Greek word · G4729

στενοχωρέω

stenochōreō

to press upon

To be narrow or cramped for space, to confine or hem in. Passive: to be hemmed in, restricted, left with no room. In figurative use: to be in a tight spot or in dire straits. In the NT it appears only here and in 2 Cor 6:12 (twice, 'restricted' in affection).

Appears 3 times in 2 verses of the Greek New Testament. ·

What it means

στενο-χωρέω, -ῶ

(στενός + χῶρος, space) [in LXX: Joshua 17:15 (אוּץ), Judges 16:16 (אָלַץ pi.), Isaiah 28:19 (20) (קָצַר) Isaiah 49:19 (צָרַר), 4Ma.11:11 * ;]

1. to be straitened (cf. Isaiah 49:19); metaphorically, to be anxious (Hipp., al.).

2. In late writers, trans., to straiten, compress (LXX, Diod., al.; π. ap. MM, xxiii): pass., trop., 2 Corinthians 4:8 6:12.†

(AS)

From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of 2 Corinthians 4:8

Range of meaning

To be narrow or cramped for space, to confine or hem in. Passive: to be hemmed in, restricted, left with no room. In figurative use: to be in a tight spot or in dire straits. In the NT it appears only here and in 2 Cor 6:12 (twice, 'restricted' in affection).

Against the English

BSB/NIV/ESV/NASB/WEB 'crushed' suggests a heavier version of the same pressure: pressed, then flattened. The Greek changes the picture from force to space: squeezed, but not cornered. KJV 'distressed' once carried the Latin-derived sense of being 'straitened' or confined, but modern readers hear an emotional state. YLT 'straitened' and the Vulgate's angustiamur ('narrowed') keep the spatial idea.

How it drifted

'Crushed' is an idiomatic choice that makes a neat English rhyme of escalation ('pressed but not crushed'). The narrow-space idea in stenos + chōra is lost. With KJV 'distressed,' the older sense of 'distress' (being held in tight straits, from Latin districtus) faded, and the emotional sense took over.

Used elsewhere in the period

Septuagint: Josh 17:15 (the hill country is 'too narrow' for Joseph's tribes); Isa 49:19 (the land 'too cramped' for its returning inhabitants). The noun stenochōria appears in the siege language of Deut 28:53–57. The verb and noun are common in Hellenistic Greek for physical crowding and for being in a fix.

Similar words

Where it appears

2 Corinthians · 3

  1. 2 Corinthians 4:8 στενοχωρούμενοι, being crushed,

    We are hard pressed on all sides, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;

    Here: Built from stenos (narrow) and chōra (space): "being confined to a narrow space, hemmed in with no room to move." Paul is not describing a stronger degree of the same pressure. The squeeze is real, but it never leaves them cornered.

  2. 2 Corinthians 6:12 στενοχωρεῖσθε στενοχωρεῖσθε you are restrained

    It is not our affection, but yours, that is restrained.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.