Bible Dictionary
Tribulation
Tribulation means distress, affliction, or severe trouble. Scripture uses it for hardships experienced by God’s people and for the anguish and judgment that come upon the wicked.
Definition
Tribulation means distress, affliction, hardship, or severe trouble. The underlying biblical imagery includes being pressed, confined, or squeezed, like grapes under pressure.
Biblical Usage
Tribulation describes hardships endured by Christ’s followers, present affliction, and suffering already experienced. It also denotes penal anguish for the wicked and the calamities associated with Jerusalem’s destruction.
Historical Background
The Old Testament terms emphasize narrowness and distress; the New Testament Greek term means pressing together or squeezing and is used for persecution and affliction.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
Trouble or affiction of any kind (Deut. 4:30; Matt. 13:21; 2 Cor. 7:4). In Rom. 2:9 “tribulation and anguish” are the penal sufferings that shall overtake the wicked. In Matt. 24:21, 29, the word denotes the calamities that were to attend the destruction of Jerusalem.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>trib-u-la'-shun (tsar, tsar, "staid," "narrow," "pent up"; compare Nu 22:26):</p><p>1. In the Old Testament:</p><p>Closely pressed, as of seals (Job 41:15 (7)); of streams pent up (Isa 59:9 margin); of strength limited (Pr 24:10, "small"). Hence, figuratively, of straitened circumstances; variously rendered "affliction," "tribulation," "distress" (De 4:30; Job 15:24; 30:12; Ps 4:2; 18:7; 32:7; 44:11, etc.; Ps 78:42; 102:3; 106:44; 119:143; Isa 26:16; 30:20; Ho 5:15; Eze 30:16). Frequently, the feminine form (tsarah) is similarly rendered "tribulation" (Jud 10:14 the King James Version; 1Sa 10:19 the King James Version; 1Sa 26:24); in other places "distress," "affliction" (Ge 42:21; Ps 120:1; Pr 11:8; 2Ch 20:9; Isa 63:9; Jer 15:11; Jon 2:2; Na 1:9; Zec 10:11).</p><p>2. In the New Testament:</p><p>The Greek is thlipsis, a "pressing together" (as of grapes), squeezing or pinching (from verb thlibo); used figuratively for "distress," "tribulation"; Septuagint for tsar and tsarah; Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) tribulatio pressura (from tribulum, "a threshing sledge"). The verb form is rendered "suffer tribulation" (1Th 3:4 the King James Version, "suffer affliction" the Revised Version (British and American)); "trouble" (2Th 1:6 the King James Version, "afflict" the Revised Version (British and American); compare 2Co 1:6; 4:8; 7:5; 1Ti 5:10; Heb 11:37). The noun form is rendered in the King James Version variously as "tribulation," "affliction," "persecution," though more uniformly "tribulation" in the Revised Version (British and American). The word is used generally of the hardships which Christ's followers would suffer (Mt 13:21; 24:9,21,29; Mr 4:17; 13:19,24; Joh 16:33; 1Co 7:28); or which they are now passing through (Ro 5:3; 12:12; 2Co 4:17; Php 4:14); or through which they have already come (Ac 11:19; 2Co 2:4; Re 7:14).</p><p>Edward Bagby Pollard</p>