Being weighed down takes its meaning from what is burdened and the surrounding account. Luke describes disciples overcome by sleep before they see Jesus' glory, and Matthew reports heavy eyes during Jesus' prayer before His arrest.
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Full entry for βαρέω (G916) · Open the biblical lexicon
Being weighed down takes its meaning from what is burdened and the surrounding account. Luke describes disciples overcome by sleep before they see Jesus' glory, and Matthew reports heavy eyes during Jesus' prayer before His arrest.
The BSB source-word alignment has 6 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include heavy (1), overcome (1), to be burdened (1), under our burdens (1), We were under a burden (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 26:43. Its strongest book concentrations include 2 Corinthians (2), Luke (2), 1 Timothy (1), Matthew (1).
Being weighed down takes its meaning from what is burdened and the surrounding account. Luke describes disciples overcome by sleep before they see Jesus' glory, and Matthew reports heavy eyes during Jesus' prayer before His arrest. Jesus also warns against hearts weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness and life's worries in His call to watch and pray. Paul honestly recalls a burden in Asia beyond the speakers' capacity, then names reliance on God and deliverance.
Elsewhere he speaks of groaning under mortal burdens while longing to be clothed with life. First Timothy gives a concrete responsibility to assist dependent widows so that the church can help those truly in need. These are not one diagnosis. Read sleep, warning, hardship, mortality and shared care distinctly. Serious burdens do not automatically prove weak faith, and teaching should retain practical help rather than shame those who need it.
Heavy sleep, Jesus' watchfulness warning, extreme narrated hardship, mortality with hope and widow support provide all six contexts. Different subjects and stated responses prevent every burden from becoming the same spiritual fault.
We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life.
Paul names the speakers' Asian hardship as beyond their ability and despairing even of life, with the next verses explaining reliance and narrated deliverance rather than concealed strength.
But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.
Jesus names dissipation, drunkenness and life's worries as weighing down hearts, and calls for watchfulness and prayer without giving a current prediction timetable.
If any believing woman has dependent widows, she must assist them and not allow the church to be burdened, so that it can help the widows who are truly in need.
The believing woman is instructed to assist dependent widows so the church can help those truly in need, retaining practical support rather than treating needy people as disposable burdens.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Greek word. To be weighed down by burden, exhaustion, or grief; oppression of spirit rather than mere physical heaviness.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpusGreek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
6 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
I weight, load, burden
Read verseI weight, load, burden
Read verseI weight, load, burden
Read verseI weight, load, burden
Read verseI weight, load, burden
Read verseI weight, load, burden
Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How mood, tense, and voice shift the force of this verb in context.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Verse guides are not available for this word yet, so verse references remain plain evidence markers.
How this verb appears across 3 occurrences in the NT discourse index (MACULA Greek SBLGNT).
Aspect reflects grammatical form — not authorial emphasis. Participles and infinitives are verbal adjectives and nouns respectively.
Clause data: MACULA Greek (Clear Bible, CC BY 4.0) · SBLGNT (Logos/SBL, CC BY 4.0)
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 6 lexical occurrence verses.
βαρέω is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
The six contexts prevent one explanation from absorbing every burden. Sleeping disciples have heavy eyes; Jesus' warning names specific ways hearts become weighed down; Paul reports extreme hardship and groaning under mortality; and First Timothy distributes practical support for dependent widows. Paul's account explicitly admits a burden beyond the speakers' capacity, so the verb cannot mean that faithful people always feel strong enough.
His narrated deliverance is also a particular account rather than knowledge of every present outcome. The mortal tent passage longs for life rather than encouraging death, and the widow instruction aims at help for those in need. Teach the actual warning and actual care together. Neither distress nor dependence authorizes shaming a sufferer, withholding appropriate assistance or declaring a hidden spiritual or medical cause from the shared verb.
2Cor.1.8
The licensed Greek range includes weighing down. Its six listed New Testament contexts describe what happens to eyes, people, hearts or the church's support capacity. Read the actual subject and surrounding command or account; the common verb does not make bodily sleep, severe hardship and practical financial responsibility one spiritual diagnosis.
Psalm 94:18-19 describes a slipping foot sustained by the Lord's loving devotion and multiplied anxieties met with consolation. Read that Hebrew prayer beside Paul's honest burden without treating the lexical forms as identical or promising instant relief. Galatians 6:1-2 also calls for gentle restoration and carrying one another's burdens; its distinct Greek wording supports practical concern without merging canonical identities or blaming the person who needs help.