Thlipsis denotes hardship or distress endured under difficult circumstances, including opposition, deprivation, and severe coming crisis.

The term most often names hardship borne by individuals or communities—circumstances of suffering, need, grief, or endurance. It also appears for pressure imposed through hostile treatment and for an unparalleled future distress, while the same broad category includes the grief associated with childbirth.

1. Hardship endured amid suffering or need · dominant

   In 2 Corinthians 1:8, the genitive singular form concerns an affliction that burdened its sufferers beyond their power; in 2 Corinthians 1:4, the dative singular occurs in the clause about comforting those in any affliction. The plural in Acts 14:22 accompanies the claim that entry into the kingdom comes through many such hardships, while Romans 12:12 places enduring it alongside hope and prayer.

   2 Corinthians 1:42 Corinthians 1:8Acts 14:22Romans 12:12Philippians 4:14James 1:27
2. Pressure inflicted through hostile opposition · common

   In Matthew 24:9, the accusative singular stands in the warning that disciples will be delivered to pressure, killed, and hated. In 2 Thessalonians 1:6, the same form belongs to the reciprocal clause in which God repays those who press on others; Revelation 2:10 connects it with imprisonment, testing, and faithfulness unto death.

   Matthew 24:92 Thessalonians 1:6Revelation 2:10Acts 11:19Hebrews 10:33Philippians 1:17
3. Severe or climactic distress · occasional

   In Matthew 24:21, the nominative singular identifies a coming great pressure unlike any from the world's beginning; Matthew 24:29 then locates cosmic signs after the pressure of those days. Mark 13:19 and Revelation 7:14 likewise use the singular in descriptions of an exceptional tribulation, rather than an ordinary individual hardship.

   Matthew 24:21Matthew 24:29Mark 13:19Mark 13:24Revelation 7:14Revelation 2:22
4. Acute grief in a life circumstance · rare

   In John 16:21, the genitive singular occurs in the comparison of a woman's grief when her hour of childbirth comes and her later joy after the child is born. The clause shows a burdensome experience that is remembered no longer because of the subsequent joy.

   John 16:21

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB variously presents the term as “pressure,” “affliction,” “tribulation,” “trouble,” and “grief” across these verses. Those renderings reflect differing verse contexts, but the translation does not identify a fixed English equivalent for each occurrence.