17 Bible Verses about Physical Labour

The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it.

You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”

“Work may be done for six days, but on the seventh day there must be a Sabbath of complete rest, a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; it is a Sabbath to the Lord wherever you live.

Wealth obtained by fraud will dwindle,
but whoever earns it through labor will multiply it.

There is profit in all hard work,
but endless talk leads only to poverty.

Whatever your hands find to do, do with all your strength, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.

The thief must no longer steal. Instead, he must do honest work with his own hands, so that he has something to share with anyone in need.

to seek to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you,

Now we command and exhort such people by the Lord Jesus Christ that quietly working, they may eat their own food.

What does a man gain for all his efforts
that he labors at under the sun?

I have seen all the things that are done under the sun and have found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind.

When I considered all that I had accomplished and what I had labored to achieve, I found everything to be futile and a pursuit of the wind. There was nothing to be gained under the sun.

There is a person without a companion, without even a son or brother, and though there is no end to all his struggles, his eyes are still not content with riches. “So who am I struggling for,” he asks, “and depriving myself from good?” This too is futile and a miserable task.

This too is a sickening tragedy: exactly as he comes, so he will go. What does the one gain who struggles for the wind?

Why do you spend money on what is not food,
and your wages on what does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,
and you will enjoy the choicest of foods.

Is it not from the Lord of Hosts
that the peoples labor only to fuel the fire
and countries exhaust themselves for nothing?

Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal of approval on Him.”