The interjection oyah (also written oi) is an exclamation of grief, distress, or lamentation — equivalent to "woe!" or "alas!" It is used to express sorrow over calamity, impending disaster, or tragic circumstances.
The cry of oyah — "woe!" — is one of the most powerful rhetorical features in the prophetic literature. The prophets hurled "woes" against covenant-breakers not merely as expressions of sympathy, but as formal pronouncements of coming judgment. Yet the cry of woe also arises from genuine grief: Isaiah's "Woe is me!" (Isaiah 6:5) is the honest lamentation of a sinner confronted with divine holiness. Jesus echoed this pattern in His series of woes against the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23), combining grief and judgment.