synonymous and simply there for emphasis.6 If, however, a difference is intended, the first suggests the burdensomeness of their lives and the second its hurtfulness. It is the third word ‘their cry for help’7 that marks the change. They ‘moaned’ (a natural, spontaneous reaction to trouble), they ‘shrieked’ (a natural, spontaneous reaction to affliction), and God, sensitively aware of their distress, heard their inarticulate groans (24). The decisive moment came, however, when the inarticulate moaning