Burden

Burden in Scripture carries both literal and technical prophetic meanings. Literally it designates any load carried by an animal or person (Ex. 23:5), a heavy task or responsibility (Ex. 2:11; 18:22), or an oppressive obligation. Moses' complaint to God about bearing the people “as a nurse carries a nursing infant” (Num. 11:11–12) and Jesus' contrast between the heavy burdens laid on others by the Pharisees and his own “easy yoke and light burden” (Matt. 11:28–30) use the word in this relational and social sense.

The technical use of “burden” (massa') as a heading for prophetic oracles against foreign nations (Isa. 13:1; 15:1; 17:1; 19:1; Jer. 23:33–38; Nah. 1:1; Hab. 1:1; Zech. 9:1; Mal. 1:1) reflects the Hebrew term's double meaning: both “load” and “utterance.” A prophetic burden is thus both something that weighs on the prophet and a weighty word pronounced against its subject. Jeremiah 23:33–38 contains an extended wordplay on this ambiguity, where the people's mocking question “What is the burden of the LORD?” draws a sharp divine response.