57 Bible Verses about Suffering, Hardship

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

For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command you, saying, you shall open your hand wide unto your brother, to your poor, and to your needy, in your land.

Behold, as wild donkeys in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising early for a prey: the wilderness yields food for them and for their children. They reap every one his grain in the field: and they gather the vineyard of the wicked. They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they 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. They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge from the poor. They cause him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaves from the hungry; Who make oil within their walls, and tread their winepresses, yet suffer thirst.

For you have the poor always with you; but me you have not always.

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

For the poor always you have with you; but me you have not always.

They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in. Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

And the seven years of plenty, 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 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 unto the Egyptians; and the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy grain; because that the famine was so severe 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. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for you have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.

And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people did strive with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why do you strive with me? why do you test the LORD? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Why is this that you have brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

And the mixed multitude that was among them had a strong craving: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; 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, get you to Zarephath, which belongs to Sidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain you.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 sticks: and he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray you, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And as she was going to bring it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray you, a morsel of bread in your hand. And she said, As the LORD your God lives, I have not bread, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a jar: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and prepare it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews. For there were those that said, We, our sons, and our daughters, are many: therefore let us get grain for them, that we may eat, and live. Some also there were that said, We have mortgaged our lands, vineyards, and houses, that we might buy grain, because of the famine.read more.
There were also those that said, We have borrowed money for the king's tax, and that upon our lands and vineyards. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children: and, lo, we bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought unto 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, he was afterward hungry.

Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

And unto Adam he said, Because you have listened unto the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it: cursed is the ground for your sake; in sorrow shall you eat of it all the days of your life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field; In the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you return unto the ground; for out of it were you taken: for dust you are, and unto dust shall you return.

This twenty years have I been with you; your ewes and your female goats have not cast their young, and the rams of your flock have I not eaten. That which was torn of beasts I brought not unto you; I bore the loss of it; of my hand did you require it, whether stolen by day, or stolen by night. Thus I was; in the day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night; and my sleep departed from my eyes.read more.
Thus have I been twenty years in your house; I served you fourteen years for your two daughters, and six years for your flocks: and you have changed my wages ten times. Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely you would have sent me away now empty. God has seen my affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked you last night.

And they sent and called him. So Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy: now therefore ease you somewhat the heavy service of your father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve you.

For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail: for laboring night and day, because we would not be a burden unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God.

Because of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out because of the arm of the mighty.

Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses.

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

And the number of the bricks, which they did make before, you shall lay upon them; you shall not diminish any of them: for they are idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let there more work be laid upon the men, that they may labor in it; and let them not give regard to vain words.

Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead; and you know that your servant did fear the LORD: and the creditor has come to take unto him my two sons to be slaves.

For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, says the LORD; I will set him in safety from him that sneers at him.

Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: my eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my body. 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 neighbors, and a horror to my acquaintance: they that did see 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 the LORD of hosts said, Hew you down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be punished; she is full of oppression in the midst of her.

Publish 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 the great tumults in its midst, and the oppressed in its midst.

Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, cries: and the cries of them who have reaped are entered into the ears of the 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 said I unto the people, Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and labor during the 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, saving that every one put them off 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 by the way, and how the LORD delivered them.

And unto Abiathar the priest said the king, Get you to Anathoth, unto your own fields; for you are worthy of death: but I will not at this time put you to death, because you bore the ark of the Lord GOD before David my father, and because you have been afflicted in all in which my father was afflicted.

Now three of the thirty captains went down to the rock to David, into the cave of Adullam; and the host of the Philistines encamped in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in the stronghold, and the Philistines' garrison was then at Bethlehem. And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me a drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, that is at the gate!read more.
And the three broke through the host 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, My God forbid me, that I should do 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 mighty men.

But when the fourteenth night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight the sailors 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 have fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern, and wished for the day.read more.
And as the sailors were about to flee out of the ship, when they had let down the boat into the sea, under pretense as though they would have cast anchors out of the bow, Paul said to the centurion and to the soldiers, Except these abide in the ship, you 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 you have tarried and continued fasting, having taken nothing. Therefore I pray you to take some food: for this is for your health: for there shall not a hair fall from the head of any of you. And when he had thus spoken, he took bread, and gave thanks to God in the presence of them all: and when he had broken it, he began to eat. Then were they 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 wheat into the sea. And when it was day, they knew not the land: but they discovered a certain bay with a shore, into which they were minded, if it were possible, to drive in the ship. And when they had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the sea, and released the rudder bands, and hoisted up the foresail to the wind, and made toward shore. And falling into a place where two seas met, they ran the ship aground; and the bow stuck fast, and remained unmovable, but the stern was broken with the violence of the waves. And the soldiers' plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any of them should swim out, and escape. But the centurion, willing to save Paul, kept them from their purpose; and commanded that they 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 escaped all safe to land.

Because you served not the LORD your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; Therefore shall you serve your enemies which the LORD shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon your neck, until he has destroyed you.

Who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, in which were fiery serpents, and scorpions, and thirsty land, where there was no water; who brought you 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 labor, and our oppression:

[A song of ascents.] LORD, remember David, and all his afflictions:

But in all things presenting ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings;

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

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 continue 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 naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwelling place; And labor, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we endure it: Being defamed, we entreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the trash of all things unto this day.

For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, so 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 labors more abundant, in stripes beyond measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes less one. Three times was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, three times I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;read more.
In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are outside, that which comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?

Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: everywhere and in 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.
Nevertheless you have done well, that you did share in my affliction.

You therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

For you had compassion on me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that you have in heaven a better and an enduring possession.

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

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

And have endured, and have patience, and for my name's sake have labored, and have 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 you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endures to the end shall be saved.

And you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

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

Behold, we count them happy who endure. You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very compassionate, and of tender mercy.

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