57 Bible Verses about Suffering, Hardship

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

For the poor shall never cease out of the land; therefore, I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy poor and to thy needy, in thy land.

Behold, as wild asses in the desert, they go forth to their work, rising early for a prey; the wilderness yields food for them and for their children. In the field they reap their fodder, and the wicked gather the vintage that is not theirs. They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have no covering in the cold.read more.
They are wet with the floods of the mountains and embrace the rock for want of a covering. They pluck the fatherless from the breast and take a pledge of the poor. They cause the naked to go without clothing, and they take away the sheaves from the hungry. They press oil within their walls and tread their winepresses and suffer thirst.

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

For ye have the poor with you always, and whenever ye will, ye may do them good; but me ye have not always.

for the poor ye always have with you, but ye shall not always have me.

They wandered lost in the wilderness, alone and out of the way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

And the seven years of the abundance that was in the land of Egypt were ended. And the seven years of famine began to come, according as Joseph had said; and the famine was 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 unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph; what he saith to you, do.read more.
And the famine was over all the face of the earth. Then Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold unto the Egyptians; for the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. And all the earth came into Egypt to buy from Joseph because the famine was so sore in all lands.

So Moses brought Israel 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. Then the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

And the whole congregation of the sons of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness; and the sons of Israel said unto them, It would have been better if we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots and when we ate bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

And all the congregation of the sons of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and set up camp in Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink. And the people chided with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Why do ye tempt the LORD? So the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses and said, Why hast thou brought us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?

And the vulgar who were mixed in among them returned to their lust; and even the sons of Israel wept and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we freely ate in Egypt, 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 besides this manna before our eyes.

And it came to pass after a while that the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. And the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, Arise, go to Zarephath of Zidon, and thou shalt dwell there; behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.read more.
So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks; and he called to her and said, Bring 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 again and said, Bring me also, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she said, As the LORD thy God lives, I have no baked bread, but only a handful of meal in a pitcher and a little oil in a cruse; and now I was gathering two sticks that I may go in and prepare it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die.

Then there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren, the Jews. For there were some that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many; therefore we have bought grain that we may eat and live. There were also some that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.read more.
And there were some that said, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute, and that upon our lands and vineyards. Yet now, given that the flesh of our brethren is as our flesh and their sons as our sons, behold, we subject our sons and our daughters to slavery, and there are some of our daughters in bondage already; neither is it in our power to redeem them; for other men have our lands and vineyards.

And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he was hungry.

for forty days and was tempted of the devil. And in those days he ate nothing; and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed shall be the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the grass of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

These twenty years I have been with thee; thy ewes and thy she goats have not aborted their young, and I have not eaten the rams of thy flock. That which was torn of beasts I did not bring unto thee; I bore the sin; thou didst require of my hand that which was stolen, whether by day or by night. By day the drought consumed me, and by night, the frost; and my sleep departed from mine eyes.read more.
Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters and six years for thy flock; and thou hast changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, were not with me, surely thou would send me away now empty. God has seen my affliction and the work of my hands and rebuked thee last night.

And they sent and called him. So Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous; now, therefore, ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee.

For ye remember, brethren, our labour and travail, for labouring night and day, not to be a burden unto any of you, we preached among you the gospel of God.

By reason of the great violence they shall call out; they cry out because of the strength of the many.

Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with their burdens. And they built the supply cities for Pharaoh: Pithom and Raamses.

And it came to pass in process of time that the king of Egypt died, and the sons of Israel sighed by reason of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up unto God from their bondage.

And the tally of the bricks which they made before, 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 more work be laid upon them that they may occupy themselves with it; and let them not regard words of deception.

Now a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried unto Elisha, saying, Thy slave, my husband, is dead; and thou knowest that thy slave feared the LORD; and the creditor is come to take my two sons to be his slaves.

For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now I will arise, saith the LORD; I will set in safety the one whom the wicked one has ensnared.

Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: my eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with grief and my years with sighing: my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones are consumed. I was a reproach among all my enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to my acquaintances: those that see me without flee from me.read more.
I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I have become like a lost 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 hath the LORD of the hosts said, Hew ye down trees and cast a mount against Jerusalem; this is the city that all of her is to be visited; there is violence in the midst of her.

Publish upon the palaces of Ashdod and upon the palaces of the land of Egypt and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria and behold the great oppression in the midst thereof and the great violence in the midst thereof.

Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped your fields (which you have kept back by fraud) cries out; and the cries of those who have reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of the hosts.

So we laboured in the work, and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning until the stars appeared. Likewise at the same time said I unto the people, Let each one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that by night they may be a guard to us, and labour by day. So neither I nor my brethren nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us put off our clothes, each one put them off only for washing.

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

And unto Abiathar, the priest, the king said, Go to Anathoth, unto thine own inheritance, for thou art worthy of death; but I will not put thee to death today because thou didst bare the ark of the Lord GOD before David, my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted.

Now three of the thirty principal ones went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam; and the camp of the Philistines was pitched in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in the fortress, and the Philistines' garrison was then at Bethlehem. And David longed and said, Oh, that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, that is at the gate!read more.
And those three broke through the camp 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 the LORD, and said, May God keep me from doing this thing. Shall I drink the blood of these men that have put their lives in jeopardy? For with the jeopardy of their lives they brought it. Therefore, he would not drink it. These things did these three mightiest.

And when the fourteenth night was come as we were driven up and down in the Adriatic sea, about midnight the shipmen deemed that they drew near to some country and sounded and found it twenty fathoms; and when they had gone a little further, they sounded again and found it fifteen fathoms. Then fearing lest we should fall upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day.read more.
And as the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea, under colour as though they would have cast anchors out of the foreship, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and let her fall off. And while the day was coming on, Paul besought them all to take food, saying, This day is the fourteenth day that ye have waited and continued fasting, having taken nothing. Therefore I pray you to take some food, for this is for your salvation and health, for there shall not one hair fall from the head of any of you. And when he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God in presence of them all; and when he had broken it, he began to eat. Then they were all of good cheer, and they also took some food. And we were in all, in the ship, two hundred and seventy-six souls. And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship and cast out the grain into the sea. And when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they discovered a certain gulf with a shore, into which they decided, if it were possible, to thrust in the ship. And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea and loosed the rudder bands and hoisted up the mainsail to the wind and made toward shore. But falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the forepart stuck fast and remained unmovable, but the hinder part was broken with the violence of the waves. And the soldiers' counsel was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out and escape. But the centurion, desiring to save Paul, frustrated this counsel and commanded that those who could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to land; and the rest, some on boards and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they were all saved by making it to land.

Because thou didst not serve the LORD thy God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore, thou shalt serve thine enemies which the LORD shall send against thee, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness and in lack of all things; and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck until he has destroyed thee.

who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness of burning serpents and scorpions and drought, where there was no water, who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint,

and the Egyptians mistreated us and afflicted us and laid upon us hard bondage. And when we cried unto the LORD God of our fathers, the LORD heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labour and our oppression.

A Song of degrees. LORD, remember David and all his afflictions:

But in all things showing ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience, in tribulations, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labours, in watchings, in fastings,

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be enriched.

And when they had preached the gospel to that city and had taught many, they returned again to Lystra and to Iconium and Antioch, confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to remain in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Even unto this present hour we both hunger and thirst and are ill clad and are buffeted and have no certain dwellingplace and labour, working with our own hands; being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it; being blasphemed, we intreat; we are made as the filth of this world and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.

Because, brothers, we would not have you ignore our tribulation which was done unto us in Asia, that we were burdened beyond our strength, in such a manner that we despaired even of life: But we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more, in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned; three times I suffered shipwreck, night and day I have been in the deep;read more.
in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by those of my nation, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in labour and travail, in many watches, in hunger and thirst, in many fasts, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, my daily combat is the welfare of all the congregations . Who is sick, and I am not sick? who stumbles, and I burn not?

Not that I speak in respect of want, for I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be humbled, and I know how to have an abundance; in everything and by all things I am instructed, both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.read more.
Notwithstanding ye have done well, that ye did communicate with my tribulation.

Thou, therefore, work hard as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

For ye had compassion of me in my bonds and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing that in yourselves ye have a better substance in the heavens, and that abides.

they were stoned; they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; poor, afflicted, mistreated, (of whom the world was not worthy); they wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.

If ye endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father does not chasten?

and hast suffered, and doth suffer and for my name's sake hast laboured and hast not fainted.

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name, but he that endures to the end shall be saved.

And ye shall be hated by everyone for my name, but he that shall persevere unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Blessed is the man that patiently endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those that love him.

Behold, we count blessed those who endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord, that the Lord is very merciful, and full of compassion.

For this is due to grace, if a man for conscience toward God endures grief, suffering wrongfully.