Topic
Groan
42 passages cited, from 1 classic reference work.
These works date from 1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- Exodus 2:24ISBE
And God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.
- Exodus 6:5ISBE
And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.
- Judges 2:18ISBE
And when the LORD raised them up judges, then the LORD was with the judge, and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge: for it repented the LORD because of their groanings by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them.
- Job 23:2ISBE
Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
- Job 24:12ISBE
Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly to them.
- Psalms 6:6ISBE
I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears.
- Psalms 12:5ISBE
For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that puffeth at him.
- Psalms 22:1ISBE
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
- Psalms 31:10ISBE
For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed.
- Psalms 32:3ISBE
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
- Psalms 38:9ISBE
Lord, all my desire is before thee; and my groaning is not hid from thee.
- Psalms 59:6ISBE
They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city.
Show 30 more
- Psalms 59:14 ISBE
- Psalms 79:11 ISBE
- Psalms 102:5 ISBE
- Psalms 102:20 ISBE
- Isaiah 21:2 ISBE
- Isaiah 24:7 ISBE
- Isaiah 35:10 ISBE
- Isaiah 59:11 ISBE
- Jeremiah 9:10 ISBE
- Jeremiah 31:15 ISBE
- Jeremiah 45:3 ISBE
- Jeremiah 51:52 ISBE
- Ezekiel 9:4 ISBE
- Ezekiel 21:6 ISBE
- Ezekiel 26:15 ISBE
- Ezekiel 30:24 ISBE
- Joel 1:18 ISBE
- Amos 5:16 ISBE
- Nahum 2:7 ISBE
- Matthew 9:30 ISBE
- Mark 1:43 ISBE
- Mark 7:34 ISBE
- Mark 8:12 ISBE
- John 11:15 ISBE
- John 11:33 ISBE
- Acts 7:34 ISBE
- Romans 8:22 ISBE
- Romans 8:23 ISBE
- 2 Corinthians 5:2 ISBE
- 2 Corinthians 5:4 ISBE
In the reference works
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 47 references
gron (na'aq, 'anaq; stenazo, embrimaomai): The English word, noun and verb, is an attempt to imitate the vocal sound which is expressive of severe pain or distress, physical or mental. It is cognate with the Scottish dialect word girn, and with grin in its original obsolete sense, as used in the Anglican Prayer-book version of Ps 59:6,14, "grin like a dog and go about the city"; here "grin" is a translation of hamah, and means the sound of the nightly howling of the pariah dogs in Jerusalem and other oriental cities. It is used in the Old Testament:
(1) To denote the expression accompanying physical suffering, as in the case of the Israelites in Egypt oppressed by Pharaoh's taskmasters (Ex 2:24; 6:5), or in Palestine under the yoke of the Canaanites (Jud 2:18, neqaqah). It is also used in Job's description of the sufferings and wretchedness of the poor (Job 24:12) as well as in his complaint concerning his own suffering when smitten by the hand of God (Job 23:2). The Psalmist speaks of groaning when fever-stricken and remorseful, the King James Version and the Revised Version (British and American) "roaring all the day long" (Ps 32:3; 38:9; 102:5; 22:1).
(2) The expression of suffering on the part of beasts, hungry and thirsty in drought (Joe 1:18).
(3) The manifestation of mental and spiritual distress as in Ps 6:6; 102:20 (the Revised Version (British and American) "sighing").
(4) Metaphorically groaning is the despairing note of Egypt in the prophecy of her overthrow by Babylon, the sound being that uttered by a deadly wounded man (Eze 30:24; similarly in the prophecy of the Persian conquest the misery of Babylon is thus represented by Jer 51:52); and the misery of Tyre when taken by Babylon is similarly described (Eze 26:15, the King James Version "cry").
The word for "sigh" ('anachah) is closely allied, and the meanings are sufficiently akin, so that the terms seem interchangeable. A sigh is physically a sign of respiratory distress due to depressed action of the heart; sighing is consequently the indication of physical weakness or mental disquietude, as Ps 12:5; 31:10; 79:11; Isa 21:2; 24:7; 35:10; Jer 45:3.
Na'aq is the crying of persons dying or starving, as in Eze 30:24; Job 24:12. A somewhat similar word, haghah, means the complaining sound like that of the cooing of doves (Isa 59:11; Na 2:7). Nehi is the sound of lamentation of the dead (Jer 9:10; 31:15; Am 5:16).
In the New Testament "groaning" is used for the expression of mental distress. In Joh 11:33,15 the word used is part of the verb embrimaomai, which conveys the idea of deep and earnest emotion. The same word in two other passages is translated "strictly charged," and indicates the emphasis of the charge (Mt 9:30; Mr 1:43). Elsewhere "sighing" and "groaning" are renderings of words derived from the verb stenazo, as in Ro 8:23; 2Co 5:2,4; Mr 7:34; 8:12. Stephen calls the groaning of Israel in Egypt stenagmos (Ac 7:34), and the united wail of the travailing creation is expressed by Paul by the word sunstenazei (Ro 8:22). The sigh is a characteristic sign of woe in Isa 21:2; 24:7; Jer 45:3; La 14,8,11,12; Eze 9:4; 21:6 f.
Alexander Macalister
Texts: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.