Question 1

What does "Travail" mean in the King James Bible?

Accepted Answer

In the KJV, "Travail" means "agonizing labor." The productive agony. Isaiah 53:11 says the Messiah will see the result of His soul's travail and be satisfied -- His suffering was labor that produced something. Like a mother in travail, the agony had a purpose and an outcome. When travail became just 'travel,' the theology of redemptive suffering lost its vocabulary of painful-but-productive labor.

Question 2

Why did the word "Travail" disappear from modern English?

Accepted Answer

Collapsed into 'travel' (both from Old French travaillier 'to labor hard'). The split hid the connection between painful labor and journeying -- originally the same word because travel was travail. The word was at peak usage around 1611 and declined by ~1900.

Question 3

What modern word replaced "Travail"?

Accepted Answer

"Travail" was replaced by: "labor" (though this generic work; travail meant agonizing, painful, birth-like labor -- the worst kind of work); "suffering" (though this passive endurance; travail was active labor through suffering toward a productive end); "childbirth pain" (though this reduces the metaphor; travail was any productive agony, with childbirth as the archetype).

What Does “Travail” Mean in the Bible?

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