צוּק
tsuq
to press
Lexicon Entry
Lexicon data from STEPBible TIPNR, Tyndale House, Cambridge. Licensed under CC BY 4.0.
What Original Readers Understood
Supported# The Hebrew Word Tsuq (צוּק): Physical Pressing and Constraint The Hebrew verb *tsuq* carries the fundamental meaning "to press," describing a physical action of applying force or constraint. With eleven occurrences in the biblical text, this word appears with sufficient frequency to establish a consistent semantic pattern, though it remains specialized in application. The word's core sense involves the exertion of pressure upon something, whether literal or metaphorical compression. While the provided data confirms the basic definition and frequency, it does not include specific verse references that would illustrate the contexts in which pressing, squeezing, or constraining occurs in biblical narratives. Understanding the full range of this word's usage—whether it describes pressing grapes into wine, constraining a person, or expressing pressure in a figurative sense—would require examination of the actual textual occurrences. The eleven instances suggest the word was employed with moderate regularity in biblical Hebrew, but appears to have been one of several options available to writers when describing compressive force or constraint. The significance of *tsuq* lies in its designation of a concrete, physical action. Unlike more abstract terms, this verb grounds meaning in tangible bodily or material experience, making it useful for describing real mechanical actions or, when used figuratively, for conveying the sensation of pressure or constraint in human experience.
Source data & methodology
Occurrences in Scripture
11 total occurrences across the text
For I am full of words. The spirit within me constrains me.
Isaiah 29:2then I will distress Ariel, and there will be mourning and lamentation. She shall be to me as an altar hearth.
Isaiah 29:7The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night.
Isaiah 51:13Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor?
Isaiah 51:13Have you forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched out the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth? Do you live in fear continually all day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he prepares to destroy? Where is the fury of the oppressor?
Jeremiah 19:9I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters. They will each eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, will distress them.” ’
Deuteronomy 28:53You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you.
Deuteronomy 28:55so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left to him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates.
Deuteronomy 28:57toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your gates.
Judges 14:17She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted; and on the seventh day, he told her, because she pressed him severely; and she told the riddle to the children of her people.
Judges 16:16When she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, his soul was troubled to death.