Together the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures use “affliction” (θλιβω; דנצ) or related root words, approximately 150 times. In the Hebrew Scriptures דנצ most often describes an external dilemma of being constricted or hemmed in (Dt 28:52), treated with hostility (Is 11:13) or oppressed (Is 19:10).  Many of the uses are contained in Leviticus where the term is applied to those who are somehow rendered impure or unclean – they are thus placed outside the camp, removed from all that they knew and loved. While the use of דנצ is often external, there are personal and internal implications. The expelled are abandoned.

Affliction is used in the corporate and the personal sense. Sometimes ‘affliction’ refers to things of lesser consequence, e.g. 2 Sam 5  where the enemies of Israel are afflicted with hemorrhoids.  The psalms of lament frequently describe the condition of one brought low and suffering because of their faith in Yahweh as afflicted. Perhaps no other Hebrew scripture implicitly addresses affliction with more insight than the Book of Job.

In the New Testament, θλιβω is most often associated with the tribulation (e.g. Rev 7:14, Mt 24) as something the believers must endure.  Paul uses ‘affliction’ (cf. 2 Cor) to describe a persecuted people as well as something palpable in the body (2 Cor 4:10-12).  In 1 Thess 3:3 he uses θλιβω to describe that which tempts one to abandon the way, to sink into despair; 1 Peter 4:2 describes ‘affliction’ in the same manner. Perhaps Paul comes closest in 2 Cor 1:8 to unfolding the intense personal experience of affliction: “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction that came to us in the province of Asia; we were utterly weighed down beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life [emphasis added].” Paul then encourages the Corinthians to resist despair even while remaining in the suffering.  Because it is at the boundary of death that we come closest to God and thus must remain turned toward God. It is in God that “we have put our hope that he will also rescue us” (2 Cor 1:10) just as God has raised Jesus from the dead.