57 Bible Verses about Suffering, Hardship

The rich man's wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

For the poor will never cease out of the land. Therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shall surely open thy hand to thy brother, to thy needy, and to thy poor, in thy land.

Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, they go forth to their work, seeking diligently for food. The wilderness [yields] them bread for their sons. They cut their provender in the field, and they glean the vintage of the wicked. They lie all night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold.read more.
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a shelter. There are [men] who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor, [so that] they go about naked without clothing, and being hungry they carry the sheaves. They make oil within the walls of these men. They tread [their] winepresses, and suffer thirst.

For ye always have the poor with you, but ye do not always have me.

For ye always have the poor with you, and whenever ye may desire ye can do them well, but ye do not always have me.

For ye always have the poor with you, but ye do not always have me.

They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way. They found no city of habitation. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

And the seven years of plenty, that was in the land of Egypt, came to an end. And the seven years of famine began to come, according as Joseph had said. And there was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do.read more.
And the famine was over all the face of the earth. And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Egyptians. And the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe on all the earth.

And Moses led Israel onward from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

And the whole congregation of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness. And the sons of Israel said to them, Would that we had died by the hand of LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, when we ate bread to the full, for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this who

And all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to the commandment of LORD, and encamped in Rephidim. And there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people contended with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said to them, Why do ye contend with me? Why do ye challenge LORD? And the people thirsted there for water. And the people murmured against Moses, and said, Why have thou brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our sons and our cattle with thirst?

And the mixed multitude that was among them lusted exceedingly. And the sons of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish which we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic, but now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all except this manna to look upon.

And it came to pass after a while, that the brook dried up because there was no rain in the land. And the word of LORD came to him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there. Behold, I have commanded a widow there to sustain thee.read more.
So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, a widow was there gathering sticks. And he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she said, As LORD thy God lives, I do not have a cake, but a handful of meal in the jar, and a little oil in the cruse. And, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat it,

Then there arose a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brothers the Jews. For there were who said, We, our sons and our daughters, are many. Let us get grain that we may eat and live. There were some also who said, We are mortgaging our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses. Let us get grain because of the dearth.read more.
There were also who said, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute [upon] our fields and our vineyards. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brothers, our sons as their sons. And, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage [already]. Neither is it in our

And having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward he was hungry.

being tempted forty days by the devil. And he ate nothing in those days, and when they were ended, afterward he was hungry.

And to Adam he said, Because thou have hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In toil thou shall eat of it all Also, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to thee, and thou shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face thou shall eat bread, till thou return to the ground, for out of it thou were taken. For thou are dust, and to dust thou shall return.

These twenty years I have been with thee, thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and I have not eaten the rams of thy flocks. I did not bring to thee that which was torn by beasts; I bore the loss of it, of my hand thou required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.read more.
These twenty years I have been in thy house. I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy flock. And thou have changed my wages ten times. Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now thou would have sent me away empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee last night.

And they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all Israel came, and they spoke to Rehoboam, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous. Now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.

For ye remember, brothers, our labor and the hardship. For, laboring night and day in order not to burden any of you, we preached to you the good-news of God.

Because of the multitude of oppressions they cry out. They cry for help because of the arm of the mighty.

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses.

And it came to pass in the course of those many days, that the king of Egypt died. And the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.

And the number of the bricks, which they made formerly, ye shall lay upon them. Ye shall not diminish any of it. For they are idle, therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let heavier work be laid upon the men, that they may labor in it, and let them not regard lying words.

Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou know that thy servant feared LORD, and the creditor has come to take my two children to him to be bo

Because of the oppression of the poor, because of the sighing of the needy, now I will arise, says LORD. I will set him in the safety he gasps for.

Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in distress. My eye wastes away with grief, [yea], my soul and my body. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing. My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones are wasted away. I have become a reproach because of all my adversaries, yea, to my neighbors exceedingly, and a fear to my acquaintances. Those who saw me outside fled from me.read more.
I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind. I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many. Fear [was] on every side, while they took counsel together against me. They devised to take away my life.

For thus has LORD of hosts said: Hew ye down trees, and cast up a mound against Jerusalem. This is the city to be visited. She has oppression completely in the midst of her.

Publish ye in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold what great tumults are in it, and what oppressions are in the midst of it.

Behold the wage of the workmen who reaped your fields. The man who was defrauded by you cries out. And the outcries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of Lord of hosts.

So we labored in the work, and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till the stars appeared. Likewise at the same time I said to the people, Let each with his servant lodge within Jerusalem that in the night they may be a guard to us, and may labor in the day. So neither I, nor my brothers, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us put off our clothes, everyone [went with] his weapon [to] the water.

And Moses told his father-in-law all that LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake, all the travail that had come upon them by the way, and how LORD delivered them.

And the king said to Abiathar the priest, Get thee to Anathoth, to thine own fields, for thou are worthy of death. But I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou bore the ark of lord LORD before David my father, and be

And three of the thirty chief men went down to the rock to David into the cave of Adullam. And the army of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem. And David longed, and said, Oh that a man would give me water to drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!read more.
And the three broke through the army of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, that was by the gate, and took it, and brought it to David. But David would not drink of it, but poured it out to LORD, and said, My God forbid it of me, that I should do this. Shall I drink the blood of these men who have put their lives in jeopardy? For with [the jeopardy of] their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These thin

And when it became the fourteenth night, as we were driven about in the Adriatic sea, toward midnight the sailors suspected some region to come near them. And having tossed lead, they found twenty fathoms, and having gone a little farther, and having tossed lead again, they found fifteen fathoms. And fearing lest somehow we might falloff on rough places, having cast off four anchors from the stern, they prayed for day to develop.read more.
And since the sailors sought to flee out of the ship, and having lowered the skiff into the sea in pretense as going to stretch out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Unless these men remain in the ship, ye cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff, and let it fall off. And until day was going to develop, Paul urged them all to partake of food, saying, Today is the fourteenth day, waiting, ye continue without food, having taken nothing. Therefore I encourage you to take of food, for this is for your safety. For not a hair will fall from the head of one of you. And having said these things, and having taken bread, he expressed thanks to God in the presence of all. And having broke in pieces, he began to eat. And they all, having become encouraged, also took food. And all the souls in the ship were two hundred seventy-six. And after being filled of food, they unloaded the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea. And when it became day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a certain bay having a beach, onto which, they decided if possible, to drive the ship. And having cast off the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time unfastening the bands of the rudders. And having hoisted up the foresail to the wind, they held firm for the shore. And having chanced upon a place where two seas meet, they ran the ship aground. And of course, the bow having become stuck, it remained immovable, but the stern was coming apart by the force of the waves. And a decision of the soldiers developed that they should kill the prisoners, lest any man, having swam away, might escape. But the centurion, wanting to save Paul, prevented them from their purpose, and commanded those who were able to swim, having first jumped out, to go to the land, and the remaining, some on boards, and some on any of the things from the ship. And so it came to pass for all to be saved to the land.

Because thou served not LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things, therefore thou shall serve thine enemies that LORD shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things. And he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he has destroyed thee.

who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness--fiery serpents and scorpions, and thirsty ground where was no water--who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint,

And the Egyptians dealt ill with us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage. And we cried to LORD, the God of our fathers, and LORD heard our voice, and saw our affliction, and our toil, and our oppression.

LORD, remember for David all his affliction,

but in everything commending ourselves as helpers of God, in much perseverance, in afflictions, in necessities, in restrictions, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in hungerings,

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although he was rich he became poor for your sakes, so that by that man's poverty ye might become rich.

And having preached the good-news to that city, and having made considerable disciples, they returned to Lystra, and to Iconium, and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that it was necessary for us to enter into the kingdom of God through many tribulations.

As far as the present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are ill clothed, and are treated roughly, and are homeless. And we toil, working with our own hands. Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure; being slandered, we entreat. We became as trash of the world, an offscouring of all things, until now.

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about our affliction that happened to us in Asia, because we were extraordinarily weighed down, above strength, so as for us to despair even to be alive. But we ourselves have had the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we should not be trusting in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

Are they helpers of Christ? (I speak as being mad) I more: in toils, more abundantly; in stripes, countless; in prisons, more frequently; in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty save one. Thrice I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I was shipwrecked, I have done a night and a day in the depth,read more.
in frequent journeys, in perils of flowing waters, in perils of bandits, in perils from my race, in perils from Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils at sea, in perils among FALSE brothers, in toil and hardship, in frequent sleeplessness, in hunger and thirst, in frequent fasts, in cold and nakedness. Besides the external things, crowding upon me daily is the care of all the congregations. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I am not made fiery?

Not that I speak regarding need, for I have learned in what things I am to be content. I know both how to be abased and how to abound. In everything and in all things I have learned the secret both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to be lacking. I can do all things in the Christ who strengthens me.read more.
Nevertheless ye did well having shared with my affliction.

Thou therefore endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

For ye were both compassionate about my bonds, and ye accepted with joy the plundering of your possessions, knowing yourselves to have a superior and an enduring existence in the heavens.

They were stoned, they were sawed apart, they were tempted, they died in murder by sword. They wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, restricted, tormented (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves, and the holes of the earth.

Because of chastening ye endure; God is treating you as with sons, for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?

And thou have perseverance. And thou endured because of my name, and did not become weary.

But we ourselves have had the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we should not be trusting in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead.

And ye will be hated by all men because of my name, but he who endures to the end, this man will be saved.

And ye will be hated by all men because of my name, but he who endures to the end, this man will be saved.

Blessed is a man who endures temptation, because, having become approved, he will receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him.

Behold, we regard those who endured, blessed. Ye have heard of the fortitude of Job, and have seen the outcome of Lord, that he is very compassionate and merciful.

For this is graciousness, if, because of consciousness of God, any man endures sorrows, suffering wrongfully.