Words the Bible translates as labor
English uses one word here. The Bible uses 13 words, and they do not mean the same thing. Each is listed with what it actually means, most frequent first.
- avadעָבַדto serve: to do directed labor on behalf of someone or something, whether working the soil, laboring for a master, or worshiping a god.
- ma'asehמַעֲשֶׂהwhat someone does or makes: a deed, a piece of work, or the thing produced by it
- ergazomaiἐργάζομαιto work: to put out sustained effort that produces a result, whether earning a living, doing a deed, or carrying on a trade
- avodahעֲבֹדָהlabor: work done for another, whether freely given or forcibly imposed
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- cultic service: the formal ministry at the sanctuary, and the prescribed rites of sacred occasions
- kopiaōκοπιάωto work to the point of exhaustion: to toil hard, and so to be worn out by the effort
- koposκόποςhard, wearying work; toil that costs real sweat, strength, and fatigue.
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- trouble or bother imposed on someone; the burden of being pestered or worn down.
- ōdinὠδίνa birth pang: the gripping pain of labor, used in the New Testament as a picture of anguish that seizes suddenly and cannot be escaped
- yagaיָגֵעַto wear out with hard effort: to toil to the point of weariness, to grow weary, or to wear another out
- spoudazōσπουδάζωto throw yourself into something and not put it off: to make every effort, and to make it now
- agōnizomaiἀγωνίζομαιto contend with all your strength: to throw everything you have into a contest you mean to win
- pe'ullahפְּעֻלָּהwhat work brings back: the pay, reward, or payback earned by labor, and at times the labor itself
- amalעָמַלto toil: to wear oneself out working hard at something
- etsevעֶצֶבhard, draining work and the hurt that comes with it: the strenuous labor of a fallen world and the pain that labor costs
+1 more meaning
- a fashioned object, a clay pot, used of a person treated as a worthless, broken thing
Keep looking
Every English meaning beginning with L is on its letter page, and the whole index starts at Browse.