57 Bible Verses about Suffering, Hardship

The rich hide within the fortress that is their wealth, but the poor are dismayed due to their poverty.

Since poor people won't cease to exist in the land, therefore I'm commanding you: Be sure to be generous to your poor and needy relatives in your land."

"Look! Like wild donkeys in the wilderness, they work diligently as they seek wild game in the desert, food for them and their young ones. They reap fodder in the field and glean in the vineyard of the wicked. They spend the night naked, without clothing, with no covering against the cold.read more.
They are wet from mountain rains; without shelter, they cling to a rock. "The fatherless are torn from the breast; the poor are taken away as security for a loan. They wander around naked, without clothes; hungry, though they carry sheaves of grain. They press oil between the olive groves owned by the wicked; they suffer from thirst, even while treading the winepress.

You'll always have the destitute with you, but you'll not always have me.

because you'll always have the destitute with you and can help them whenever you want, but you won't always have me.

because you will always have the destitute with you, but you won't always have me."

They wandered in desolate wilderness; they found no road to a city where they could live. Hungry and thirsty, their spirits failed.

As soon as the seven years of abundance throughout the land of Egypt ended, the seven years of famine started, just as Joseph had predicted. It was an international famine, but there was food everywhere throughout the land of Egypt. Eventually, the land of Egypt began to feel the effects of the famine, so the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. "Go see Joseph," Pharaoh announced to all the Egyptians, "and do whatever he tells you to do."read more.
Joseph opened all of the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, because the famine was beginning to be severe throughout the land of Egypt. In addition, all of the surrounding nations came to Joseph to buy grain from Egypt, because the famine had become severe throughout the world.

Then Moses led Israel from the Reed Sea and they went to the desert of Shur. They traveled into the desert for three days and did not find water. When they came to Marah, they could not drink the water at Marah because it was bitter. (That is why it's called Marah.) Then the people complained against Moses: "What are we to drink?"

The whole congregation of the Israelis complained against Moses and Aaron in the desert. The Israelis told them, "If only we had died by the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt when we sat by the cooking pots, when we ate bread until we were filled because you brought us to this desert to kill this entire congregation with hunger."

The whole congregation of the Israelis set out from the desert of Sin, traveling from place to place according to the command of the LORD. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. The people quarreled with Moses: "Give us water to drink." Moses told them, "Why are you quarreling with me? Why are you testing the LORD?" But the people were thirsty there for water, so they complained against Moses: "Why did you bring us up from Egypt to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?"

Meanwhile, certain riff-raff among the people had an insatiable appetite for food. As a result, they wept and turned back, and the Israelis cried out, "If only somebody would feed us some meat! How we remember the fish that we used to eat in Egypt for free! And the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic! But now we can't stand it anymore, because there's nothing in front of us except this manna."

But after a while, the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. Then this message came to him from the LORD: "Get up, move to Zarephath in Sidon, and stay there. Look! I've commanded a widow to sustain you there."read more.
So he got up and went to Zarephath. As he arrived at the entrance to the city, a widow was there gathering sticks. So he asked her, "Please, may I have some water in a cup so I can have a drink." While she was on her way to get the water, he called out to her, "Would you please also bring me a piece of bread while you're at it?" "As the LORD your God lives," she replied, "I don't have so much as a muffin, just a handful of flour in a bowl and some oil left in a bottle. Now I'm going to find some sticks so I can cook a last meal for my son and for me. Then we're going to eat it and die."

Now the people along with their spouses complained loudly against their fellow Jews, because certain of them kept claiming, "Since we have so many sons and daughters, we must get some grain so we can eat and survive." Others were saying, "We're having to mortgage our fields, our vineyards, and our homes so we can buy grain during this famine."read more.
Still others were saying "We've borrowed money against our fields and vineyards to pay the king's taxes. Now our bodies are no different than the bodies of our relatives, and our children are like their children. Nevertheless, we're about to force our sons and daughters into slavery, and some of our daughters are already in bondage. It's beyond our power to do anything about it, because our fields and vineyards belong to others."

After fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, he finally became hungry.

where he was being tempted by the Devil for 40 days. During that time he ate nothing at all, and when they were over he became hungry.

He told the man, "Because you have listened to what your wife said, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, "You must not eat from it,' cursed is the ground because of you. You'll eat from it through pain-filled labor for the rest of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you'll eat the plants from the meadows. You will eat food by the sweat of your brow until you're buried in the ground, because you were taken from it. You're made from dust and you'll return to dust."

Meanwhile, these past 20 years that I've been with you, your sheep and goats never had miscarriages, I never once ate any of the rams from your flock, and whatever was torn by beasts, I never bothered to bring to you. Instead, I bore the losses myself. Even so, you demanded that I provide restitution for anything that was stolen, whether during the day or the night. As it was, I was attacked by drought during the day and by cold at night. I never got any decent rest. read more.
I've lived in your house these 20 years serving fourteen years for your two daughters and another six years for your flocks. During all that time you changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father the God of Abraham, the God whom Isaac feared had not been with me, you would have sent me away empty handed. But God saw my misery and how hard I've worked with my own hands and he rebuked you last night."

after being summoned. When Jeroboam and all of Israel arrived, they spoke to Rehoboam, "Your father made our burdens unbearable. Therefore you must lighten your father's requirements and his heavy burden that he placed on us, and we'll serve you."

Brothers, you remember our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not become a burden to any of you while we proclaimed the gospel of God to you.

"They cry out because they have many oppressors; they cry for help because the powerful are abusing them.

So the Egyptians placed supervisors over them, oppressing them with heavy burdens. The Israelis built the supply cities of Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh.

The king of Egypt eventually died, and the Israelis groaned because of the bondage. They cried out, and their cry for deliverance from slavery ascended to God.

But you're to impose the previous quota of bricks that they're making. You're not to reduce it! It is because they're lazy that they're crying out, "Let's go offer sacrifices to our God.' So increase the work load on the people, and let them do it so they don't pay attention to deceptive speeches."

Now there happened to be a certain woman who had been the wife of a member of the Guild of Prophets. She cried out to Elisha, "My husband who served you has died, and you know that your servant feared the LORD. But a creditor has come to take away my children into indentured servitude!"

"Because the poor are being oppressed, because the needy are sighing, I will now arise," says the LORD, "I will establish in safety those who yearn for it."

Be gracious to me, LORD, for I am in distress. My eyes have been consumed by my grief along with my soul and my body. My life is consumed by sorrow, my years with groaning. My strength has faltered because of my iniquity; my bones have been consumed. I have become an object of reproach to all my enemies, especially to my neighbors. I have become an object of fear to my friends, and whoever sees me outside runs away from me.read more.
Like a dead man, I am forgotten in their thoughts like broken pottery. I have heard the slander of many; it is like terror all around me, as they conspire together and plot to take my life.

For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: "Cut down trees and set up siege works against Jerusalem. It is the city to be judged, and there is oppression throughout the entire city.

Announce this in the fortified citadels of Ashdod, and in the fortified citadels of the land of Egypt. Tell them, "Gather together on the mountains of Samaria; look at the great misery among the citadels, along with the oppression within Egypt.'

Look! The wages that you kept back from the workers who harvested your fields are shouting out against you, and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of the Heavenly Armies.

So we worked hard, half of us holding spears from dawn to dusk. At the same time I told the people, "Let's have everyone sleep at night inside Jerusalem with their servants, so they can guard us at night and work during the day. No one neither I, my allies, my servants, nor the bodyguards who accompanied me changed clothes. Everyone carried a weapon even while going for water.

Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians on Israel's behalf, all the hardships that they had encountered along the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.

The king also told Abiathar the priest, "Go home to Anathoth. You deserve to die, but I won't kill you today, because you carried the ark of the Lord GOD before my father David and because you shared all the troubles that my father went through."

Later, the Three Warriors went down to David's hideout at the cave of Adullam when the Philistine army was camping in the valley of giants. David was living in that stronghold at the time, while a Philistine garrison was then at Bethlehem. David expressed a longing, "Oh, how I wish someone would get me a drink of water from the Bethlehem well that's by the city gate!" read more.
So the Three Warriors broke through the Philistine ranks, drew some water from the Bethlehem well that was next to the city gate, and brought it back to David. But David refused to drink it, poured it out in the LORD's presence, and said in response, "May God forbid me to do this! I won't drink the blood of these men, will I? After all, they risked their lives to bring it to me." That's why he wouldn't drink it. The Three Warriors did these things.

It was the fourteenth night, and we were drifting through the Adriatic Sea, when about midnight the sailors suspected that land was near. After taking soundings, they found the depth to be twenty fathoms. A little later, they took soundings again and found it was fifteen fathoms. Fearing that we might run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and began praying for daylight to come. read more.
Meanwhile, the sailors had begun trying to escape from the ship. They lowered the lifeboat into the sea and pretended that they were going to lay out the anchors from the bow. Paul told the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these men remain onboard, you cannot be saved." Then the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and set it adrift. Right up to daybreak Paul kept urging all of them to eat something. He said, "Today is the fourteenth day that you have been waiting and going without food, not eating anything. So I urge you to eat something, for it will help you survive, since none of you will lose so much as a hair from his head." After he said this, he took some bread, thanked God in front of everyone, broke it, and began to eat. Everyone was encouraged and had something to eat. There were 276 of us on the ship. After they had eaten all they wanted, they began to lighten the ship by dumping its cargo of wheat into the sea. When day came, they didn't recognize the land, but they could see a bay with a beach on which they planned to run the ship ashore, if possible. So they cut the anchors free and left them in the sea. At the same time they untied the ropes that held the steering oars, raised the foresail to the wind, and headed for the beach. But they struck a sandbar and ran the ship aground. The bow stuck and couldn't be moved, while the stern was broken to pieces by the force of the waves. The soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners to keep them from swimming ashore and escaping, but the centurion wanted to save Paul, so he prevented them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to follow, some on planks and others on various pieces of the ship. In this way everyone got to shore safely.

"Because you didn't serve the LORD your God joyfully and wholeheartedly, despite the abundance of everything you have, you'll serve your enemies whom the LORD your God will send against you. You will serve in famine and in drought, in nakedness, and in lack of everything. They'll set a yoke of iron upon your neck until they have exterminated you.

who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery, and who led you through the vast and dangerous desert, that parched land without water, with its poisonous snakes and scorpions. He brought water out of solid rock for you,

"A wandering Aramean was my ancestor, who went down to Egypt and traveled there with very few family members, yet there he became a great, powerful, and populous nation. But the Egyptians oppressed us, afflicted us, and assigned us to hard labor. So we cried out to the LORD God of our ancestors, and he heard our cries and observed our affliction, trouble, and oppression.

LORD, remember in David's favor all of his troubles;

Instead, in every way we demonstrate that we are God's servants by tremendous endurance in the midst of difficulties, hardships, and calamities; in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights, and hunger;

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Although he was rich, for your sakes he became poor, so that you, through his poverty, might become rich.

As they were proclaiming the good news in that city, they discipled a large number of people. Then they went back to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to continue in the faith. "We must endure many hardships," they said, "to get into the kingdom of God."

We are hungry, thirsty, dressed in rags, brutally treated, and homeless, right up to the present. We wear ourselves out from working with our own hands. When insulted, we bless. When persecuted, we endure. When slandered, we answer with kind words. Even now we have become the filth of the world, the scum of the universe.

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, about the suffering we experienced in Asia. We were so crushed beyond our ability to endure that we even despaired of living. In fact, we felt that we had received a death sentence so we would not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

Are they the Messiah's servants? I am insane to talk like this, but I am a far better one! I have been involved in far greater efforts, far more imprisonments, countless beatings, and have faced death more than once. Five times I received from the Jews 40 lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with a stick, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, and I drifted on the sea for a day and a night. read more.
I have traveled extensively and have been endangered from rivers, robbers, my own people, and gentiles. I've also been in danger in the city, in the open country, at sea, from false brothers, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger, thirst, many periods of fasting, coldness, and nakedness. Besides everything else, I have a daily burden because of my anxiety about all the churches. Who is weak without me being weak, too? Who is caused to stumble without me becoming indignant?

I am not saying this because I am in any need, for I have learned to be content in whatever situation I am in. I know how to be humble, and I know how to prosper. In each and every situation I have learned the secret of being full and of going hungry, of having too much and of having too little. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. read more.
Nevertheless, it was kind of you to share my troubles.

Join me in suffering like a good soldier of the Messiah Jesus.

For you sympathized with the prisoners and cheerfully submitted to the violent seizure of your property, because you know that you have a better and more permanent possession.

They were stoned to death, sawed in half, and killed with swords. They went around in sheepskins and goatskins. They were needy, oppressed, and mistreated. The world wasn't worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and from caves to holes in the ground.

What you endure disciplines you: God is treating you as sons. Is there a son whom his father does not discipline?

You have endured and suffered because of my name, yet you have not grown weary.

In fact, we felt that we had received a death sentence so we would not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.

You will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the person who endures to the end will be saved.

You will be hated continuously by everyone because of my name. But the person who endures to the end will be saved."

How blessed is the man who endures temptation! When he has passed the test, he will receive the victor's crown of life that God has promised to those who keep on loving him.

We consider those who endured to be blessed. You have heard about Job's endurance and have seen the purpose of the Lord that the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

For it is a fine thing if, when moved by your conscience to please God, you suffer patiently when wronged.