and · like · a hiding of |
Original form
What this tells us
Isaiah 52 and 53 describe a servant of the LORD who suffers for others. The passage opens with his honor, “Behold, My Servant will prosper; He will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted” (Isaiah 52:13), and then turns to how he is treated: despised, rejected, looked away from. The word for “sorrows” is makh’ov: pain, anguish, sorrow. The servant is called “a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief”: someone who knows pain from the inside. He is not watching suffering from a safe distance; he has lived in it. The next verse says whose pain it was: “Surely He took on our infirmities and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4). Jewish readers have often seen this servant as the people of Israel; Christians, from the New Testament on, have seen Jesus. The Gospels show him at a friend’s grave: “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). And Hebrews says, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses” (Hebrews 4:15). Whatever you are carrying, the God of the Bible is not a stranger to it. The question this verse leaves you with is not only why it is happening, but who is with you in it.
What the original says
Behind the word “sufferings” in this verse is the Greek word pathēma (said PATH-ay-mah).
It means something you undergo: hardship, pain, suffering.
This form, pathēmata, is plural: ‘sufferings’, many of them. The words after it mean ‘of the present time’: they belong to now.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘sufferings’ 10 times and ‘suffering’ 4 times. Peter writes, “rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ” (1 Peter 4:13):
Word by word
| οὐκ | ἄξια | τὰ | παθήματα | τοῦ | νῦν | καιροῦ |
| not | comparable | the | sufferings | of the | present | time |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul has just said that believers are God’s children and heirs, and then added something sobering: “if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him” (Romans 8:17). In this verse he puts that suffering on a scale and weighs it. The word for “sufferings” is pathēma: something you undergo, hardship, pain. Paul does not call it small. He says it is “not comparable” to what is coming: “the glory that will be revealed in us.” The scale does not say the suffering weighs nothing. It says something heavier is on the other side. He goes on to say that the whole world is in labor: “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time” (Romans 8:22). Believers groan too: “we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly” (Romans 8:23). Faith does not stop the groaning. It gives it a direction, toward a world that “will be set free from its bondage to decay” (Romans 8:21). This verse does not ask you to call your pain light or to stop feeling it. It asks you to set it beside a future large enough to hold it, and to groan honestly while you wait.
What the original says
Behind the word “affliction” in this verse is the Greek word thlipsis (said THLIP-sis).
It is the same word Jesus used in John 16:33: trouble that presses in, affliction.
This form, thlipseōs, is the ‘of’ form: word for word ‘the momentary lightness of our affliction’. The verb after it means to produce, to work out: the affliction is producing something.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is also ‘suffering’ 4 times and ‘persecution’ 3 times. In the parable of the sower, some fall away “When trouble or persecution comes” (Matthew 13:21):
Word by word
| παραυτίκα | ἐλαφρὸν | τῆς | θλίψεως | ἡμῶν | καθ᾽ | ὑπερβολὴν |
| momentary | lightness | the | affliction | of us | far | surpassing |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul writes to the Corinthians about a hard stretch of his life: “We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair” (2 Corinthians 4:8). Earlier in the same letter he admits that in Asia “we despaired even of life” (2 Corinthians 1:8). He knows what heavy feels like. The word for “affliction” is thlipsis, the same pressing trouble Jesus spoke of. Paul calls it “light and momentary”, which sounds strange from a man who could write, “Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked” (2 Corinthians 11:25). He is not saying it did not hurt. He is weighing it against “an eternal weight of glory”. The verses around it explain how he can say that: “Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16), and “we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:18). Think of a long, hard climb: the climb is no lighter, but knowing where it ends changes how you carry it. If your trouble feels anything but light, notice that Paul learned this on the far side of despair. It is an invitation to look up, not a demand to feel better today.
What the original says
Behind the word “perseverance” in this verse is the Greek word hupomonē (said hoo-poh-moh-NAY).
It means endurance, perseverance: staying under a weight without giving way. Strong’s calls it ‘cheerful (or hopeful) endurance’.
This form, hupomonēn, is what the verb ‘produces’ makes: suffering produces perseverance. The next verse begins with the same word, as the next link in a chain.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘perseverance’ 19 times and ‘endurance’ 7 times, as in “let us run with endurance the race set out for us” (Hebrews 12:1):
Word by word
| θλίψεσιν | εἰδότες | ὅτι | ἡ | θλῖψις | ὑπομονὴν | κατεργάζεται |
| tribulations | knowing | that | the | tribulation | perseverance | produces |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul has just said that believers have “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1), and that they stand in grace and “rejoice in the hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2). Then he says something that surprises most readers: “we also rejoice in our sufferings.” The word for “perseverance” is hupomonē: endurance, staying under a weight without giving way. Paul does not say suffering is good in itself. He says it can produce something good: “suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope” (Romans 5:3–4). Each link grows out of the one before. James says something similar: “the testing of your faith develops perseverance” (James 1:3). And Paul’s chain ends in a hope that “does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts” (Romans 5:5). This is a description of what God can grow in hard ground. It is not a reason to call any loss good, and it does not make every pain make sense. If you are in the middle of it now, you do not have to feel joy on command. You can ask what God might be growing in you while you wait, and trust that hope is where the chain leads.
Behind "suffering" are 14 different words
Your English Bible says "suffering" 77 times. Behind it stand several Hebrew and Greek words:
Reflect
Read it as yours
Psalm 22 gives you permission to pray honestly. Read its first line slowly, as your own words if they are true for you today:
Name it
What pain are you carrying right now? Write it plainly, the way the psalm does. Then write one thing you would want God to know about it.
Carry with you
What would change if you prayed your pain to God honestly, as Psalm 22 does, instead of keeping it from him?
A note
If you are carrying grief, trauma or pain that will not ease, you do not have to carry it alone. A counselor, a doctor or a pastor can walk with you, and asking for help is not a lack of faith.