15 Bible Verses about Hard Labor

Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air.read more.
Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.

You have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed in your struggle against sin.

and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained this -- that is, I have not already been perfected -- but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead,read more.
with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

I was consumed by scorching heat during the day and by piercing cold at night, and I went without sleep. This was my lot for twenty years in your house: I worked like a slave for you -- fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks, but you changed my wages ten times! If the God of my father -- the God of Abraham, the one whom Isaac fears -- had not been with me, you would certainly have sent me away empty-handed! But God saw how I was oppressed and how hard I worked, and he rebuked you last night."

So they put foremen over the Israelites to oppress them with hard labor. As a result they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread. As a result the Egyptians loathed the Israelites, and they made the Israelites serve rigorously.read more.
They made their lives bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous.

When the residents of Gibeon heard what Joshua did to Jericho and Ai, they did something clever. They collected some provisions and put worn-out sacks on their donkeys, along with worn-out wineskins that were ripped and patched. They had worn-out, patched sandals on their feet and dressed in worn-out clothes. All their bread was dry and hard.read more.
They came to Joshua at the camp in Gilgal and said to him and the men of Israel, "We have come from a distant land. Make a treaty with us." The men of Israel said to the Hivites, "Perhaps you live near us. So how can we make a treaty with you?" But they said to Joshua, "We are willing to be your subjects." So Joshua said to them, "Who are you and where do you come from?" They told him, "Your subjects have come from a very distant land because of the reputation of the Lord your God, for we have heard the news about all he did in Egypt and all he did to the two Amorite kings on the other side of the Jordan -- King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan in Ashtaroth. Our leaders and all who live in our land told us, 'Take provisions for your journey and go meet them. Tell them, "We are willing to be your subjects. Make a treaty with us."' This bread of ours was warm when we packed it in our homes the day we started out to meet you, but now it is dry and hard. These wineskins we filled were brand new, but look how they have ripped. Our clothes and sandals have worn out because it has been a very long journey." The men examined some of their provisions, but they failed to ask the Lord's advice. Joshua made a peace treaty with them and agreed to let them live. The leaders of the community sealed it with an oath. Three days after they made the treaty with them, the Israelites found out they were from the local area and lived nearby. So the Israelites set out and on the third day arrived at their cities -- Gibeon, Kephirah, Beeroth, and Kiriath Jearim. The Israelites did not attack them because the leaders of the community had sworn an oath to them in the name of the Lord God of Israel. The whole community criticized the leaders, but all the leaders told the whole community, "We swore an oath to them in the name of the Lord God of Israel. So now we can't hurt them! We must let them live so we can escape the curse attached to the oath we swore to them." The leaders then added, "Let them live." So they became woodcutters and water carriers for the whole community, as the leaders had decided. Joshua summoned the Gibeonites and said to them, "Why did you trick us by saying, 'We live far away from you,' when you really live nearby? Now you are condemned to perpetual servitude as woodcutters and water carriers for the house of my God." They said to Joshua, "It was carefully reported to your subjects how the Lord your God commanded Moses his servant to assign you the whole land and to destroy all who live in the land from before you. Because of you we were terrified we would lose our lives, so we did this thing. So now we are in your power. Do to us what you think is good and appropriate. Joshua did as they said; he kept the Israelites from killing them and that day made them woodcutters and water carriers for the community and for the altar of the Lord at the divinely chosen site. (They continue in that capacity to this very day.)

She said, "The Philistines are here, Samson!" He woke up and thought, "I will do as I did before and shake myself free." But he did not realize that the Lord had left him. The Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him in bronze chains. He became a grinder in the prison.

The sleep of the laborer is pleasant -- whether he eats little or much -- but the wealth of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

Whatever you find to do with your hands, do it with all your might, because there is neither work nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom in the grave, the place where you will eventually go.

I have also heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.

Here are the details concerning the work crews King Solomon conscripted to build the Lord's temple, his palace, the terrace, the wall of Jerusalem, and the cities of Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

In all hard work there is profit, but merely talking about it only brings poverty.

But to Adam he said, "Because you obeyed your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground thanks to you; in painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

The Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him in bronze chains. He became a grinder in the prison.

The young men perform menial labor; boys stagger from their labor.