Word study
Labor
12 Hebrew and 2 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: labor, labors, labored. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “labor” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side Compare the Greek words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- עָמָל âmâltrouble, labour, toiltranslated this way 18 times of its 55 uses · Strong’s H5999Noun · Translated: labor 15, trouble 14, toil 4, misery 4Full study and all 54 verses →
Psalm 90:10 The length of our days is seventy years — or eighty if we are strong — yet their pride is but labor and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.
Ecclesiastes 1:3 What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun?
- יָלַד yâladbear, bring forth, begettranslated this way 17 times of its 484 uses · Strong’s H3205Verb · Translated: father 111, born 57, bore 52, gave birth 44Full study and all 395 verses →
Genesis 35:16 Later, they set out from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.
Psalm 48:6 Trembling seized them there, anguish like a woman in labor.
- מַס masbody of forced labourers, task-workers, labour-band or gangtranslated this way 13 times of its 21 uses · Strong’s H4522Noun · Translated: forced labor 11, forced laborers 4, forced 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Genesis 49:15 He saw that his resting place was good and that his land was pleasant, so he bent his shoulder to the burden and submitted to labor as a servant.
Joshua 17:13 However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they put the Canaanites to forced labor; but they failed to drive them out completely.
- עֲבֹדָה ăbôdâhlabour, servicetranslated this way 8 times of its 127 uses · Strong’s H5656Noun · Translated: service 56, work 25, labor 8, task 5Full study and all 112 verses →
Exodus 1:14 and made their lives bitter with hard labor in brick and mortar, and with all kinds of work in the fields. Every service they imposed was harsh.
Leviticus 25:39 If a countryman among you becomes destitute and sells himself to you, then you must not force him into slave labor.
- יְגִיעַ yegîatoil, producttranslated this way 7 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H3018Noun · Translated: labor 4, toil 2, products 2, worked 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Job 39:16 She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.
Psalm 78:46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper, the fruit of their labor to the locust.
- יָגַע yâgatoil, grow or be wearytranslated this way 6 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s H3021Verb · Translated: wearied 6, weary 5, labor 4, wear 2Full study and all 25 verses →
Job 9:29 Since I am already found guilty, why should I labor in vain?
Isaiah 47:15 This is what they are to you — those with whom you have labored and traded from youth— each one strays in his own direction; not one of them can save you.’’
- עָבַד âbadwork, servetranslated this way 5 times of its 286 uses · Strong’s H5647Verb · Translated: serve 110, served 44, worship 32, work 9Full study and all 259 verses →
Exodus 20:9 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
Deuteronomy 5:13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
- סְבָלָה sebâlâhburdentranslated this way 4 times of its 6 uses · Strong’s H5450Noun · Translated: labor 2, yoke 2, forced labor 1, hard labor 1Full study and all 6 verses →
Exodus 1:11 So the Egyptians appointed taskmasters over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor. As a result, they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.
Exodus 2:11 One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to his own people and observed their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.
- חוּל chûlwhirl, dance, writhetranslated this way 3 times of its 58 uses · Strong’s H2342Verb · Translated: brought forth 6, tremble 5, labor 3, waited 2Full study and all 55 verses →
Isaiah 23:4 Be ashamed, O 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 men or brought up young women.”
Isaiah 66:7 “Before she was in labor, she gave birth; before she was in pain, she delivered a boy.
- צָבָא tsâbâarmy, war, warfaretranslated this way 2 times of its 468 uses · Strong’s H6635Noun · Translated: Hosts 286, army 66, host 23, divisions 21Full study and all 448 verses →
Job 7:1 “Is not man consigned to labor on earth? Are not his days like those of a hired hand?
Isaiah 40:2 “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her forced labor has been completed; her iniquity has been pardoned. For she has received from the hand of the LORD double for all her sins.”
- עֶצֶב etsebpain, hurt, toiltranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H6089Noun · Translated: pain 1, toiling 1, labors 1, sorrow 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Proverbs 5:10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
Proverbs 14:23 There is profit in all labor, but mere talk leads only to poverty.
- צָרַר tsârarbind, tie up, be restricted, narrow, scant, crampedtranslated this way 2 times of its 53 uses · Strong’s H6887Verb · Translated: distress 5, foes 4, enemy 4, enemies 4Full study and all 52 verses →
Jeremiah 48:41 Kirioth has been taken, and the strongholds seized. In that day the heart of Moab’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
Jeremiah 49:22 Look! An eagle will soar and swoop down, spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom’s mighty men will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
Greek words (New Testament)
- κόπος kópostrouble, toil, labortranslated this way 13 times of its 15 uses · Strong’s G2873Noun · Translated: labor 11, labors 2, bother 1, trouble 1Full study and all 15 verses →
John 4:38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the hard work, and now you have taken up their labor.”
1 Corinthians 3:8 He who plants and he who waters are one in purpose , and each will be rewarded according to his own labor.
- κοπιάω kopiáōI grow weary, toiltranslated this way 5 times of its 23 uses · Strong’s G2872Verb · Translated: labor 5, worked 4, weary 2, worked hard 2Full study and all 21 verses →
Matthew 6:28 And why do you worry about clothes? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin.
Luke 12:27 Consider how the lilies grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned like one of these.
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
What the Bible says about labor: passages by topic →
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.