me.tsu.qah denotes acute hardship that provokes cries for rescue or characterizes an overwhelming day of calamity.

The term denotes pressing hardship: in the Psalms it is the condition from which people cry out and seek deliverance, while Job and Zephaniah portray it as an overwhelming threat or a feature of a day of devastation.

1. Pressing trouble requiring deliverance · dominant

   The plural construct forms identify the troubles from which people cry to the LORD and are brought out or rescued in Psalm 107:6, Psalm 107:13, Psalm 107:19, and Psalm 107:28. In Psalm 25:17, the same plural construct form is linked with multiplied troubles of the heart and a plea to be brought out of them.

   Psalm 107:6Psalm 107:13Psalm 107:19Psalm 107:28Psalm 25:17
2. Overwhelming affliction or calamity · occasional

   The feminine singular absolute form occurs with anguish as something that terrifies and overpowers a person in Job 15:24. In Zephaniah 1:15, it is named as part of a day marked by fury, devastation, darkness, and gloom.

   Job 15:24Zephaniah 1:15

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB uses “distress” and “distresses” in the Psalm clauses, while Job 15:24 and Zephaniah 1:15 also include “distress” in depictions of overpowering anguish and a devastating day. These renderings confirm the verses' overall portrayal rather than isolating a fixed English equivalent in every clause.