Lexicon

H6031 - anah

Strong's: H6031 · BLB lookup Pronunciation: aw-NAH Part of speech: verb (primitive root) OT occurrences: ~84 times (in 79 verses), across stems Homograph note: Hebrew has several roots spelled עָנָה. H6031 is "afflict, oppress, humble, violate." It must be distinguished from H6030 ("answer, respond, testify," and in BDB a separate "sing" root). The afflict/violate sense is unambiguously H6031.

Semantic range

To afflict, oppress, mistreat (the general sense): God afflicts Israel to humble her (Deuteronomy 8:2-3); the oppression of the widow, orphan, and stranger is forbidden (Exodus 22:22 [Heb. 22:21]); self-affliction / fasting is "afflicting the soul" (Leviticus 16:29, 31; Isaiah 58:3-5).
To humble, bring low, subdue (Psalm 90:15; 105:18, Joseph's feet "hurt with fetters").
To humble or violate a woman through cohabitation, the sexual-violation sense in the Piel, contextual to the passage. This is the sense that makes the verb apologetically load-bearing.

The violation sense (Piel)

In legal and narrative contexts of forced or illicit sex, the Piel of anah denotes humbling / violating / ravishing a woman:

Genesis 34:2, Shechem "took her and lay with her and humbled her (wayeanneha)", the rape of Dinah.
2 Samuel 13:12, 14, 22, 32, Amnon's rape of Tamar; Tamar pleads, "do not violate me (al-teanneni)," and the narrator says "he violated her (wayeanneha)."
Deuteronomy 21:14, the captive-bride law: if the man divorces her, he may not sell or enslave her "because you have humbled her (innitah)", the verb is the text's own admission that a wrong was done, which grounds her protection.
Deuteronomy 22:24, 29 and Judges 19:24; 20:5, further violation contexts.

The verb thus functions as Scripture's own moral verdict on the act. Where the text uses anah of a woman, it is naming a violation, not describing a neutral or approved union.

Apologetic load

The text names the wrong. In the Deuteronomy 21 Captive Bride Objection Defeater, the innah of Deuteronomy 21:14 is decisive: the Torah does not pretend the captive-marriage was a romance; it calls it a humbling and, on that basis, forbids selling or enslaving the woman. The law is straining against the very thing the objection accuses it of endorsing.
Consent as the moral axis. Tamar's plea and the narrator's wayeanneha (2 Samuel 13) show non-consensual sex condemned as violation. See Biblical Marriage Consent Objection Defeater.
Rape is condemned, not licensed. Against the "the Bible is soft on rape" charge, the violation-verb marks these acts as wrongs the narrative and law censure. See Rape Only Condemned When Unmarried Objection Defeater.

Notable verses

Genesis 34:2, the rape of Dinah (wayeanneha)
Exodus 22:22, do not afflict any widow or orphan
Leviticus 16:29, "you shall afflict your souls" (Day of Atonement)
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, God humbled Israel in the wilderness
Deuteronomy 21:14, "because you have humbled her" (the captive wife)
2 Samuel 13:12-14, Amnon violates Tamar
Isaiah 53:4, 7, the Servant "afflicted" (a related theological use of the affliction sense)