Thematic Bible: Labour


Thematic Bible



Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

“Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.

There was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, “And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?” This too is vanity and it is a grievous task.


What advantage does man have in all his work
Which he does under the sun?

I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.

This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?

“Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts
That peoples toil for fire,
And nations grow weary for nothing?


All the skilled women spun with their hands, and brought what they had spun, in blue and purple and scarlet material and in fine linen.

He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers.

She looks for wool and flax
And works with her hands in delight.

She makes linen garments and sells them,
And supplies belts to the tradesmen.

And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now; she has been sitting in the house for a little while.”


All the skilled women spun with their hands, and brought what they had spun, in blue and purple and scarlet material and in fine linen.

He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers.

She looks for wool and flax
And works with her hands in delight.

She makes linen garments and sells them,
And supplies belts to the tradesmen.

And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now; she has been sitting in the house for a little while.”


He will also take your daughters for perfumers and cooks and bakers.

But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.”

Go now to the flock and bring me two choice young goats from there, that I may prepare them as a savory dish for your father, such as he loves.



And He began to speak to them in parables: "A man PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT, AND DUG A VAT UNDER THE WINE PRESS AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. "At the harvest time he sent a slave to the vine-growers, in order to receive some of the produce of the vineyard from the vine-growers. "They took him, and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. read more.
"Again he sent them another slave, and they wounded him in the head, and treated him shamefully. "And he sent another, and that one they killed; and so with many others, beating some and killing others. "He had one more to send, a beloved son; he sent him last of all to them, saying, 'They will respect my son.' "But those vine-growers said to one another, 'This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours!' "They took him, and killed him and threw him out of the vineyard. "What will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the vine-growers, and will give the vineyard to others.

"When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, saying, 'These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the scorching heat of the day.'

"Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. "When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. "The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third.


Indeed, true companion, I ask you also to help these women who have shared my struggle in the cause of the gospel, together with Clement also and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.


Greet Mary, who has worked hard for you.


Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes; and they brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he was a grinder in the prison.

But Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation and for the altar of the Lord, to this day, in the place which He would choose.

So they appointed taskmasters over them to afflict them with hard labor And they built for Pharaoh storage cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out, so that they were in dread of the sons of Israel. The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously; read more.
and they made their lives bitter with hard labor in mortar and bricks and at all kinds of labor in the field, all their labors which they rigorously imposed on them.


And his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

When he had taken him and brought him to his mother, he sat on her lap until noon, and then died.


Now Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time.

“The peasantry ceased, they ceased in Israel,
Until I, Deborah, arose,
Until I arose, a mother in Israel.


Then Abigail hurried and took two hundred loaves of bread and two jugs of wine and five sheep already prepared and five measures of roasted grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and loaded them on donkeys.


All the skilled women spun with their hands, and brought what they had spun, in blue and purple and scarlet material and in fine linen.


Now in Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (which translated in Greek is called Dorcas); this woman was abounding with deeds of kindness and charity which she continually did.


Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.


Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

“Why do you spend money for what is not bread,
And your wages for what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
And delight yourself in abundance.

There was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, “And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?” This too is vanity and it is a grievous task.


What advantage does man have in all his work
Which he does under the sun?

I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.

This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?

“Is it not indeed from the Lord of hosts
That peoples toil for fire,
And nations grow weary for nothing?