Dictionaries :: Tribulation

Tribulation:

trouble or affiction of any kind (Deu 4:30; Mat 13:21; 2Cr 7:4). In Rom 2:9 "tribulation and anguish" are the penal sufferings that shall overtake the wicked. In Mat 24:21, 29, the word denotes the calamities that were to attend the destruction of Jerusalem.

Tribulation:

trib-u-la'-shun (tsar, tsar, "staid," "narrow," "pent up"; compare Nu 22:26):

1. In the Old Testament:

Closely pressed, as of seals (Job 41:15 (7)); of streams pent up (Isa 59:9 margin); of strength limited (Pr 24:10, "small"). Hence, figuratively, of straitened circumstances; variously rendered "affliction," "tribulation," "distress" (De 4:30; Job 15:24; 30:12; Ps 4:2; 18:7; 32:7; 44:11, etc.; Ps 78:42; 102:3; 106:44; 119:143; Isa 26:16; 30:20; Ho 5:15; Eze 30:16). Frequently, the feminine form (tsarah) is similarly rendered "tribulation" (Jud 10:14 the King James Version; 1Sa 10:19 the King James Version; 1Sa 26:24); in other places "distress," "affliction" (Ge 42:21; Ps 120:1; Pr 11:8; 2Ch 20:9; Isa 63:9; Jer 15:11; Jon 2:2; Na 1:9; Zec 10:11).

2. In the New Testament:

The Greek is thlipsis, a "pressing together" (as of grapes), squeezing or pinching (from verb thlibo); used figuratively for "distress," "tribulation"; Septuagint for tsar and tsarah; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) tribulatio pressura (from tribulum, "a threshing sledge"). The verb form is rendered "suffer tribulation" (1Th 3:4 the King James Version, "suffer affliction" the Revised Version (British and American)); "trouble" (2Th 1:6 the King James Version, "afflict" the Revised Version (British and American); compare 2Co 1:6; 4:8; 7:5; 1Ti 5:10; Heb 11:37). The noun form is rendered in the King James Version variously as "tribulation," "affliction," "persecution," though more uniformly "tribulation" in the Revised Version (British and American). The word is used generally of the hardships which Christ's followers would suffer (Mt 13:21; 24:9,21,29; Mr 4:17; 13:19,24; Joh 16:33; 1Co 7:28); or which they are now passing through (Ro 5:3; 12:12; 2Co 4:17; Php 4:14); or through which they have already come (Ac 11:19; 2Co 2:4; Re 7:14).

Written by Edward Bagby Pollard

Tribulation: General Scriptures Concerning

Jhn 16:33

Tribulation: References Concerning

See AFFLICTION; SUFFERING

Tribulation:

for which see AFFLICTION, B, No. 4, is translated "tribulation" in the RV (for AV, "affiction") in Mar 4:17; 13:19; plural in 2Th 1:4, AV, "tribulations," RV, "afflictions;" in Act 14:22 "many tribulations" (AV, "much tribulation"); in Mat 24:9, "unto tribulation" (AV, "to be afflicted"); in 2Cr 1:4; 7:4; 2Th 1:6, AV, "tribulation" for RV, "affliction;" RV and AV, "tribulation(-s)," e.g., in Rom 2:9; 5:3 (twice); Rom 8:35; 12:12; Eph 3:13; Rev 1:9; 2:9, 10, 22.

In Rev 7:14, "the great tribulation," RV, lit., "the tribulation, the great one" (not as AV, without the article), is not that in which all saints share; it indicates a definite period spoken of by the Lord in Mat 24:21, 29; Mar 13:19, 24, where the time is mentioned as preceding His Second Advent, and as a period in which the Jewish nation, restored to Palestine in unbelief by Gentile instrumentality, will suffer an unprecedented outburst of fury on the part of the antichristian powers confederate under the Man of Sin (2Th 2:10-12; cp. Rev 12:13-17); in this tribulation Gentile witnesses for God will share (Rev 7:9), but it will be distinctly "the time of Jacob's trouble" (Jer 30:7); its beginning is signalized by the setting up of the "abomination of desolation" (Mat 24:15; Mar 13:14, with Dan 11:31; 12:11).

Note: For the verb thlibo, in the Passive Voice rendered "suffer tribulation" in 1Th 3:4, AV (RV, "suffer affliction"), see AFFLICT, No. 4.