To shriek (from anguish or danger); by analogy, (as a herald) to announce or convene publicly
Reading a lexicon entry
What this page is: Each lexicon entry shows the original Hebrew or Greek word behind the English translation: its meaning, its range of use, and where it appears in Scripture.
Strong's number: The Strong's code (H- or G-) is the standard reference number for this word. It connects this entry to chapter and passage language tabs.
Where it appears: The witness passages show where this word is used in context. Click any to open the study page for that passage.
This lexicon entry is part of our ongoing editorial review. If you notice missing content, unclear wording, or a possible correction, please send us a note through theConnect page. Screenshots are helpful.
H2199, zāʿaq, is a Hebrew verb for crying out urgently under distress, danger, oppression, or alarm; in some settings it can also describe raising a public call or summons. The word is more forceful than a neutral request.
Reader summary
Full entry for זָעַק (H2199) · Open the biblical lexicon
H2199, zāʿaq, is a Hebrew verb for crying out urgently under distress, danger, oppression, or alarm; in some settings it can also describe raising a public call or summons. The word is more forceful than a neutral request.
The BSB source-word alignment has 73 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include cried out (13), and cried out (6), and cry out (6), Cry out (4), cries out (3).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 2:23. Its strongest book concentrations include Judges (13), 1 Samuel (10), Jeremiah (8), Isaiah (6).
This entry includes 2 verse guides that explain exact original-language forms in context.
H2199, zāʿaq, is a Hebrew verb for crying out urgently under distress, danger, oppression, or alarm; in some settings it can also describe raising a public call or summons. The word is more forceful than a neutral request. Israel cries out when crushed by Midian. A congregation asks Samuel not to stop crying to the Lord for deliverance. Jehoshaphat's prayer recalls the promise that people may cry from the temple in disaster. Job observes oppressed people crying beneath the arm of the powerful. Prophets cry, 'Violence!' or portray cities and rulers raising alarms. The cry exposes a situation that ordinary speech can no longer contain, but the passage must still identify whom the cry addresses and what response follows.
Scripture does not present the sound itself as a technique that compels God. Psalm 22 remembers ancestors who cried and were delivered, while Lamentations 3 speaks from the experience of crying as though prayer were shut out. Habakkuk asks how long he must cry without visible rescue. Hosea condemns people who do not cry to God from their hearts, and Micah announces that corrupt rulers will cry but receive no answer because of the evil they practiced. These tensions protect lament from formulas. God is neither deaf to oppression nor controlled by volume. A cry may be faithful prayer, public alarm, manipulative noise, belated desperation, or the testimony of people harmed by unjust power.
Pastoral use should first move toward the afflicted. Job 35 names oppression and the arm of the mighty, so a church must not answer urgent cries only with advice about tone or patience. Safeguarding, reporting, material help, and truthful investigation may be required. At the same time, leaders must not weaponize crisis language, invent danger, or use public summons to stir a crowd against a target. H2199 gives worship and preaching language for urgent appeal, but it also asks whether the heart turns toward God, whether those with power have created the distress, and whether a community's response protects truth and neighbor. The faithful cry can be honest before an answer is visible, as Habakkuk and Lamentations show.
H2199 moves through oppressed Israel's appeal, intercessory prayer, disaster liturgy, cries beneath powerful arms, remembered deliverance, promised gracious hearing, unanswered lament, hollow wailing, prophetic protest against violence, and corrupt leaders' belated plea.
Now when the Israelites cried out to the Lord because of Midian,
The cry rises after Midian's devastating oppression. God first sends a prophetic word that names Israel's disobedience, then raises deliverance; the answer includes truth as well as rescue.
And said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”
Israel asks for sustained intercession in danger. Samuel's cry belongs with repentance, putting away idols, and renewed allegiance to the Lord.
‘If disaster comes upon us—whether sword or judgment, plague or famine—we will stand before this temple and before You, for Your Name is in this temple. We will cry out to You in our distress, and You will hear us and save us.’
Jehoshaphat appeals to covenant promise when Judah lacks power. The prayer confesses dependence and places the crisis before God rather than presenting panic as a strategy.
Men cry out under great oppression; they plead for relief from the arm of the mighty.
Elihu observes the social fact of oppressed people crying beneath powerful arms. His wider speech must be evaluated within Job's disputed dialogue, but the verse plainly refuses to make oppression invisible.
They cried out to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disappointed.
The sufferer remembers ancestral deliverance while experiencing abandonment. Memory does not cancel present anguish; it becomes part of the argument addressed to God.
O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when He hears, He will answer you.
After exposing trust in Egypt, Isaiah promises the Lord's gracious response to His people's cry. Hearing belongs to mercy and renewed teaching, not to the cry as a mechanical trigger.
Even when I cry out and plead for help, He shuts out my prayer.
Lament gives inspired words for perceived divine silence. The speaker does not hide the experience, and the poem's later hope should not be used to censor this line.
They do not cry out to Me from their hearts when they wail upon their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from Me.
Noise and distress do not equal return to God. Hosea distinguishes outward wailing and self-harm from a heart directed toward the Lord.
How long, O Lord, must I call for help but You do not hear, or cry out to You, “Violence!” but You do not save?
Habakkuk names violence and delayed rescue directly to God. Faithful prophetic prayer can protest what appears to be unanswered injustice.
Then they will cry out to the Lord, but He will not answer them. At that time He will hide His face from them because of the evil they have done.
Rulers who consumed the people cannot presume on emergency access while refusing justice. The warning addresses abusive power, not a license to tell ordinary sufferers that God rejects their plea.
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.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Hebrew word. Urgent vocalization that bridges personal distress and public proclamation; cry of desperation or authoritative summons
Urgent vocalization that bridges personal distress and public proclamation; cry of desperation or authoritative summons
to shriek (from anguish or danger); by analogy, (as a herald) to announce or convene publicly BDB: cry Usage: assemble, call (together), (make a) cry (out), come with such a company, gather (together), cause to be proclaimed.
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 73 lexical occurrence verses.
זָעַק is a primitive root - no further derivation.
Distinguishes emotional distress from true repentance.Hosea 7:8-16
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H2199 gives language to moments when distress becomes an urgent cry. Israel cries under Midian, worshipers ask Samuel to keep interceding, Judah stands without power before disaster, and oppressed people plead beneath the arm of the mighty. Psalms remember deliverance through crying to God, yet Lamentations and Habakkuk preserve the experience of calling without visible answer.
Hosea warns that wailing may remain turned away from God, and Micah warns rulers that a late cry does not erase the evil they inflicted. The word therefore guards two truths at once: God hears and saves, and no human technique forces His timetable or bypasses repentance and justice. Churches shaped by this testimony make room for urgent prayer, take reports of harm seriously, and respond with protection and truthful action where needed.
They also test public alarms so fear is not manipulated against innocent people. Faith can cry 'Violence!' without surrendering trust, and leaders can intercede without promising an outcome they do not control.
2Chr.20.9
H2199 is mainly a Qal verb for crying out, with Hiphil and Niphal forms in a smaller set of public-call or alarm contexts. Its sound can be directed to God, raised over danger, or used to summon people. English versions render it cry out, call for help, shout, raise an alarm, or summon. The verb conveys urgency but does not by itself tell whether the cry is sincere, justified, heard, or answered.
Israel's urgent cries under oppression and danger prepare readers for New Testament prayers for rescue, justice, mercy, and endurance. Jesus hears people who call for mercy, the early church prays under threat, and Revelation gives slain witnesses a voice asking how long until judgment. These connections sustain candid prayer, but H2199 is not an exact lexical equivalent for every Greek verb of calling, shouting, or pleading.