'Labor' in the Bible

And he called his name Noah, saying, "This one {shall relieve us} from our work, and from the hard labor of our hands, from the ground which Yahweh had cursed.

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."

Then they journeyed from Bethel. And {when they were still some distance} from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor. And she had hard labor.

And {when her labor was the most difficult} the midwife said to her, "Do not be afraid {for you have another son}."

And it happened [that] at her labor one [child] put out a hand. And the midwife took [it] and tied a crimson thread on his hand saying, "This [one] came out first."

He saw a resting place that [was] good, and land that [was] pleasant. So he bowed his shoulder to the burden and became a servant of forced labor.

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} in those days when Moses had grown up, he went out to his brothers, and he saw their {forced labor}, and he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man, [one of] his brothers.

And the king of Egypt said, "Why, Moses and Aaron, do you take the people from their work? Go to your {forced labor}!"

And Pharaoh said, "Look, the people of the land [are] now many, and you want to stop them from their {forced labor}."

Therefore say to the {Israelites}, 'I [am] Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the {forced labor} of Egypt, and I will deliver you from their slavery, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great punishments.

And I will take you {as my people}, and I will be {your God}, and you will know that I [am] Yahweh your God, who brought you out from under the {forced labor} of Egypt.

{And then} if {they accept your terms of peace} and {they surrender to you}, {and then} all the people {inhabiting it} shall be forced labor for you, and they shall serve you.

And the Egyptians treated us badly, and they oppressed us and imposed on us hard labor.

A people that you do not know shall consume the harvest of your land and all your labor, and you will be only oppressed and crushed {for the rest of your lives}.

And it happened, when the {Israelites} grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor but never drove them out completely.

And it happened, when Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they never totally drove them out.

Zebulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or Nahalol, so the Canaanites lived in their midst and became [subjected] to forced labor.

Naphtali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh or Beth-anath, but lived in the midst of the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land; the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh and Beth-anath became forced labor for them.

the Amorites [were] determined to live in Har-heres, in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim, but the hand of the house of Joseph was heavy [on them], and they became [subjected] to forced labor.

Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, [was] pregnant and [about] to give birth. When she heard the news concerning the capture of the ark of God and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she {went into labor} and gave birth, because her labor pains came upon her.

Adoram [was] over the forced labor, and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud [was] the recorder.

Ahishar [was] over the palace, and Adoniram the son of Abda [was] over the forced labor.

Then King Solomon conscripted a forced labor from all Israel, and the forced labor [numbered] thirty thousand men.

He sent them to Lebanon, ten thousand {every month}; the work groups were a month in Lebanon and two months at home; now Adoniram was over the forced labor.

This [is] the account of the forced labor that King Solomon conscripted to build the house of Yahweh and his house, the Millo, the walls of Jerusalem, Hazor, Megiddo, and Gezer.

their children who remained after them in the land, whom the {Israelites} were not able to completely destroy, Solomon conscripted them for forced labor, until this very day.

Now the man Jeroboam [was] a man of ability, and Solomon saw that the young man {was a diligent worker}, so he appointed him over all of the forced labor for 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."

King Rehoboam sent Adoram who [was] over the forced labor, and all of Israel cast stones at him and he died, but King Rehoboam managed to get up on the chariot to flee [to] Jerusalem.

from the descendants who were left over after them in the land, whom the Israelites had not destroyed, Solomon conscripted them as forced labor until this day.

Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was {in charge of} the forced labor, but the {Israelites} stoned him with stones, and he died. Then King Rehoboam hastily went up into the 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."

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

[If] I shall be [declared] guilty, why then should I labor in vain?

Is it good for you that you oppress, that you despise the labor of your hands, and you smile over the schemes of [the] wicked?

"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.

When they crouch, they bring forth their young ones; they get rid of their labor pains.

Can you trust it because its strength [is] great, or will you hand your labor over to it?

It deals cruelly with its young ones, as [if] [they were] not its [own], as [if] without fear [that] its labor [were] in vain,

Trembling seized them there-- pain as of a woman in labor.

And he gave their crop to the locusts and their labor to the locust.

Humankind goes out to its work, and to its labor until evening.

And he gave to them [the] lands of [the] nations, and they inherited [the] labor of [the] peoples,

Unless Yahweh builds a house, its builders labor at it in vain. Unless Yahweh guards a city, a guard watches in vain.

You will indeed eat of the labor of your hands; you [will be] happy and [it will be] well with you.

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

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 hand of the diligent ones will rule, but the lazy will belong to forced labor.

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

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.}

Who [is] this coming up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? Under the apple tree I awakened you; there your mother {conceived you}; there she who was in labor gave birth to you.

and they will be dismayed. Pangs and labor pains will seize [them]; they will tremble like a woman giving birth. {They will stare at one another}, {their faces flushing}.

And it shall happen on the day Yahweh gives you rest from your pain and turmoil and hard labor which {you had to perform},

Be ashamed, Sidon, for [the] sea, the fortress of the sea said, saying, "I was not in labor, and I have not given birth, and I have not reared young men, brought up young women.

Like pregnant woman on the point of giving birth, she writhes; she cries in her labor pains. So we were because of your presence, Yahweh.

And Assyria shall fall by a sword not [of] a man, and a sword not [of] a human shall devour him; and he shall flee from [the] sword, and his young men shall 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."

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

"Sing for joy, barren [woman]; [who] has not borne! Burst forth [into] rejoicing and rejoice, [she who] has not been in labor! For [the] children of [the] desolate woman [are] more than [the] children of [the] married woman," says Yahweh.

Why do you weigh out money for [what is] not food, and your labor for {what cannot satisfy}? Listen carefully to me, and eat [what is] good, and let your soul take pleasure in {rich} food.

They shall not labor for nothing, and they shall not give birth to horror, for they {shall be offspring blessed by} Yahweh, and their descendants with them.

Before she was in labor she gave birth; before labor pains came to her, she gave birth to a son.

Who has heard [anything] like this? Who has seen [anything] like these [things]? Can a land be born in one day? Or can a nation be born in a moment? [Yet] when she was in labor, Zion indeed gave birth [to] her children.

But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our ancestors from our youth, their flocks, and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.

What will you say when he sets over you-- and you have taught them--allies as head over you? Will not labor pains take hold of you, like a woman giving birth?

Inhabitants of Lebanon, nestled among the cedars, how you will groan when labor pains come to you, fear and pain as the [woman who] gives birth.

Kerioth will be taken, and the strongholds will be conquered, and the hearts of the warriors of Moab will be on that day like [the] heart of a woman [who] is in labor.

Look, like an eagle he will go up and he will swoop down, and he will spread out his wings against Bozrah. And the heart of the warriors of Edom will be in that day like [the] heart of a woman [who] is in labor.

Damascus has grown slack. She has turned away to flee and panic. Anxiety has seized [her], and labor pains have grasped her, like a woman in labor.

Thus says Yahweh of hosts: "The broad walls of Babylon will be utterly demolished, and her high gates will burn with fire, and [the] peoples will labor {for nothing}, and [the] nations {for fire}, and they will grow weary."

"Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, he made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head was rubbed bare, and every shoulder [was] rubbed raw, but a wage was not [paid] for him and for his army from Tyre for the labor that he did against it."

The labor pains of childbirth come for him; he [is] an unwise son because [at the] proper time, he does not present himself {at the mouth of the womb}.

But Yahweh said, "You are troubled about the plant, for which you did not labor nor cause it to grow. {It grew up in a night and it perished in a night}!

So then, why do you shout a loud shout? Is there no king in you? Has your counselor perished that pangs like a woman in labor have seized you?

Writhe and groan, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor. For now you will go forth from the city, and you will camp in the field; you will go to Babylon. There you will be rescued; there Yahweh will redeem you from the hand of your enemies.

Look! [Is it] not from Yahweh of hosts that people labor for mere fire, and nations exhaust themselves for mere vanity?

I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil, on what the soil produces, on human beings and wild animals, and on {all their labor}.'"

Come to me, all [of you] who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

Now the one who plants and the one who waters are one, but each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

So then, my dear brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, [because you] know that your labor is not [in] vain in the Lord.

that you also be subject to such people, and to all those who work together and labor.

The one who steals must steal no longer, but instead must labor, working with his own hands [what is] good, so that he may have [something] to share with the one who has need.

holding fast to the word of life, for a source of pride to me in the day of Christ, that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.

for which [purpose] also I labor, striving according to his working which is at work powerfully in me.

[because we] remember your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father,

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 this, I also, [when I] could endure [it] no longer, sent in order to know your faith, lest somehow the tempter tempted you and our labor should be in vain.

Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and rule over you in the Lord and admonish you,

nor did we eat bread from anyone without paying, but with toil and labor, [we were] working night and day in order not to be a burden to any of you,

For to this [end] we labor and suffer reproach, because we have put our hope in [the] living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of believers.

The elders who lead well must be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor by speaking and teaching.

'I know your works, and your labor and patient endurance, and that you are not able to tolerate evil, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and are not, and you found them [to be] false.

because in one hour such great wealth has been laid waste!" And every shipmaster and {every seafarer} and sailors and all those who labor on the sea stood {far off}