'Labor' in the Bible

He said to the woman:I will intensify your labor pains;you will bear children in anguish.Your desire will be for your husband,yet he will rule over you.

And He said to Adam, “Because you listened to your wife’s voice and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:The ground is cursed because of you.You will eat from it by means of painful laborall the days of your life.

And he named him Noah, saying, “This one will bring us relief from the agonizing labor of our hands, caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.”

Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now hadst thou sent me away empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labor of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.

They set out from Bethel. When they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.

During her difficult labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid, for you have another son.”

And when she was in labor, one [baby] put out his hand, and the midwife took his hand and tied a scarlet thread on it, saying, “This one was born first.”

He observed that his resting place was excellent, and that the land was pleasant; he bent down, picked up his burdens, and became a slave at forced labor."

So the Egyptians assigned taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. They built Pithom and Rameses as supply cities for Pharaoh.

The Egyptians compelled the sons of Israel to labor rigorously;

and made their lives bitter with difficult labor in brick and mortar and in all kinds of fieldwork. They ruthlessly imposed all this work on them.

Years later, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their forced labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his people.

After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out; and their cry for help ascended to God because of the difficult labor.

The king of Egypt replied to them, "Moses and Aaron, why are you keeping the people from their labor? Go back to your work!"

Pharaoh was thinking, "The people of the land are now many, and you are giving them rest from their labor."

Let the labor be heavier on the men, and let them work at it so that they will pay no attention to false words.”

You go and get straw for yourselves wherever you can find it, but none of your labor will be reduced.’”

Also, I've heard the groaning of the Israelis whom the Egyptians have forced to labor for them, and I've remembered my covenant.

“Therefore tell the Israelites: I am Yahweh, and I will deliver you from the forced labor of the Egyptians and free you from slavery to them. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and great acts of judgment.

I will take you as My people, and I will be your God. You will know that I am Yahweh your God, who delivered you from the forced labor of the Egyptians.

Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their broken spirit and hard labor.

You are to labor six days and do all your work,

“Six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you shall cease from labor so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave, as well as your stranger, may refresh themselves.

It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed.”

“You are to labor six days but you must rest on the seventh day; you must even rest during plowing and harvesting times.

“If your brother among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, you must not force him to do slave labor.

You are to labor six days and do all your work,

Both you and your families must feast there before the Lord your God and rejoice in all the output of your labor with which he has blessed you.

Only in the presence of the Lord your God may you eat these, in the place he chooses. This applies to you, your son, your daughter, your male and female servants, and the Levites in your villages. In that place you will rejoice before the Lord your God in all the output of your labor.

If it agrees to make peace with you and opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall become your forced labor and shall serve you.

But the Egyptians mistreated and afflicted us, and forced us to do hard labor.

Then we cried out to the Lord, the God of our fathers for help, and He heard our voice and saw our suffering and our labor and our [cruel] oppression;

"A people whom you don't know will devour what your land and labor produces. You'll be only oppressed and discouraged continuously

The Lord your God will make the labor of your hands abundantly successful and multiply your children, the offspring of your cattle, and the produce of your soil. For the Lord your God will once more rejoice over you to make you prosperous just as he rejoiced over your ancestors,

The Ephraimites did not conquer the Canaanites living in Gezer. The Canaanites live among the Ephraimites to this very day and do hard labor as their servants.

However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they imposed forced labor on the Canaanites but did not drive them out completely.

I gave you a land you did not labor for, and cities you did not build, though you live in them; you are eating from vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.’

When Israel became stronger, they made the Canaanites serve as forced labor but never drove them out completely.

Zebulun failed to drive out the residents of Kitron or the residents of Nahalol, so the Canaanites lived among them and served as forced labor.

Naphtali did not drive out the residents of Beth-shemesh or the residents of Beth-anath. They lived among the Canaanites who were living in the land, but the residents of Beth-shemesh and Beth-anath served as their forced labor.

The Amorites refused to leave Har-heres, Aijalon, and Shaalbim. When the house of Joseph got the upper hand, the Amorites were made to serve as forced labor.

Eli’s daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth. When she heard the news about the capture of God’s ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, she collapsed and gave birth because her labor pains came on her.

He removed the people who were in the city and put them to work with saws, iron picks, and iron axes, and to labor at brickmaking. He did the same to all the Ammonite cities. Then he and all his troops returned to Jerusalem.

Adoram was in charge of forced labor; Jehoshaphat son of Ahilud was court historian;

Ahishar, in charge of the palace;and Adoniram son of Abda, in charge of forced labor.

Then King Solomon drafted forced laborers from all Israel; the labor force numbered 30,000 men.

He sent 10,000 to Lebanon each month in shifts; one month they were in Lebanon, two months they were at home. Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor.

This is the account of the forced labor that King Solomon had imposed to build the Lord’s temple, his own palace, the supporting terraces, the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

their descendants who remained in the land after them, those whom the Israelites were unable to completely destroy—Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is this way until today.

However, Solomon did not force Israelis into conscripted labor, but they did serve as his soldiers, servants, princes, captains, chariot commanders, and cavalry.

Now the man Jeroboam was capable, and Solomon noticed the young man because he was getting things done. So he appointed him over the entire labor force of the house of Joseph.

"Your father made our yoke heavy; now lighten the hard labor of your father and the heavy yoke which he placed on us, and we will serve you."

Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into the chariot and flee to Jerusalem.

brought back the people who had lived in it, and put them to conscripted labor with saws, iron picks, and axes. David did this to every Ammonite city, and then David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.

their descendants who remained in the land after them, those the Israelites had not completely destroyed—Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is this way today.

Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. However, King Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.

But as for you, be strong and let not your hands be weak, for there is reward for your labor."

Then the king and Jehoiada gave it to those in charge of the labor on the Lord’s temple, who were hiring stonecutters and carpenters to renovate the Lord’s temple, also blacksmiths and coppersmiths to repair the Lord’s temple.

As a result, the workmen did their labor, and the repair work progressed steadily under their supervision, and they restored God's Temple back to what it should be, and strengthened it, too.

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 may labor in the day.

Also I shook out my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labor, that performeth not this promise; even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the assembly said, Amen, and praised Jehovah. And the people did according to this promise.

King Ahasuerus then imposed forced labor on the land and on the coastlands of the sea.

Isn’t mankind consigned to forced labor on earth?Are not his days like those of a hired hand?

Since I will be found guilty,why should I labor in vain?

‘Is it right for You indeed to oppress,To reject the labor of Your hands,And to look favorably on the schemes of the wicked?

He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it;he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.

Like wild donkeys in the desert they go out to their labor, seeking diligently for food; the wasteland provides food for them and for their children.

Do you know when mountain goats give birth?Have you watched the deer in labor?

“They kneel down, they bring forth their young,They get rid of their labor pains.

Will you trust him because of his great strength and entrust your labor to him?

She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own,with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.

Trembling seized them there,agony like that of a woman in labor,

He gave their crops to the caterpillarand the fruit of their labor to the locust.

As for the days of our life, they contain seventy years,Or if due to strength, eighty years,Yet their pride is but labor and sorrow;For soon it is gone and we fly away.

He waters the mountains from His palace;the earth is satisfied by the fruit of Your labor.

He causes the grass to grow for the cattle,And vegetation for the labor of man,So that he may bring forth food from the earth,

Man goes out to his workand to his labor until evening.

He gave to them the land of nations; they inherited the labor of other people

He broke their spirits with hard labor;they stumbled, and there was no one to help.

Let the creditor seize all that he has,And let strangers plunder the product of his labor.

A Solomonic song of ascents.Unless the Lord builds a house,its builders labor over it in vain;unless the Lord watches over a city,the watchman stays alert in vain.

It is useless to get up early and to stay up late, eating the food of exhausting labor truly he gives sleep to those he loves.

For thou shalt eat the labor of thy hands: Happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.

I remember [the] days of long ago; I meditate on all your doings. I muse on the labor of your hands.

lest strangers devour your strength, and your labor benefit another man's house.

The labor of the righteous leads to life;the activity of the wicked leads to sin.

From the fruit of the mouth of a man, he is filled with good, and the reward of {a man's labor} will return to him.

The diligent hand will rule,but laziness will lead to forced labor.

Wealth obtained by fraud will dwindle,but whoever earns it through labor will multiply it.

In all labor there is profit,But mere talk leads only to poverty.

The desire of the sluggard killeth him; For his hands refuse to labor.

Give her the reward of her labor,and let her works praise her at the city gates.

What profit hath man of all his labor wherein he laboreth under the sun?

All that my eyes desired I did not refuse them. I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure, for my heart was pleased because of all my labor and this was my reward for all my labor.

Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me.

And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have control over all the fruit of my labor for which I have labored by acting wisely under the sun. This too is vanity.

Therefore I completely despaired of all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun.

For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, and with knowledge, and with skilfulness; yet to a man that hath not labored therein shall he leave it for his portion. This also is vanity and a great evil.

For what does a man get in all his labor and in his striving with which he labors under the sun?