57 Bible Verses about Suffering, Hardship

The wealth of the rich [is] the city of his strength; the ruin of the poor [is] their poverty.

For the poor will not cease to be {among you} [in] the land; therefore I [am] commanding you, {saying}, 'You shall willingly open your hand to your brother, to your needy and to your poor [that are] in your land.'

"Look, [like] wild donkeys in the desert they go out to their labor [as] searchers for the prey; [the] wilderness [is] {their} food for the young. They reap their fodder in the field, and they glean [in the] vineyard of [the] wicked. They spend the night naked, {without} clothing, and [they] have no garment in the cold.read more.
They are wet from the rainstorm of the mountains, and they cling to the rock {without} refuge. "They snatch [the] orphan from [the] breast, and they take a pledge against [the] needy. They go about naked, without clothing, and hungry, they carry [the] sheaves. Between their terraces they press out oil; they tread [the] presses, but they are thirsty.

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

For the poor you always have with you, and you can do good for them whenever you want, but you do not always have me.

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

They wandered in the wilderness, in a desert. They could find no way to a city to inhabit. Hungry and thirsty, their soul grew faint within them.

And the seven years of abundance which [were] in the land of Egypt came to an end. And the seven years of famine began to come as Joseph had said. And there was famine in all of the countries, but in the land of Egypt there was food. And when all the land of Egypt was hungry the people cried out to Pharaoh for food. And Pharaoh said to all the land of Egypt, "Go to Joseph; what he says to you, you must do."read more.
And the famine was over the whole land, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold [food] to the Egyptians. And the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. And every land came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, for the famine was severe in every land.

And Moses caused Israel to set out from the {Red Sea}, and they went out into the desert of Shur, and they traveled three days in the desert, and they did not find water. And they came to Marah, and they were not able to drink water from Marah because it was bitter. Therefore {it was named} Marah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, "What shall we drink?"

And all the community of the {Israelites} grumbled against Moses and against Aaron in the desert. And the {Israelites} said to them, "{If only we had died} by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread {until we were full}, because you have brought us out to this desert to kill all of this assembly with hunger."

And all the community of the {Israelites} set out from the desert of Sin for their journeys according to the command of Yahweh, and they camped in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. And the people quarreled with Moses, and they said, "Give us water so that we can drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?" And the people thirsted for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why {ever} did you bring us up from Egypt to kill me and my sons and my cattle with thirst?"

The riff-raff that [were] in their midst {had a strong desire}; and the {Israelites} turned back and also wept, and they said, "Who will feed us meat? We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for nothing, the cucumber, melon, leek, the onions, and the garlic. But now {our strength is dried up}; there is nothing whatsoever except {for the manna before us}."

It happened {after a while} that the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land. Then the word of Yahweh came to him, saying, "Get up and go to Zarephath which belongs to Sidon and stay there. Look, I have commanded a woman there, a widow, to sustain you."read more.
So he arose and went to Zarephath and came to the gate of the city. There [was] a widow woman gathering wood, so he called to her, and he said, "Please bring a little water for me in a vessel so that I can drink." She went to fetch [it], and he called to her and said, "Please bring me a morsel of bread in your hand." She said, "{As Yahweh your God lives}, surely I do not have a cake, {but only a handful of flour} in the jar and a little olive oil in the jug. Here I [am] gathering a few pieces of wood, and I will go and prepare it for me and my son, that we might eat it and die."

Now there was a great cry of distress of the people and of their wives [against] their Jewish brothers. There were those who were saying, "Our sons and daughters, we are many. We must get grain so that we may eat and live." There were also those saying, "We have pledged our fields and our vineyards and our houses so that we can get grain in the famine."read more.
And there were those who were saying, "We have borrowed money on our fields and our vineyards for the tax of the king. Now our flesh is like the flesh of our brothers, our sons are like their sons. Look, we are subduing our sons and our daughters to be slaves, and there are some from our daughters being molested. {We are powerless}, and our fields and vineyards [belong] to others."

and [after he] had fasted forty days and forty nights, then he was hungry.

forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days, and [when] they were completed, he was hungry.

And to Adam he said, "Because you listened to the voice of your wife and you ate from the tree {from which I forbade you to eat}, the ground [shall be] cursed on your account. In pain you shall eat [from] it all the days of your life. And thorns and thistles shall sprout for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until your return to the ground. For from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

These twenty years I [was] with you; your ewes and your female goats did not miscarry, and the rams of your flocks I did not eat. I brought no mangled carcass to you--I bore its loss. From my hand you sought it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. [There] I was, during the day the heat consumed me, and the cold by night, and my sleep fled from my eyes.read more.
These twenty years [I have been] in your house. I served you fourteen years for your two daughters and six years for your flock, and you have changed my wages ten times. If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac had not been with me, indeed now you would have sent me away empty-handed. God saw my misery and the labor of my hands and rebuked you last night."

And they sent and called him. Then Jeroboam and all Israel went, and they spoke to Rehoboam, saying, "Your father made our yoke heavy. Now, therefore, lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, and we will serve you."

For you remember, brothers, our labor and hardship: working by night and day in order not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

"Because of [the] multitude of oppressions, they cry out; they cry for help because of [the] arm of [the] mighty.

And they appointed commanders of forced labor over them in order to oppress them with their {forced labor}, and they built storage cities for Pharaoh--Pithom and Rameses.

{And then} during those many days, the king of Egypt died, and the {Israelites} groaned because of the work, and they cried out, and their cry for help because of the work went up to God.

But the quota of the bricks that they [were] making {before} {you must require of them}. You must not reduce from it, because they [are] lazy. Therefore they [are] crying out, saying, 'Let us go and sacrifice to our God.' Let the work be heavier on the men so that they will do it and not pay attention to words of deception."

A certain woman from the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, "Your servant my husband is dead. Now you know that your servant was a fearer of Yahweh, but the creditor came to take two of my children for himself as slaves.

"Because of [the] oppression of [the] afflicted, because of [the] groaning of [the] poor, now I will rise up," Yahweh says. "I shall put [them] in [the] safety [for which] they long."

Be gracious [to] me, O Yahweh, because I have distress. My eye wastes away because of vexation, [along with] my soul and my {body}. For my life is at an end with sorrow, and my years with sighing. My strength stumbles because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. Because of all my adversaries I have become a disgrace, especially to my neighbors, and a dread to my acquaintances. [Those who] see me in the street flee from me.read more.
I have become forgotten like [one] dead, out of {mind}. I am like a destroyed vessel. For I hear [the] rumor of many, "Terror on every side!" When conspiring together against me, they have plotted to take my life.

For thus says Yahweh of hosts, "Cut down trees and heap up a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This [is] the city that must be punished, its oppression [is] in its midst.

Proclaim to the citadel fortresses in Ashdod and the citadel fortresses in the land of Egypt and say: "Gather on the mountains of Samaria and see the great panic in her midst and the oppression in her midst!"

Behold, the wages that were held back by you from the workers who reap your fields cry out, and the cries of the reapers have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts.

So we labored at the work, and half of them were holding the spears from dawn until the stars came out. At the time I also said to the people, "Let each man and his servant spend the night inside Jerusalem, so that they will be a guard for us in the night and work in the day." So neither I nor my brothers nor my young men nor the men of the guard who were behind me took off our clothes. Each one [kept] his weapon [even] in the water.

And Moses told his father-in-law all that Yahweh had done to Pharaoh and to Egypt on account of Israel, all the hardship that had found them on the way, and [how] Yahweh delivered them.

To Abiathar the priest, the king said, "Go to Anathoth, to your field, for {you deserve to die}, but on this day I will not kill you, for you carried the ark of the Lord Yahweh before David my father, and because you endured hardship in all the hardship that my father endured."

And three of the thirty chiefs went down toward the rock to David at the cave of Adullam when the army of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. And David [was] then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines [was] then in Bethlehem. And David had a craving, and he said, "Who could give me a drink of water from the well of Bethlehem that [is] by the gate!"read more.
Then the three broke through into the camp of the Philistines and drew water from the well of Bethlehem that [was] by the gate and brought [it] and came to David. But David would not drink it and poured it out before Yahweh. And he said, "Far be it from me [that] I would do this before my God. Shall I drink the lifeblood of these men? For {at the risk of their lives} they brought it." And he was not willing to drink it. These things the three mighty men did.

And when the fourteenth night had come, [as] we were being driven in the Adriatic Sea about the middle of the night, the sailors suspected {they were approaching some land}. And taking soundings, they found twenty fathoms. So going on a little [further] and taking soundings again, they found fifteen fathoms. And [because they] were afraid lest somewhere we run aground against rough places, they threw down four anchors from the stern [and] prayed for day to come.read more.
And [when] the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship and were lowering the ship's boat into the sea, pretending as if they were going to lay out anchors from the bow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, "Unless these [men] remain with the ship, you cannot be saved!" Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it fall away. And until the day was about to come, Paul was urging [them] all to take [some] food, saying, "Today [is the] fourteenth day you have waited [anxiously], [and] you have continued without eating, having taken nothing. Therefore I urge you to take [some] food, for this is necessary for your preservation. For not a hair from your head will be lost." And [after he] said these [things] and took bread, he gave thanks to God in front of [them] all, and [after] breaking [it], he began to eat. So they all were encouraged and partook of food themselves. (Now we were [in] all two hundred seventy six persons on the ship.) And [when they] had eaten their fill of food, they lightened the ship [by] throwing the wheat into the sea. Now when day came, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a certain bay having a beach, onto which they decided to run the ship ashore if they could. And slipping the anchors, they left [them] in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes of the steering oars. And hoisting the foresail to the [wind] that was blowing, they held course for the beach. But falling into a place of crosscurrents, they ran the ship aground. And the bow stuck fast [and] stayed immovable, but the stern was being broken up by the violence. Now the plan of the soldiers was that they would kill the prisoners lest any escape [by] swimming away, but the centurion, [because he] wanted to save Paul, prevented them {from doing what they intended}, and gave orders [that] those who were able to swim should jump in first to get to the land, and [then] the rest, [some] of whom [floated] on planks and [some] of whom on anything [that was] from the ship. And in this way all were brought safely to the land.

"{Because} [of the fact] that you did not serve Yahweh your God with joy and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, then you shall serve your enemies, whom Yahweh will send against you [under conditions of] famine, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of everything; and he shall place a yoke of iron on your neck {until he has destroyed you}.

the one leading you in the great and terrible desert [infested] with {dangerous} snakes and scorpions and parched ground, where there is no water, [and] the one bringing out water for you from flint rock,

And the Egyptians treated us badly, and they oppressed us and imposed on us hard labor. And we cried to Yahweh, the God of our ancestors, and Yahweh heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression.

O Yahweh, remember with regard to David all his affliction.

but commending ourselves as servants of God in every [way], in much endurance, in afflictions, in distresses, in difficulties, in beatings, in prisons, in disturbances, in troubles, in sleepless nights, in going hungry,

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that [although he] was rich, for your sake he became poor, in order that you, by his poverty, may become rich.

And [after they] had proclaimed the good news in that city and made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging [them] to continue in the faith and [saying], "Through many persecutions it is necessary [for] us to enter into the kingdom of God."

Until the present hour we are both hungry and thirsty and poorly clothed and roughly treated and homeless, and we toil, working with our own hands. [When we are] reviled, we bless; [when we are] persecuted, we endure; [when we are] slandered, we encourage. We have become like the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all [things], until now.

For we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning our affliction that happened in the [province of] Asia, that we were burdened to an extraordinary degree, beyond [our] strength, so that we were in despair even of living. But [we] ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we would not be putting confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,

Are they servants of Christ?--I am speaking as though I were beside myself--I [am] more so, with far greater labors, with far more imprisonments, with beatings to a much greater degree, in [danger of] death many times. Five times I received at the hands of the Jews forty [lashes] less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. A day and a night I have spent in the deep water.read more.
[I have been] on journeys many times, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from [my own] people, in dangers from the Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers because of false brothers, with toil and hardship, often in sleepless nights, with hunger and thirst, often going hungry, in cold and poorly clothed. Apart from these external things, [there is] the pressure on me every day of the anxiety about all the churches. Who is weak, and [I am] not weak? Who is caused to sin, and I do not burn [with indignation]?

Not that I speak from need, for I have learned to be content in whatever [circumstances] I am. I know [how] both {to make do with little} and I know [how] {to have an abundance}. In everything and in all [things] I have learned the secret both to be filled and to be hungry, both {to have an abundance} and to go without. I am able [to do] all [things] by the one who strengthens me.read more.
Nevertheless you have done well by sharing with me in my affliction.

Suffer together with [me] as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.

For you both sympathized with the prisoners and put up with the seizure of your belongings with joy [because you] knew that you yourselves had a better and permanent possession.

They were stoned, they were sawed in two, they died by murder with a sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, impoverished, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about on deserts and mountains and in caves and in holes in the ground.

Endure [it] for discipline. God is dealing with you as sons. For what son [is there] whom a father does not discipline?

And you have patient endurance, and have endured [many things] because of my name, and have not become weary.

But [we] ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, so that we would not be putting confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead,

and you will be hated by everyone because of my name. But the one who endures to the end--this one will be saved.

And you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end--this one will be saved.

Blessed [is] the person who endures testing, because [when he] is approved he will receive the crown of life that he has promised to those who love him.

Behold, we consider blessed those who have endured. You have heard about the patient endurance of Job, and you saw the outcome from the Lord, that the Lord is compassionate and merciful.

For this [finds] favor, if because of consciousness of God someone endures sorrows [while] suffering unjustly.