Oy is an interjection — a raw, guttural cry of distress whose onomatopoeic force transcends translation. Its 24 occurrences divide between two emotional registers. In the first, it voices personal anguish: Isaiah's 'Woe is me, for I am undone!' upon seeing YHWH enthroned (Isa 6:5), Jeremiah's agonized 'Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me!' (Jer 15:10), and the despairing communal cry 'Woe to us!' when the ark was captured (1 Sam 4:7-8) or when invasion loomed (Jer 4:13; 6:4). In the second register, oy becomes a prophetic weapon of denunciation, introducing oracles of doom against nations and sinners: 'Woe to you, Moab!' (Num 21:29), 'Woe to the bloody city!' (Ezek 24:6, 9), and Hosea's devastating 'Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!' (Hos 7:13; 9:12). Proverbs uses it as a substantive: 'Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Those who linger long over wine' (Prov 23:29). The doubled form oy oy lakh ('woe, woe to you!') in Ezekiel 16:23 intensifies the denunciation. Spanish 'ay,' French 'malheur,' and German 'wehe' are precise cross-linguistic equivalents of this grief-laden exclamation.