אוֹי

Numbers 21:29 אוֹי־ woe!

Woe to you, O Moab! You are destroyed, O people of Chemosh! He gave up his sons as refugees, and his daughters into captivity to Sihon king of the Amorites.

Numbers 24:23 א֕וֹי woe!

Once more Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Ah, who can live unless God has ordained it?

Here: A cry of dismay at disaster that is coming or has already arrived. It sets a tone of dread before Balaam says what the disaster is.

1 Samuel 4:7 א֣וֹי woe!

the Philistines were afraid. “The gods have entered their camp!” they said. “Woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before.

1 Samuel 4:8 א֣וֹי woe!

Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness.

Proverbs 23:29 א֥וֹי woe

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes?

Here: A cry of pain or dismay, the noise a person makes when disaster lands: 'Oh no!' Here it is treated like a thing someone 'has', i.e. who is the one left crying 'oy'?

Isaiah 3:9 א֣וֹי woe!

The expression on their faces testifies against them, and like Sodom they flaunt their sin; they do not conceal it. Woe to them, for they have brought disaster upon themselves.

Here: A cry of lament, the kind used at funerals. The prophet mourns them as people already doomed. It is a cry of grief more than a curse.

Isaiah 3:11 א֖וֹי woe!

Woe to the wicked; disaster is upon them! For they will be repaid with what their hands have done.

Here: A cry of alarm and distress, not a calm statement. Coming right after the same cry in verse 9 ('Woe to their soul!'), it sounds like a shout of horror at the disaster that is coming.

Isaiah 6:5 אֽוֹי־ woe!

Then I said: “Woe is me, for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.”

Here: A cry of dismay at disaster that has come or is about to come. It is not a sigh of self-pity. With 'to me' it is the cry of someone who knows he is in mortal danger.

Isaiah 24:16 א֣וֹי woe!

From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away! Woe is me.” The treacherous betray; the treacherous deal in treachery.

Here: A cry of distress and lament, used in mourning and in the face of disaster. Isaiah uses the same cry 'woe is me' in his vision of 6:5.

Jeremiah 4:13 א֥וֹי woe!

Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!

Here: A raw cry of dismay, closer to 'Oh no!' or 'We're done for!' than to a formal pronouncement.

Jeremiah 4:31 אֽוֹי־ woe!

For I hear a cry like a woman in labor, a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child—the cry of the Daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands to say, “Woe is me, for my soul faints before the murderers!”

Here: A raw cry of pain or mourning, the sound people made at a death or a disaster. Here she wails it over herself.

Jeremiah 6:4 א֥וֹי woe!

‘Prepare for battle against her; rise up, let us attack at noon. Woe to us, for the daylight is fading; the evening shadows grow long.

Jeremiah 10:19 א֥וֹי woe!

Woe to me because of my brokenness; my wound is grievous! But I said, “This is truly my sickness, and I must bear it.”

Jeremiah 13:27 א֥וֹי woe!

Your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution on the hills and in the fields—I have seen your detestable acts. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will you remain unclean?”

Here: "Woe!" A cry of grief and alarm, the sound of mourning for someone who is doomed. It is partly a lament, not only a threat.

Jeremiah 15:10 אֽוֹי־ woe!

Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and conflict in all the land. I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.

Here: A raw cry of distress and dread, not a polite "poor me". With "to me" it is the cry of someone who feels doomed (as in Isaiah 6:5).

Jeremiah 45:3 אֽוֹי־ woe!

You have said, ‘Woe is me because the LORD has added sorrow to my pain! I am worn out with groaning and have found no rest.’”

Jeremiah 48:46 אוֹי־ woe!

Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh have perished; for your sons have been taken into exile and your daughters have gone into captivity.

Lamentations 5:16 אֽוֹי־ woe!

The crown has fallen from our head. Woe to us, for we have sinned!

Here: A raw cry of distress, the sound people make when catastrophe hits them. Here it is turned on the speakers themselves, not hurled at an enemy.

Ezekiel 16:23 א֣וֹי א֣וֹי woe!

Woe! Woe to you, declares the Lord GOD. And in addition to all your other wickedness,

Ezekiel 24:6 אוֹי֮ woe!

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot now rusted, whose rust will not come off! Empty it piece by piece; cast no lots for its contents.

Here: A cry of grief and doom, the kind of wail heard at a funeral. It treats the city as already as good as dead.

Ezekiel 24:9 א֖וֹי woe!

Yes, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed! I, too, will pile the kindling high.

Hosea 7:13 א֤וֹי woe!

Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me! Though I would redeem them, they speak lies against Me.

Here: A cry of alarm and grief. It announces disaster and mourns it at the same moment, so it is heard as both a threat and a lament.

Hosea 9:12 א֥וֹי woe!

Even if they raise their children, I will bereave them of each one. Yes, woe be to them when I turn away from them!

Here: A cry of anguish at disaster, closer to "Alas!" or "Oh, the misery!" than to a formal curse.