15 Bible Verses about Hard Labor

Know ye not that those who run in an arena, indeed all run, but one receives the prize? So run that ye may seize it. And every man who strives for mastery exercises self-control in all things. Indeed therefore those men do it so that they might obtain a perishable crown, but we an imperishable. I therefore run this way, not as aimlessly. I fight this way, not as flaying air.read more.
But I give my body a black eye and subdue it, lest somehow having preached to others, I myself might become disqualified.

Ye have not yet resisted as far as blood, struggling against sin.

if somehow I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Not that I have already obtained or have already been fully perfected, but I press forward, if also I might seize upon that for which also I was seized by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I reckon myself not to have seized, but one thing, indeed forgetting the things behind, and reaching forward to the things ahead,read more.
I press forward toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Thus I was; in the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes. 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.

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and the more they spread out. And they were grieved because of the sons of Israel. And the Egyptians made the sons of Israel to serve with rigor.read more.
And they made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field, all their service, with which they made them serve with rigor.

But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai, they also worked shrewdly, and went and made as if they had been ambassadors, and took old sacks upon their donkeys, and wine-skins, old and torn and bound up, and old and patched shoes upon their feet, and old garments upon them, and all the bread of their provision was dry and became moldy.read more.
And they went to Joshua to the camp at Gilgal, and said to him, and to the men of Israel, We have come from a far country, now therefore make ye a covenant with us. And the men of Israel said to the Hivites, Perhaps ye dwell among us, and how shall we make a covenant with you? And they said to Joshua, We are thy servants. And Joshua said to them, Who are ye, and from where do ye come? And they said to him, From a very far country. Thy servants have come because of the name of LORD thy God, for we have heard the fame of him, and all that he did in Egypt, and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who was at Ashtaroth. And our elders and all the inhabitants of our country spoke to us, saying, Take provision in your hand for the journey, and go to meet them, and say to them, We are your servants, and now make ye a covenant with us. This our bread we took hot for our provision out of our houses on the day we came forth to go to you, but now, behold, it is dry, and has become moldy. And these wine-skins, which we filled, were new, and, behold, they are torn. And these our garments and our shoes have become old by reason of the very long journey. And the men took of their provision, and did not ask counsel at the mouth of LORD. And Joshua made peace with them, and made a covenant with them to let them live, and the rulers of the congregation swore to them. And it came to pass at the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, that they heard that they were their neighbors, and that they dwelt among them. And the sons of Israel journeyed, and came to their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Gibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kiriath-jearim. And the sons of Israel did not smite them, because the rulers of the congregation had sworn to them by LORD, the God of Israel. And all the congregation murmured against the rulers. But all the rulers said to all the congregation, We have sworn to them by LORD, the God of Israel, now therefore we may not touch them. This we will do to them, and let them live, lest wrath be upon us because of the oath which we swore to them. And the rulers said to them, Let them live. So they became hewers of wood and drawers of water to all the congregation, as the rulers had spoken to them. And Joshua called for them, and he spoke to them, saying, Why have ye beguiled us, saying, We are very far from you, when ye dwell among us? Now therefore ye are cursed, and there shall never fail to be bondmen of you, both hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God. And they answered Joshua, and said, Because it was certainly told thy servants, how that LORD thy God commanded his servant Moses to give you all the land, and to destroy all the inhabitants of the land from before you. Therefore w And now, behold, we are in thy hand. As it seems good and right to thee to do to us, do. And so he did to them, and delivered them out of the hand of the sons of Israel, that they did not kill them. And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the congregation, and for the altar of LORD to this day in the place which he should choose.

And she said, The Philistines are upon thee, Samson. And he awoke out of his sleep, and said, I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free, but he knew not that LORD was departed from him. And the Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes. And they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grinding in the prison-house.

The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the fullness of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

Whatever thy hand finds to do, do with thy might, for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where thou go.

And moreover I have heard the groaning of the sons of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant.

And this is the reason for the conscription which king Solomon raised to build the house of LORD, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer.

In all labor there is profit, but the talk of the lips [tends] only to poverty.

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

And the Philistines laid hold on him, and put out his eyes. And they brought him down to Gaza, and bound him with fetters of brass, and he did grinding in the prison-house.

The young men bore the mill, and the sons stumbled under the wood.