'Work' in the Bible

and Shabbethai and Jozabad, from the leaders of the Levites, who were in charge of the outside work of the house of God;

Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

“You will call, and I will answer You;You will long for the work of Your hands.

“Is it not calamity to the unjustAnd disaster to those who work iniquity?

“For He pays a man according to his work,And makes him find it according to his way.

Who shows no partiality to princesNor regards the rich above the poor,For they all are the work of His hands?

Then He declares to them their workAnd their transgressions, that they have magnified themselves.

“Remember that you should exalt His work,Of which men have sung.

“He seals the hand of every man,That all men may know His work.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,The moon and the stars, which You have ordained;

The Lord has made Himself known;He has executed judgment.In the work of his own hands the wicked is snared. Higgaion Selah.

For the choir director. A Psalm of David.The heavens are telling of the glory of God;And their expanse is declaring the work of His hands.

Do not drag me away with the wickedAnd with those who work iniquity,Who speak peace with their neighbors,While evil is in their hearts.

Requite them according to their work and according to the evil of their practices;Requite them according to the deeds of their hands;Repay them their recompense.

For the word of the Lord is upright,And all His work is done in faithfulness.

For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah.O God, we have heard with our ears,Our fathers have told usThe work that You did in their days,In the days of old.

She will be led to the King in embroidered work;The virgins, her companions who follow her,Will be brought to You.

No, in heart you work unrighteousness;On earth you weigh out the violence of your hands.

And lovingkindness is Yours, O Lord,For You recompense a man according to his work.

Then all men will fear,And they will declare the work of God,And will consider what He has done.

And now all its carved workThey smash with hatchet and hammers.

I will meditate on all Your workAnd muse on Your deeds.

Let Your work appear to Your servantsAnd Your majesty to their children.

Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us;And confirm for us the work of our hands;Yes, confirm the work of our hands.

“When your fathers tested Me,They tried Me, though they had seen My work.

I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;I hate the work of those who fall away;It shall not fasten its grip on me.

“Of old You founded the earth,And the heavens are the work of Your hands.

Man goes forth to his workAnd to his labor until evening.

Splendid and majestic is His work,And His righteousness endures forever.

Their idols are silver and gold,The work of man’s hands.

The idols of the nations are but silver and gold,The work of man’s hands.

I remember the days of old;I meditate on all Your doings;I muse on the work of Your hands.

He also who is slack in his workIs brother to him who destroys.

The desire of the sluggard puts him to death,For his hands refuse to work;

Do you see a man skilled in his work?He will stand before kings;He will not stand before obscure men.

If you say, “See, we did not know this,”Does He not consider it who weighs the hearts?And does He not know it who keeps your soul?And will He not render to man according to his work?

Prepare your work outsideAnd make it ready for yourself in the field;Afterwards, then, build your house.

Do not say, “Thus I shall do to him as he has done to me;I will render to the man according to his work.”

What advantage does man have in all his workWhich he does under the sun?

So I hated life, for the work which had been done under the sun was grievous to me; because everything is futility and striving after wind.

He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.

Do not let your speech cause you to sin and do not say in the presence of the messenger of God that it was a mistake. Why should God be angry on account of your voice and destroy the work of your hands?

Consider the work of God,For who is able to straighten what He has bent?

and I saw every work of God, I concluded that man cannot discover the work which has been done under the sun. Even though man should seek laboriously, he will not discover; and though the wise man should say, “I know,” he cannot discover.

“How beautiful are your feet in sandals,O prince’s daughter!The curves of your hips are like jewels,The work of the hands of an artist.

The strong man will become tinder,His work also a spark.Thus they shall both burn togetherAnd there will be none to quench them.

Their land has also been filled with idols;They worship the work of their hands,That which their fingers have made.

Their banquets are accompanied by lyre and harp, by tambourine and flute, and by wine;But they do not pay attention to the deeds of the Lord,Nor do they consider the work of His hands.

Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw nearAnd come to pass, that we may know it!”

So it will be that when the Lord has completed all His work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the fruit of the arrogant heart of the king of Assyria and the pomp of his haughtiness.”

He will not have regard for the altars, the work of his hands,Nor will he look to that which his fingers have made,Even the Asherim and incense stands.

There will be no work for EgyptWhich its head or tail, its palm branch or bulrush, may do.

whom the Lord of hosts has blessed, saying, “Blessed is Egypt My people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance.”

For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim,He will be stirred up as in the valley of Gibeon,To do His task, His unusual task,And to work His work, His extraordinary work.

But when he sees his children, the work of My hands, in his midst,They will sanctify My name;Indeed, they will sanctify the Holy One of JacobAnd will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

Also the oxen and the donkeys which work the ground will eat salted fodder, which has been winnowed with shovel and fork.

And the work of righteousness will be peace,And the service of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

Behold, you are of no account,And your work amounts to nothing;He who chooses you is an abomination.

The man shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary.

Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker:“Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons,And you shall commit to Me the work of My hands.

“Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows the fire of coalsAnd brings out a weapon for its work;And I have created the destroyer to ruin.

“Then all your people will be righteous;They will possess the land forever,The branch of My planting,The work of My hands,That I may be glorified.

But now, O Lord, You are our Father,We are the clay, and You our potter;And all of us are the work of Your hand.

Both their own iniquities and the iniquities of their fathers together,” says the Lord.“Because they have burned incense on the mountainsAnd scorned Me on the hills,Therefore I will measure their former work into their bosom.”

“They will not build and another inhabit,They will not plant and another eat;For as the lifetime of a tree, so will be the days of My people,And My chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands.

For the customs of the peoples are delusion;Because it is wood cut from the forest,The work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool.

Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish,And gold from Uphaz,The work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith;Violet and purple are their clothing;They are all the work of skilled men.

They are worthless, a work of mockery;In the time of their punishment they will perish.

You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the sabbath day nor do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers.

“But it will come about, if you listen attentively to Me,” declares the Lord, “to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but to keep the sabbath day holy by doing no work on it,

and do not go after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will do you no harm.’

Yet you have not listened to Me,” declares the Lord, “in order that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own harm.

(For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will recompense them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands.)’”

For behold, I am beginning to work calamity in this city which is called by My name, and shall you be completely free from punishment? You will not be free from punishment; for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth,” declares the Lord of hosts.’

Thus says the Lord,“Restrain your voice from weepingAnd your eyes from tears;For your work will be rewarded,” declares the Lord,“And they will return from the land of the enemy.

Indeed the sons of Israel and the sons of Judah have been doing only evil in My sight from their youth; for the sons of Israel have been only provoking Me to anger by the work of their hands,” declares the Lord.

“Cursed be the one who does the Lord’s work negligently,And cursed be the one who restrains his sword from blood.

The Lord has opened His armoryAnd has brought forth the weapons of His indignation,For it is a work of the Lord God of hostsIn the land of the Chaldeans.

“Summon many against Babylon,All those who bend the bow:Encamp against her on every side,Let there be no escape.Repay her according to her work;According to all that she has done, so do to her;For she has become arrogant against the Lord,Against the Holy One of Israel.

The Lord has brought about our vindication;Come and let us recount in ZionThe work of the Lord our God!

They are worthless, a work of mockery;In the time of their punishment they will perish.

You will recompense them, O Lord,According to the work of their hands.

The precious sons of Zion,Weighed against fine gold,How they are regarded as earthen jars,The work of a potter’s hands!

Aram was your customer because of the abundance of your goods; they paid for your wares with emeralds, purple, embroidered work, fine linen, coral and rubies.

They traded with you in choice garments, in clothes of blue and embroidered work, and in carpets of many colors and tightly wound cords, which were among your merchandise.

And now they sin more and more,And make for themselves molten images,Idols skillfully made from their silver,All of them the work of craftsmen.They say of them, “Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!”

“Assyria will not save us,We will not ride on horses;Nor will we say again, ‘Our god,’To the work of our hands;For in You the orphan finds mercy.”

Then the Lord said, “You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished overnight.

Woe to those who scheme iniquity,Who work out evil on their beds!When morning comes, they do it,For it is in the power of their hands.

“I will cut off your carved imagesAnd your sacred pillars from among you,So that you will no longer bow downTo the work of your hands.

Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear.O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years,In the midst of the years make it known;In wrath remember mercy.

Flocks will lie down in her midst,All beasts which range in herds;Both the pelican and the hedgehogWill lodge in the tops of her pillars;Birds will sing in the window,Desolation will be on the threshold;For He has laid bare the cedar work.

But now take courage, Zerubbabel,’ declares the Lord, ‘take courage also, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and all you people of the land take courage,’ declares the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ declares the Lord of hosts.

Then Haggai said, “‘So is this people. And so is this nation before Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.

I smote you and every work of your hands with blasting wind, mildew and hail; yet you did not come back to Me,’ declares the Lord.

and said to his servants, “This is John the Baptist; he has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.”

“But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’

And King Herod heard of it, for His name had become well known; and people were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.”

But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, “There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.”