ya.gon denotes sorrow experienced in loss, affliction, grief, or distress, sometimes set against joy and comfort.

The term consistently denotes experienced sorrow: grief connected with threatened or actual loss, suffering amid distress and oppression, and the sorrow that is displaced by joy, comfort, or deliverance.

1. Experienced grief and distress · dominant

   The masculine singular noun names the sorrow associated with a father's feared descent to Sheol after loss in Genesis 42:38 and Genesis 44:31, and with toil, shame, pain, oppression, or distress in Jeremiah 20:18, Jeremiah 45:3, and Psalm 107:39. In Isaiah 35:10, the APB renders a scene in which “sorrow and sighing will flee,” while Jeremiah 31:13 describes gladness given in place of mourning and sorrow.

   Genesis 42:38Genesis 44:31Jeremiah 20:18Jeremiah 45:3Psalm 107:39Isaiah 35:10

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB commonly presents the surrounding clause with “sorrow,” as in Genesis 42:38, Ezekiel 23:33, and Jeremiah 45:3; elsewhere the verse frames it through “grief,” “anguish,” or sorrow’s flight before joy. These variations describe the verses rather than establish separate meanings.