Torment

Torment in the New Testament most frequently translates the Greek basanos, a word originally denoting a touchstone used to test the purity of gold, then extended to mean the rack or instrument of judicial torture, and finally suffering itself. Matthew 4:24 records that those afflicted with "divers diseases and torments" (as well as those possessed by demons) were brought to Jesus and healed. The demonic spirits in the Gadarene account feared that Jesus had come to torment them before the appointed time (Matthew 8:29), acknowledging his authority to inflict eschatological punishment. Luke 16:23–28 uses the term in Jesus's parable of Lazarus and the rich man, describing the rich man's anguish in Hades as torment from which no relief was available. In Revelation, the torment of Babylon (18:7, 10, 15) and of the beast-worshippers (14:10–11) describes the irreversible consequences of divine judgment.