Word study
Toil
6 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with one of these: toil, toiled, toils, toiling. 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 “toil” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- עָמָל âmâltrouble, labour, toiltranslated this way 5 times of its 55 uses · Strong’s H5999Noun · Translated: labor 15, trouble 14, toil 4, misery 4Full study and all 54 verses →
Deuteronomy 26:7 So we called out to the LORD, the God of our fathers; and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, toil, and oppression.
Ecclesiastes 2:18 I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
- עָמַל âmallabour, toiltranslated this way 3 times of its 11 uses · Strong’s H5998Pronoun · Translated: toils 2, worked 2Full study and all 11 verses →
Ecclesiastes 1:3 What does a man gain from all his labor, at which he toils under the sun?
Ecclesiastes 2:11 Yet when I considered all the works that my hands had accomplished and what I had toiled to achieve, I found everything to be futile, a pursuit of the wind; there was nothing to be gained under the sun.
- עִצָּבוֹן itstsâbônpain, toiltranslated this way 2 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s H6093Noun · Translated: toil 2, pain 1Full study and all 3 verses →
Genesis 3:17 And to Adam He said: “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat, cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
Genesis 5:29 And he named him Noah, saying, “May this one comfort us in the labor and toil of our hands caused by the ground that the LORD has cursed.”
- יְגִיעַ yegîatoil, producttranslated this way 2 times of its 16 uses · Strong’s H3018Noun · Translated: labor 4, toil 2, products 2, worked 2Full study and all 16 verses →
Genesis 31:42 If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”
Deuteronomy 28:33 A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
- יָגַע yâgatoil, grow or be wearytranslated this way 2 times of its 26 uses · Strong’s H3021Verb · Translated: wearied 6, weary 5, labor 4, wear 2Full study and all 25 verses →
Joshua 24:13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities that you did not build, and now you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’
Isaiah 62:8 The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain to your enemies for food, nor will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled.
- עָמֵל âmêllabourer, sufferertranslated this way 2 times of its 7 uses · Strong’s H6001Noun · Translated: toil 2, workman's 1, miserable 1, misery 1Full study and all 7 verses →
Ecclesiastes 3:9 What does the worker gain from his toil?
Ecclesiastes 4:8 There is a man all alone, without even a son or brother. And though there is no end to his labor, his eyes are still not content with his wealth: “For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment?” This too is futile — a miserable task.
Greek words (New Testament)
- μόχθος móchthoswearisome labor, toil, hardshiptranslated this way 3 times of its 3 uses · Strong’s G3449Noun · Translated: toil 3Full study and all 3 verses →
2 Corinthians 11:27 in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure.
1 Thessalonians 2:9 Surely you recall, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and day so that we would not be a burden to anyone while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.
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.
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.