'Labor' in the Bible

All his days [are] painful, his labor [brings] grief, and his heart cannot rest at night. This also [is] vanity!

There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen that it is from the hand of God.

I have seen the task which God has given to the sons of men with which to occupy themselves.

moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor—it is the gift of God.

So I concluded that there is nothing better for a person than to enjoy [the fruit of] his labor, for this is his lot in life. {For no one knows what will happen in the future.}

I saw that all labor and all skillful work is due to a man’s jealousy of his friend. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

One hand full of rest is better than two fists full of labor and striving after wind.

There was a certain man without a dependent, having neither a son nor a brother, yet there was no end to all his labor. Indeed, his eyes were not satisfied with riches and he never asked, “And for whom am I laboring and depriving myself of pleasure?” This too is vanity and it is a grievous task.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor.

As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand.

Here is what I have seen to be good: it is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward.

God has also given riches and wealth to every man, and He has allowed him to enjoy them, take his reward, and rejoice in his labor. This is a gift of God,

God gives a man riches, property, and wealth so that he lacks nothing that his heart desires, yet God does not enable him to enjoy the fruit of his labor -- instead, someone else enjoys it! This is fruitless and a grave misfortune.

All man’s labor is for his stomach,yet the appetite is never satisfied.

So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for man under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

then I beheld all the work of God, that man cannot find out the work that is done under the sun: because however much a man labor to seek it out, yet he shall not find it; yea moreover, though a wise man think to know it, yet shall he not be able to find it.

Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest all the days of thy life of vanity, which he hath given thee under the sun, all thy days of vanity: for that is thy portion in life, and in thy labor wherein thou laborest under the sun.

The labor of fools wearieth every one of them; for he knoweth not how to go to the city.

Who is this coming up from the desert, leaning on her beloved? Under theapple tree I awakened you. There your mother had gone into labor with you; there she went into labor and gave birth to you.

They will be horrified;pain and agony will seize them;they will be in anguish like a woman in labor.They will look at each other,their faces flushed with fear.

Many nations will take them and bring them to their land and their own place. The house of Israel will put those nations to conscripted labor in the LORD's land. They will take captive those who were their captors, and will rule continually over those who oppressed them.

When the Lord gives you rest from your pain, torment, and the hard labor you were forced to do,

Therefore I am filled with anguish.Pain grips me, like the pain of a woman in labor.I am too perplexed to hear,too dismayed to see.

Therefore said I, Look away from me, I will weep bitterly; labor not to comfort me for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Be ashamed Sidon, the stronghold of the sea,for the sea has spoken:“I have not been in labor or given birth.I have not raised young menor brought up young women.”

Just as a pregnant woman writhes and cries out during her labor when she is about to give birth, so were we because of you, LORD.

We were pregnant, we writhed in labor,We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth,Nor were inhabitants of the world born.

Then Assyria will fall,but not by human sword;a sword will devour him,but not one made by man.He will flee from the sword;his young men will be put to forced labor.

"Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and call to her, that her compulsory labor is fulfilled, that her sin is paid for, that she has {received} from the hand of Yahweh double for all her sins."

“I have kept silent from ages past;I have been quiet and restrained Myself.But now, I will groan like a woman in labor,gasping breathlessly.

Woe [to the] one who says to a father, 'What you are begetting?' or to a woman, '[With] what are you in labor?'"

Thus saith Jehovah, The labor of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine: they shall go after thee, in chains they shall come over; and they shall fall down unto thee, they shall make supplication unto thee,'saying , Surely God is in thee; and there is none else, there is no God.

“Rejoice, childless one, who did not give birth;burst into song and shout,you who have not been in labor!For the children of the forsaken one will be morethan the children of the married woman,”says the Lord.

Why spend your money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in rich food.

‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You do not see it?Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’Hear this [O Israel], on the day of your fast [when you should be grieving for your sins] you find something you desire [to do],And you force your hired servants to work [instead of stopping all work, as the law teaches].

All of your people will be godly; they will possess the land permanently. I will plant them like a shoot; they will be the product of my labor, through whom I reveal my splendor.

Yet, Lord, you are our father. We are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the product of your labor.

They will not labor without successor bear children destined for disaster,for they will be a people blessed by the Lordalong with their descendants.

Before Zion was in labor, she gave birth;before she was in pain, she delivered a boy.

Who has heard of such a thing?Who has seen such things?Can a land be born in one dayor a nation be delivered in an instant?Yet as soon as Zion was in labor,she gave birth to her sons.

“But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

I hear a cry like a woman in labor,a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child.The cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath,stretching out her hands:Woe is me, for my life is wearybecause of the murderers!

We have heard about it,and we are discouraged.Distress has seized us—pain like a woman in labor.

What will you say when He appointsclose friends as leaders over you,ones you yourself trained?Won’t labor pains seize you,as they do a woman in labor?

I will hand over all the wealth of this city to their enemies. I will hand over to them all the fruits of the labor of the people of this city and all their prized possessions, as well as all the treasures of the kings of Judah. Their enemies will seize it all as plunder and carry it off to Babylon.

Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

"'Sure to be judged is the king who builds his palace using injustice and treats people unfairly while adding its upper rooms. He makes his countrymen work for him for nothing. He does not pay them for their labor.

You residents of Lebanon,nestled among the cedars,how you will groan when labor pains come on you,agony like a woman in labor.

Ask and seewhether a male can give birth.Why then do I see every manwith his hands on his stomach like a woman in laborand every face turned pale?

Look, I'm bringing them from the northern region, and I'll gather them from the farthest parts of the earth. among them will be the blind and the lame, together with the pregnant woman and the woman in labor. A large group will return here.

The towns will be captured and the strongholds seized. On that day the hearts of the warriors of Moab will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

Look, he will rise up and fly swiftly like an eagle. He will spread his wings against Bozrah, and on that day the hearts of the warriors of Edom will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

Damascus has become weak;she has turned to run;panic has gripped her.Distress and labor pains have seized herlike a woman in labor.

The king of Babylon has heard reports about them,and his hands fall helpless.Distress has seized him—pain, like a woman in labor.

Thus saith Jehovah of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary.

Young men labor at millstones;boys stumble under loads of wood.

and they shall deal with thee in hatred, and shall take away all thy labor, and shall leave thee naked and bare; and the nakedness of thy whoredoms shall be uncovered, both thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

“Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor strenuously against Tyre. Every head was made bald and every shoulder chafed, but he and his army received no compensation from Tyre for the labor he expended against it.

I have given him the land of Egypt for his labor which he performed, because they acted for Me,” declares the Lord God.

And the residue in the length, answerable unto the holy oblation, shall be ten thousand eastward, and ten thousand westward; and it shall be answerable unto the holy oblation; and the increase thereof shall be for food unto them that labor in the city.

And they that labor in the city, out of all the tribes of Israel, shall till it.

Foreigners are consuming what his strenuous labor produced, but he does not recognize it! His head is filled with gray hair, but he does not realize it!

Labor pains come on him.He is not a wise son;when the time comes,he will not be born.

So the Lord said, “You cared about the plant, which you did not labor over and did not grow. It appeared in a night and perished in a night.

Now, why are you shouting loudly?Is there no king with you?Has your counselor perishedso that anguish grips you like a woman in labor?

Writhe and cry out, Daughter Zion,like a woman in labor,for now you will leave the cityand camp in the open fields.You will go to Babylon;there you will be rescued;there the Lord will redeem youfrom the power of your enemies!

Therefore, He will abandon them until the timewhen she who is in labor has given birth;then the rest of His brothers will returnto the people of Israel.

Is it not from the Lord of Hoststhat the peoples labor only to fuel the fireand countries exhaust themselves for nothing?

For though the fig-tree shall not flourish, Neither shall fruit be in the vines; The labor of the olive shall fail, And the fields shall yield no food; The flock shall be cut off from the fold, And there shall be no herd in the stalls:

I called for a drought on the land, on the mountains, on the grain, on the new wine, on the oil, on what the ground produces, on men, on cattle, and on all the labor of your hands.”

I struck all the products of your labor with blight, disease, and hail, and yet you brought nothing to me,' says the Lord.

And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread.

Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

“Consider how the wildflowers grow: They don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these!

I sent you to reap what you didn’t labor for; others have labored, and you have benefited from their labor.”

When a woman is in labor she has pain because her time has come. But when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the suffering because of the joy that a person has been born into the world.

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now.

And we know [with great confidence] that God [who is deeply concerned about us] causes all things to work together [as a plan] for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to His plan and purpose.

Salute Mary, who bestowed much labor on you.

Salute Tryphaena and Tryphosa, who labor in the Lord. Salute Persis the beloved, who labored much in the Lord.

Now the one planting and the one watering are one in purpose, and each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

we labor, working with our own hands. When we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it;

Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to stop doing manual labor [in order to support our ministry]?

Therefore, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the Lord’s work, knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

to submit yourselves to people like these and to anyone else who shares their labor and hard work.

They have refreshed my spirit as well as yours. So fully acknowledge such men and deeply appreciate them.

labor and hardship,many sleepless nights, hunger and thirst,often without food, cold, and lacking clothing.

I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.

My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you—

For it is written:Rejoice, childless woman,who does not give birth.Burst into song and shout,you who are not in labor,for the children of the desolate are many,more numerous than thoseof the woman who has a husband.

He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need.

Now if I continue living, fruitful labor is the result, so I do not know which I would prefer.

Hold firmly to the message of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.

However, I thought it necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, [who has been] my brother and companion and fellow soldier, who was also sent as your messenger to take care of my needs.

I labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me.

For I bear him witness, that he hath much labor for you, and for them in Laodicea, and for them in Hierapolis.

We recall, in the presence of our God and Father, your work of faith, labor of love, and endurance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ,

For you remember our labor and hardship, brothers. Working night and day so that we would not burden any of you, we preached God’s gospel to you.

For this reason, when I could no longer stand it, I also sent him to find out about your faith, fearing that the tempter had tempted you and that our labor might be for nothing.

When they say, “Peace and security,” then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains come on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.