Greek word · G5004

ταλαιπωρία

talaipōria

misery

Hardship, distress, wretchedness, calamity. It means the condition of someone ground down by trouble, and in prophetic texts the devastation of a land or people. The stress is on outward disaster and ruin rather than on an inner feeling.

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

What it means

ταλαιπωρία, -ας, ἡ

(ταλαίπωρος) [in LXX chiefly for שֹׁד ;]

1. hard work (Hippocr.).

2. hardship, suffering, distress: Romans 3:16 (LXX) pl., James 5:1 (see B1., § 32, 6; WM, 220; Swete, Mk., 153).

(Hdt., Thuc., al.; and cf. MM, xxiv.)†

(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 James 5:1

Range of meaning

Hardship, distress, wretchedness, calamity. It means the condition of someone ground down by trouble, and in prophetic texts the devastation of a land or people. The stress is on outward disaster and ruin rather than on an inner feeling.

Against the English

'Misery' or 'miseries' (KJV, BSB, ESV, NASB) is a fair gloss, but in modern English 'misery' mostly means feeling unhappy. NLT's 'terrible troubles' catches the outward, event-like sense better.

How it drifted

In English, 'misery' has moved from its older sense of wretched circumstances (Latin miseria) toward a mood of unhappiness.

Used elsewhere in the period

Greek OT: Joel 1:15, 'the day of the LORD is near, and it will come like misery upon misery (ταλαιπωρία)'; Isaiah 59:7, 'ruin and misery are in their paths', quoted in Romans 3:16; Micah 2:4. It also appears in the papyri for hardship and distress.

Similar words

Where it appears

Romans · 1

  1. Romans 3:16 ταλαιπωρία misery

    ruin and misery lie in their wake,

James · 1

  1. James 5:1 ταλαιπωρίαις miseries

    Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you.

    Here: Disasters, ruin and hardship that happen to someone, not mainly a sad mood. It is plural, so many calamities. It picks up the related verb in 4:9 ('be wretched'), so the self-humbling James asked for there now comes back as ruin they cannot avoid.

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