'Labor' in the Bible
So they put foremen over the Israelites to oppress them with hard labor. As a result they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
In those days, when Moses had grown up, he went out to his people and observed their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian man attacking a Hebrew man, one of his own people.
During that long period of time the king of Egypt died, and the Israelites groaned because of the slave labor. They cried out, and their desperate cry because of their slave labor went up to God.
The king of Egypt said to them, "Moses and Aaron, why do you cause the people to refrain from their work? Return to your labor!"
Pharaoh was thinking, "The people of the land are now many, and you are giving them rest from their labor."
Therefore, tell the Israelites, 'I am the Lord. I will bring you out from your enslavement to the Egyptians, I will rescue you from the hard labor they impose, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments.
Moses told this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and hard labor.
"On six days you may labor, but on the seventh day you must rest; even at the time of plowing and of harvest you are to rest.