2067 verses about Work

Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind.

I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.

Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun.

For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, with knowledge, and with skillfulness; yet he shall leave it for his portion to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil.

For what has a man of all his labor, and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun?

For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.

There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.

For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:

What profit has he who works in that in which he labors?

I have seen the burden which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in their hearts, yet so that man can’t find out the work that God has done from the beginning even to the end.

I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good as long as they live.

Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labor, is the gift of God.

I said in my heart, “God will judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.”

Therefore I saw that there is nothing better, than that a man should rejoice in his works; for that is his portion: for who can bring him to see what will be after him?

Yes, better than them both is him who has not yet been, who has not seen the evil work that is done under the sun.

Then I saw all the labor and achievement that is the envy of a man’s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.

The fool folds his hands together and ruins himself.

Better is a handful, with quietness, than two handfuls with labor and chasing after wind.

There is one who is alone, and he has neither son nor brother. There is no end to all of his labor, neither are his eyes satisfied with wealth. “For whom then, do I labor, and deprive my soul of enjoyment?” This also is vanity. Yes, it is a miserable business.

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.

There was no end of all the people, even of all them over whom he was—yet those who come after shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and a chasing after wind.

Don’t allow your mouth to lead you into sin. Don’t protest before the messenger that this was a mistake. Why should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?

Moreover the profit of the earth is for all. The king profits from the field.

The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eats little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not allow him to sleep.

As he came out of his mother’s womb, naked shall he go again as he came, and shall take nothing for his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.

This also is a grievous evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go. And what profit does he have who labors for the wind?

Behold, that which I have seen to be good and proper is for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy good in all his labor, in which he labors under the sun, all the days of his life which God has given him; for this is his portion.

Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat of it, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor—this is the gift of God.

All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the appetite is not filled.

For what advantage has the wise more than the fool? What has the poor man, that knows how to walk before the living?

Consider the work of God, for who can make that straight, which he has made crooked?

It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also from that don’t withdraw your hand; for he who fears God will come out of them all.

For there is a time and procedure for every purpose, although the misery of man is heavy on him.

All this I have seen, and applied my mind to every work that is done under the sun. There is a time in which one man has power over another to his hurt.

There is a vanity which is done on the earth, that there are righteous men to whom it happens according to the work of the wicked. Again, there are wicked men to whom it happens according to the work of the righteous. I said that this also is vanity.

Then I commended mirth, because a man has no better thing under the sun, than to eat, and to drink, and to be joyful: for that will accompany him in his labor all the days of his life which God has given him under the sun.

When I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to see the business that is done on the earth (for also there is that neither day nor night sees sleep with his eyes),

then I saw all the work of God, that man can’t find out the work that is done under the sun, because however much a man labors to seek it out, yet he won’t find it. Yes even though a wise man thinks he can comprehend it, he won’t be able to find it.

For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.

Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.

Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your life of vanity, which he has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity: for that is your portion in life, and in your labor in which you labor under the sun.

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.

I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happen to them all.

I have seen servants on horses, and princes walking like servants on the earth.

Whoever carves out stones may be injured by them. Whoever splits wood may be endangered thereby.

If the ax is blunt, and one doesn’t sharpen the edge, then he must use more strength; but skill brings success.

If the snake bites before it is charmed, then is there no profit for the charmer’s tongue.

The labor of fools wearies every one of them; for he doesn’t know how to go to the city.

Happy are you, land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!

By slothfulness the roof sinks in; and through idleness of the hands the house leaks.

Cast your bread on the waters; for you shall find it after many days.

If the clouds are full of rain, they empty themselves on the earth; and if a tree falls toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falls, there shall it be.

He who observes the wind won’t sow; and he who regards the clouds won’t reap.

As you don’t know what is the way of the wind, nor how the bones grow in the womb of her who is with child; even so you don’t know the work of God who does all.

In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening don’t withhold your hand; for you don’t know which will prosper, whether this or that, or whether they both will be equally good.

For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.

Don’t stare at me because I am dark, because the sun has scorched me. My mother’s sons were angry with me. They made me keeper of the vineyards. I haven’t kept my own vineyard.

Solomon had a vineyard at Baal Hamon. He leased out the vineyard to keepers. Each was to bring a thousand shekels of silver for its fruit.

My own vineyard is before me. The thousand are for you, Solomon; two hundred for those who tend its fruit. Lover

The strong will be like tinder, and his work like a spark. They will both burn together, and no one will quench them.”

He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in the middle of it, and also cut out a wine press therein. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

The harp, lyre, tambourine, and flute, with wine, are at their feasts; but they don’t respect the work of Yahweh, neither have they considered the operation of his hands.

No one shall be weary nor stumble among them; no one shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the belt of their waist be untied, nor the strap of their sandals be broken:

Moreover those who work in combed flax, and those who weave white cloth, will be confounded.

The pillars will be broken in pieces. All those who work for hire will be grieved in soul.

Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which head or tail, palm branch or rush, may do.

He cried like a lion: “Lord, I stand continually on the watchtower in the daytime, and every night I stay at my post.

Her merchandise and her wages will be holiness to Yahweh. It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who dwell before Yahweh, to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.

Yahweh, you will ordain peace for us, for you have also done all our work for us.

For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.

Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods?

When he has leveled its surface, doesn’t he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?

For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.

Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses don’t grind it.

The oxen likewise and the young donkeys that till the ground will eat savory feed, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fork.

The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.

Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him.

Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he.”

So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, “It is good”; and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.

Yes, since the day was, I am he; and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who can hinder it?”

Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together.

The blacksmith takes an ax, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint.

The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house.

He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a cypress tree, and the rain nourishes it.

Woe to him who strives with his Maker— a clay pot among the clay pots of the earth! Shall the clay ask him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’

Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker says: “You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons, and you command me concerning the work of my hands!

Take the millstones, and grind flour. Remove your veil, lift up your skirt, uncover your legs, and wade through the rivers.

I, even I, have spoken; yes, I have called him. I have brought him, and he shall make his way prosperous.

But I said, “I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength in vain for nothing; yet surely the justice due to me is with Yahweh, and my reward with my God.”

Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.

I will declare your righteousness; and as for your works, they will not benefit you.

‘Why have we fasted,’ say they, ‘and you don’t see? Why have we afflicted our soul, and you don’t notice?’ “Behold, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, and oppress all your laborers.

Those who shall be of you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called Repairer of the Breach, Restorer of Paths with Dwellings.

Their webs won’t become garments. They won’t cover themselves with their works. Their works are works of iniquity, and acts of violence are in their hands.

Then your people will all be righteous. They will inherit the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.