PAINFULNESS.In Psa_73:18 When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me as well as in 2Es_7:12, 2Ma_2:26 painful means laborious: and so painfulness in 2Co_11:27 means Iahoriousness. Hooker says, The search of knowledge is a thing painful, and the painfulness of knowledge is that which maketh the will so hardly inclinable thereto.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
pān?fool-nes (μόχθος, móchthos): In the summary of his missionary labors in 2Co_11:27 the King James Version, Paul uses this word. The Revised Version (British and American) renders it ?travail,? which probably now expresses its meaning more closely, as in modern usage ?painfulness? is usually restricted to the condition of actual soreness or suffering, although we still use ?painstaking? in the sense of careful labor. The Greek word is used for toil or excessive anxiety, as in Euripides (Medea, 126), where it refers to that care for her children which she had lost in her madness. Tyndale uses ?painfulness? in 1Jo_4:18 as the translation of κόλασις, kólasis, which the King James Version renders ?torment? and the Revised Version (British and American) ?punishment.?
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.