1 Corinthians 15:58 · Symbol · Work and Toil
The Words Amal and Kopos
A word study of the Hebrew noun amal and the Greek noun kopos, the words behind much of the toil and labor of the Berean text.
In Jonah 4:10 the LORD tells Jonah that he never toiled over the plant he cared about, and the Hebrew verb is amal.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast and immovable. Always excel in the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
- The word
- עָמָל (amal), H5999
- First appears
- Genesis 41:51 “Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, saying, “God has…”
Summary
Two words carry much of what Scripture says about the weariness of work. The Hebrew noun amal joins hard labor to the trouble and misery that come with it, and the Teacher of Ecclesiastes makes it one of his key words. The Greek noun kopos names labor that drains a person's strength, and Paul uses it for his own work among the churches.
- Amal can name the toil a person does, the trouble he suffers and the harm he plans against others.
- Kopos can mean hard labor, as in Paul's labor and toil night and day, or trouble given to another person.
- A verb stands beside each noun: Hebrew amal, to toil, and Greek kopiao, to grow weary or to labor.
Toil in Two Languages
Amal, kopos and the trial of work.
The Words Amal and Kopos studies the Hebrew and Greek nouns Scripture uses most for wearying work. They are the words behind the trial of work and toil, so they show how the Bible itself describes labor that costs more than it seems to return.
The question it answers is what each word means in its verses and where its sense ends. It counts four words of toil, follows amal from the worker's labor to the Servant's anguish, and gives a caution on a shared spelling. It then reads kopos from the hardships of Paul to the rest of Revelation 14:13 and sets out two readings of Job 5:7.
Where the Words Stand
Two Hebrew words and two Greek words of toil, with their counts.
The noun amal is the most frequent of the four words, and Ecclesiastes holds more of its uses than any other book.
| Word | Sense in the Tyndale House lexicon | Uses, and where most | One use in the Berean words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hebrew | |||
| amal, עָמָל, H5999, noun | toil, wearing effort; trouble | 55 in 54 verses: Ecclesiastes 21, Psalms 13, Job 8 | Deuteronomy 26:7, "saw our affliction, toil, and oppression" |
| amal, עָמַל, H5998, verb | to toil, to work severely and with irksomeness | 11: Ecclesiastes 8 | Psalm 127:1, "its builders labor in vain" |
| Greek | |||
| kopos, κόπος, G2873, noun | toil that reduces the strength; trouble | 18: 2 Corinthians 4, 1 Thessalonians 3 | 1 Corinthians 3:8, "each will be rewarded according to his own labor" |
| kopiao, κοπιάω, G2872, verb | to feel fatigue; to labor | 22 in 20 verses: John 3, Romans 3, 1 Corinthians 3 | Luke 5:5, "we have worked hard all night" |
Amal, Toil and Trouble
From the labor of a life to the anguish of the Servant.
In Ecclesiastes amal is the labor a man does under the sun and the weariness it leaves, and it carries the Teacher's question in Ecclesiastes 2:22.
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.The psalm calls the pride of a long life amal, labor, and sets it beside sorrow, so the word holds the work and its grief together.
Psalm 7:14 says the wicked man “conceives trouble and births falsehood”, and the Hebrew noun there is amal.
After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.The Berean anguish renders amal here, so the word for a worker's toil names the suffering of the Servant for the many.
John Gill, in his Exposition of the Old Testament (1748 to 1763), wrote that the travail of the Servant's soul “is the toil and labour he endured, in working out the salvation of his people”.
The toil of Genesis 3:17 is a different noun, itstsabon (H6093), which Strong's explains as worrisomeness, that is, labor or pain.
Kopos and Kopiao
Paul's hardships, a woman troubled at Bethany and the rest of Revelation 14:13.
In his list of hardships Paul writes that he served “in labor and toil and often without sleep” (2 Corinthians 11:27). The Greek pairs kopos with mochthos (G3449), toil, and he uses the same pair for his work among the Thessalonians.
When the disciples scolded the woman with the jar of perfume, Jesus asked why they were bothering her (Matthew 26:10), and the Greek says they were giving her kopos.
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.”Jesus uses the verb kopiao twice and the noun kopos once for the hard work of those who sowed before the disciples came to reap.
And I heard a voice from heaven telling me to write, “Blessed are the dead—those who die in the Lord from this moment on.” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.”The voice from heaven promises the dead who die in the Lord rest from their kopos, and this is the last use of the noun in the canon.
John Wesley, in his Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), wrote on this verse that “the more labourious their life was, the sweeter is their rest”.
The Words Kaved and Bareo studies the words of weight that Scripture uses for a load too heavy to carry.
The Words Charuts and Spoude studies the Hebrew and Greek words for the diligent worker.
What Man Is Born To in Job 5:7
Two readings of amal in the words of Eliphaz, each with its holders and the objection to it.
Yet man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward.Eliphaz uses amal for what every person is born to, and readers differ on whether he means trouble or labor.
Trouble and afflictionAlbert Barnes; Matthew Henry
Albert Barnes, in his Notes, Explanatory and Practical (1832 to 1869), wrote, “The word here (עמל ‛âmâl) rather means trouble, or affliction, than labor.”
Matthew Henry read the verse the same way in his Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710). He wrote, “There is nothing in this world we are born to, and can truly call our own, but sin and trouble”.
The objection: the same noun names the labor of a whole life in Psalm 90:10 and the labor under the sun in Ecclesiastes.
LaborAdam Clarke
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible (1832), read leamal as to labor and wrote, “He must toil and be careful”. He added that if a man in the course of his labor “meet with trials and difficulties, he should rise superior to them”.
The objection: Job 5:6 sets amal beside distress that “does not spring from the dust”, so the verses around it speak of affliction.
Rest for Those Who Labor
The verb of weary work stands in the call of Jesus to the weary.
In Matthew 11:28 Jesus calls “all you who are weary and burdened” to come to Him, and the Greek word for the weary is kopiontes, the participle of kopiao.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- STEP Bible, Translators Amalgamated Hebrew Old Testament and Greek New Testament (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0.
- STEP Bible TBESH and TBESG lexicons (Tyndale House, Cambridge), CC BY 4.0, with the definitions of James Strong, Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (1890)
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748 to 1763), Isaiah 53:11.
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755), Revelation 14:13.
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832 to 1869), Job 5:7.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710), Job 5:7.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832), Job 5:7.
Keep Studying
In this trial6
People and groups9