Ka’av: PAIN Hurts

PAIN:  kaav, verb (Strong’s 3510); k’ev, masculine noun (Strong’s 3511); makov, masculine noun (Strong’s 4341)

Root: כָּאַב

Sounds like: kah-ahv

Every year that passes, the human body seems to experience more pain. Am I alone in this? The back aches, the head aches, the joints are sore, the muscles seem tired. As I walk down the stairs my knees crack and getting out of bed each morning comes with some creaky moans and groans. 

But for the past six years my most consistent pain has been in my thumbs. (An occupational hazard of working in an academic library and repeatedly moving heavy bound journals). I have been diagnosed with severe arthritis in both of my thumbs, and on January 24th I will be having thumb reconstruction surgery. The surgeon explained it all, but in my nervousness, I’m not keen on knowing the details.

All this to say, I thought studying the Biblical Hebrew word for PAIN might be topical and helpful for my surgery-anxiety. Maybe you’ll find it helpful too. Let’s take a look. 

Pain: Physical and Emotional

The first time pain was mentioned in the Bible it related only to men, because it was the pain associated with circumcision (Genesis 34:24-25). That’s a pain many of us will never experience, or at least not remember (hopefully!).

The second time pain was mentioned, it was actually associated with the emotional pain of being oppressed: 

Exodus 3:7-8a

And YHWH said, “I have certainly seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt, and have heard their outcry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their pain [et mak’ohvah]. So I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians…

It’s interesting that the Bible used the same word, ka’av, to describe both physical pain and emotional pain. Our translators sometimes change up the translation, using sorrow or grief to indicate emotional agony and pain to indicate physical agony. However, in Hebrew it’s the same word.  To me, it seems quite intuitive for an Ancient Near East document to understand the depth and detrimental impact of emotional pain on a human being, but that’s exactly what the Bible does. In fact, the Bible appears to address emotional pain more frequently than physical pain, although it does comment on both.

Prayer for Pain Relief

The Bible also makes it clear that YHWH wants to rescue us from pain, both physical and emotional. He understands the gravity of both and wants to stand by us in whatever pain we are going through. There are many beautiful prayers in the Bible that call on God to address pain and acknowledge that He will do so:

Psalm 69:29-30

[David:] I am afflicted and in pain [w-koh’ev]; may Your salvation, God, set me safely on high. I will praise the name of God with song, and exalt Him with thanksgiving. And it will please YHWH better than an ox or bull with horns and hoofs. The humble have seen it and are glad; you who seek God, let your heart revive. For YHWH hears the needy, and does not despise those of His who are prisoners.

2 Chronicles 6:28-30a

[Solomon to YHWH:] “If there is a famine in the land, if there is a plague, if there is blight or mildew, if there is locust or grasshopper, if their enemies besiege them in the land of their cities, whatever plague or whatever sickness there is, whatever prayer or plea is made by anyone or by all Your people Israel, each knowing his own affliction and his own pain [u-mak’ohvow], and spreading his hands toward this house, then hear from heaven, Your dwelling place, and forgive…”

Pain is often a bi-product of a negative world that is deeply encapsulated by death. Pain is an inevitable part of our lives and no one escapes it… from a papercut to a broken heart, we all feel pain. It is part of the human experience:

Psalm 38:17-22

[David:] For I am ready to fall, and my sorrow [my pain: u-mak’ohvi] is continually before me. For I admit my guilt; I am full of anxiety because of my sin. But my enemies are vigorous and strong, and those who wrongfully hate me are many. And those who repay evil for good, they become my enemies, because I follow what is good. Do not abandon me, YHWH; my God, do not be far from me! Hurry to help me, Lord, my salvation!

Humans Hiding Pain

Humans have adapted to our painful circumstances, and not always for the better. Many of us do a very good job of masking our pain. Some of us push ourselves to the limit and try to ignore it, and in doing so we damage ourselves even further.

Some of us hide our pain behind a wall of comedy, lightheartedness, or laughter. We let other people think we’re great… we’re just fine… but under the surface there’s a torrent of sorrow and pain that goes very deep:

Proverbs 14:13

Even in laughter the heart may be in pain [yi-k’av], and the end of joy may be grief.

Living in denial is how many of us deal with pain and Solomon understood the appeal:

Ecclesiastes 1:18

In much wisdom there is much grief; and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain [mak’ohv].

There is some truth to the phrase “ignorance is bliss”. If we ignore our pain, if we pretend it’s not there, we might be able to trick ourselves into believing we’re okay. But once we stop and address the pain that is tearing us down, we are forced to face our limitations, and that can be scary.

Jeremiah 15:19-19a

Why has my pain [k’ehvi] been endless and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream with water that is unreliable? Therefore, this is what YHWH says:

“If you return, then I will restore you— you will stand before Me…”

God can and will stand alongside you in your pain. It’s not always a guarantee He’ll take it away, but He will always support you and hold you up when you can barely stand.

The truth is, life is sometimes painful and irritating and that’s just a fact:

Ecclesiastes 2:22-23

For what does a person get in all his labour and in his striving with which he labours under the sun? Because all his days his activity is painful [mak’ohvim] and irritating; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is futility.

This rather negative world that we live in makes many of our days painful and irritating, but holding onto joy and hope really helps the struggle. If we drown ourselves in self-pity or focus more on our pain than the beautiful pleasures of life that God has provided for us, then pain will hold us like a prisoner.

The Pain of Exile and Loss

The Jewish people were no strangers to pain and sorrow. The Babylonian invasion killed many and, undoubtedly, injured countless others. Whatever state the survivors were in, they were subjected to a long march out of Israel and into Babylonian territory. On top of any physical ailments there was an overwhelming amount of grief. Many of their friends and family died in the incursion and they were also grieving the loss of their homeland, the loss of their culture (language, festivals, and the loss of their Temple, where God resided among them. Where was their God now? 

Jeremiah 45:3

“You said, ‘Oh, woe to me! For YHWH has added grief to my pain [mak’ohvi]; I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest.’”

Lamentations 1:12b, 16

“Look and see if there is any pain like my pain [mak’ohv k-mak’ohvi] which was inflicted on me, with which YHWH tormented me on the day of His fierce anger…

…For these things I weep; my eyes run down with water; because far from me is a comforter, one to restore my soul. My children are desolate because the enemy has prevailed.” 

Did God disappear and go away? Had God left them to the mercies of their enemies? 

Jeremiah 30:15-17

[YHWH:] “Why do you cry out over your injury? Your pain [mak’ohvek] is incurable. Because your wrongdoing is great and your sins are numerous, I have done these things to you.

Therefore all who devour you will be devoured; and all your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity; and those who plunder you will become plunder, and all who plunder you I will turn into plunder. For I will restore you to health and I will heal you of your wounds,’ declares YHWH, ‘because they have called you an outcast, saying: “It is Zion; no one cares for her.”’

God DOES care… very much! God was direct. He allowed Babylon to do its worst, but He also promised to restore and heal. The Babylonians, however, would not fare as well. YHWH would give back to them the pain they inflicted on others:

Jeremiah 51:8-10

Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been broken. Wail over her! Bring balm for her pain [l-mak’ohvah]; perhaps she may be healed. We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; abandon her and let’s each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven and it rises to the clouds. YHWH has brought about our vindication; come and let’s recount in Zion the work of YHWH our God!

Seventy years after exile, God brought the Jewish people home again… and the Babylonians fell to the Persians; they were plundered and exiled and they faded into history.

Blaming God for your Pain

Many people blame God for their pain. If God really loved me, I wouldn’t experience this pain. But that’s not how life works. God doesn’t revel in our pain, He wants to save us, but we live in an imperfect world and our pain is a bi-product of that. One day, in heaven, we will experience a pain-free existence, but our earthly existence does not afford us that luxury. To live here is to struggle, but we can have the assured hope that our pain is temporary. 

Job was dealt multiple, terrible, blows, physically and emotionally in his lifetime. His friends saw that the pain [ha-k’ev] was very great (Job 2:13) and although they meant well, they couldn’t understand why Job was handed such an enormous and varied amount of pain. The only conclusion they could come up with was that  it must have been Job’s fault. He must have offended God to suffer so much.

Job, however, was innocent and he could not comprehend how God could allow his suffering. He had done nothing wrong:

Job 16:6-11

[Job:] “If I speak, my pain [k’evi] is not lessened, and if I refrain, what leaves me? But now He has exhausted me.”

[Job to YHWH:] “You have laid waste all my group of loved ones. And you have shriveled me up, it has become a witness; and my infirmity rises up against me, it testifies to my face.”

[Job:] “His anger has torn me and hunted me down, He has gnashed at me with His teeth; my enemy glares at me. They have gaped at me with their mouths, they have slapped me on the cheek with contempt; they have massed themselves against me. God hands me over to criminals, and tosses me into the hands of the wicked.”

In his agony  Job accused God of being uncaring and cruel, but a fourth “friend”, Elihu, reversed the narrative. God doesn’t dispense pain; humans do that very well on their own. Pain is a necessary evil on this planet,  but there is an end-reward that will be sweetened by all the pain we experienced here on earth. Experiencing the ultimate joy of seeing God, face to face, can only reach its full potential if we embrace the struggle to get there. Without the experience of pain how can you experience the heights of pure joy?

Job 33:19-28

[Elihu:] “A person is also rebuked by pain [b-mak’ohv] in his bed, and with constant complaint in his bones, so that his life loathes bread, and his soul, food that he should crave. His flesh wastes away from sight, and his bones, which were not seen, stick out. Then his soul comes near to the pit, and his life to those who bring death.

If there is an interceding angel [messenger] for him, one out of a thousand, to remind a person of what is right for him, and he is gracious to him, and says, ‘Free him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom’, let his flesh become fresher than in youth, let him return to the days of his youthful vigour; then he will pray to God, and He will accept him, so that he may see His face with joy, and He will restore His righteousness to that person.

He will sing to people and say, ‘I have sinned and perverted what is right, and it is not proper for me, [but] He has redeemed my soul from going to the pit, and my life will see the light.’”

Elihu hoped for an interceding messenger from heaven to step in and find a ransom which would free the person from going down into the pit of death. The word for messenger is malak, which is also translated as angel. Elihu imagined this messenger saying, “Free him from going down to the pit, I have found a ransom.” The Hebrew word translated as “found” in this passage actually has many possible translations. It also means secured or attained. In that case it would read, “I have attained a ransom”. Death is the end of existence only if you refuse to be ransomed. God said He would do it, and He found a way.

Yeshua and Pain

Yeshua (Jesus) was the intercessor who secured a ransom for us, and He was no stranger to pain, both physical and emotional. Isaiah prophesied about a suffering servant, a man of great pain who would bear our sins and heal us:

Isaiah 53:2-7

For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground; He has no stately form or majesty that we would look at Him, nor an appearance that we would take pleasure in Him.

He was despised and abandoned by men, a man of great pain [mak’ovoht] and familiar with sickness; and like one from whom people hide their faces, He was despised, and we had no regard for Him. However, it was our sicknesses that He Himself bore, and our pains [u-mak’ovenu] that He carried; yet we ourselves assumed that He had been afflicted, struck down by God, and humiliated.

But He was pierced for our offenses, He was crushed for our wrongdoings; the punishment for our well-being was laid upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed.

All of us, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; but YHWH has caused the wrongdoing of us all to fall on Him.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth.

Yeshua would bear our pain. He would carry all of it on His shoulders. By His wounds we are healed. 

Before He was crucified, Yeshua saw pain all around Him and He healed so many people because He was overwhelmed with compassion for people. The blind, the lame, the leprous… He didn’t judge them for the kind of people they were, He just saw they were in pain and, without question, He turned His healing hand towards them and freed them from their afflictions.

Matthew 8:5-7

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came and pleaded with Him, “Lord, my servant lies at home, paralyzed and in terrible agony.”

“I will go and heal him,” Jesus replied.

Yeshua didn’t hesitate. He’s in terrible pain? I will heal him! But the centurion stopped him and said,

Matthew 8:8-10

“Lord, I am not worthy to have You come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell one to go, and he goes; and another to come, and he comes. I tell my servant to do something, and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those following Him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.”

In another story Jesus healed a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years:

Luke 8:42b-48

As Jesus went with him the crowds pressed around Him, including a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all her money on physicians, but no one was able to heal her. She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

“Who touched Me?” Jesus asked.

But they all denied it. “Master,” said Peter, “the people are crowding and pressing against You.”

But Jesus declared, “Someone touched Me, for I know that power has gone out from Me.”

Then the woman, seeing that she could not escape notice, came trembling and fell down before Him. In the presence of all the people, she explained why she had touched Him and how she had immediately been healed.

“Daughter,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you. Go in peace.”

This woman explained why she touched Him… she was in pain and she shared her burden, and Yeshua was amazed by her. Jesus knew what her pain was, but He let her tell her story. He listened and then He commended her in front of His disciples. 

Whatever pains us, we should share our burden with YHWH. He wants to hear from you; He wants to heal you. He understands our pain, because Yeshua lived through it and died through it:

Mark 15:12-20

And responding again, Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Him whom you call the King of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Crucify Him!” But Pilate said to them, “Why, what evil has He done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify Him!” Intent on satisfying the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas for them, and after having Jesus flogged, he handed Him over to be crucified.

Now the soldiers took Him away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium), and they called together the whole Roman cohort. And they dressed Him in purple, and after twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on Him; and they began saluting Him: “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they repeatedly beat His head with a reed and spit on Him, and kneeling, they bowed down before Him. And after they had mocked Him, they took the purple cloak off Him and put His own garments on Him. And they led Him out to crucify Him.

Emotionally Yeshua was tormented, mocked, and humiliated. But even more heartbreaking, He was physically tortured. Yeshua was beaten, and pierced through the hands and feet with iron nails. He was in agony from a wrap of thorns pushed onto His head. He was hung on a cross so that all of His muscles were strained, His bones out of joint, and His breathing laboured by the weight of his body… it was hell on earth… a pain so extreme it’s (thankfully) unimaginable. 

If you’re experiencing pain, localized or chronic, emotional or physical, God understands what you’re going through. He feels your pain because He knows your pain. He is not blind to your suffering. He has a plan to save you, from all the pain you’ve ever felt:

Isaiah 25:8-9

He will swallow up death for all time, and the Lord YHWH will wipe tears away from all faces, and He will remove the disgrace of His people from all the earth; or YHWH has spoken. And it will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us. This is YHWH for whom we have waited; let’s rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”

Next week: firstborn