Hebrew word · H8513

תְּלָאָה

hatela'ah

hardship

Hardship, trouble, weariness: exhausting distress that wears a person down. Probably related to la'ah, 'to be weary' (HALOT, BDB). It is a rare word: Exod 18:8; Num 20:14; Neh 9:32; Lam 3:5; and the related mattela'ah, 'what a weariness!' in Mal 1:13.

Appears 4 times in 4 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

toil, hardship, distress, weariness

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Nehemiah 9:32

Range of meaning

Hardship, trouble, weariness: exhausting distress that wears a person down. Probably related to la'ah, 'to be weary' (HALOT, BDB). It is a rare word: Exod 18:8; Num 20:14; Neh 9:32; Lam 3:5; and the related mattela'ah, 'what a weariness!' in Mal 1:13.

Against the English

KJV 'trouble'; WEB/YLT 'travail'; BSB and most modern versions 'hardship'. 'Hardship' and 'travail' keep the sense of long, draining toil better than the general word 'trouble'.

Used elsewhere in the period

The phrase 'all the hardship that found us' (kol-hatt'la'ah 'asher m'tsa'atnu) repeats Num 20:14 almost word for word, where Moses tells Edom 'you know all the hardship that has found us'. Exod 18:8 has Moses telling Jethro 'all the hardship that had found them on the way'. Lam 3:5 uses it of the suffering after Jerusalem fell.

From the study of Numbers 20:14

Range of meaning

Hardship, weariness, exhausting trouble. It is connected with the verb la'ah, 'to be tired, worn out'. It describes hardship by what it does to people: it wears them down.

Against the English

'Hardship' (BSB and others) is accurate. 'Travail' (KJV, WEB, YLT) was a good match in its day, since it meant toil and suffering, but it now sounds archaic and is linked mainly with childbirth. The NIV and NLT plural 'hardships' suggests a list of incidents, while the Hebrew is singular and collective.

How it drifted

Only 'travail' has drifted, by narrowing in modern English towards labour pains or fading from use altogether.

Used elsewhere in the period

A rare word. It appears in Exodus 18:8, where Moses tells Jethro of 'all the hardship that had found them on the way', here, in Nehemiah 9:32, and in Lamentations 3:5, and probably in Malachi 1:13 ('what a weariness'). Nehemiah 9:32 uses the same phrase as this verse, 'all the hardship that has found us', in a prayer recalling Israel's whole history. The Greek Septuagint here uses mochthos, 'toil, painful labour'.

Where it appears

Exodus · 1

  1. Exodus 18:8 הַתְּלָאָה֙ the hardship

    Then Moses recounted to his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardships they had encountered along the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.

Numbers · 1

  1. Numbers 20:14 הַתְּלָאָ֖ה the hardship

    From Kadesh, Moses sent messengers to tell the king of Edom, “This is what your brother Israel says: You know all the hardship that has befallen us,

    Here: Grinding, wearing-down hardship, from a root meaning 'to be weary'. It is singular with 'the', so the whole experience is treated as one thing: 'the hardship', the known story, and verses 15-16 go on to spell it out.

Nehemiah · 1

  1. Nehemiah 9:32 הַתְּלָאָ֣ה the hardship

    So now, our God, the great and mighty and awesome God who keeps His gracious covenant, do not view lightly all the hardship that has come upon us, and upon our kings and leaders, our priests and prophets, our ancestors and all Your people, from the days of the kings of Assyria until today.

    Here: From a root meaning 'to be weary': grinding, exhausting trouble. The same phrase, 'all the hardship that found us', is used of Israel's wilderness journey (Exod 18:8; Num 20:14).

Lamentations · 1

  1. Lamentations 3:5 וּתְלָאָֽה׃ and hardship

    He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.

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