Labor

How Nave’s arranged it

• General scriptures concerningGenesis 3:19Exodus 20:9–11Exodus 23:12Exodus 34:21Leviticus 19:13Deuteronomy 24:14Deuteronomy 24:15Deuteronomy 25:4Ecclesiastes 5:12Jeremiah 22:13Malachi 3:5Matthew 20:1–15Luke 10:7Acts 20:351 Corinthians 9:9Ephesians 4:281 Thessalonians 4:111 Thessalonians 4:122 Thessalonians 3:7–131 Timothy 5:18
• See Employee
• See Employer
• See Idleness
• See Industry
• See Master
• See Servant

The passages, in Bible order (21)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 16 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Genesis 3:19

   By the sweat of your brow you will eat your bread, until you return to the ground— because out of it were you taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

   ›Commentary on Genesis 3:191 voice

   “Still another problem arises. "From what source did death come to Adam? Was it from the nature of a tree of this sort or actually from God?" If we ascribe this to the nature of the tree, then the fruit of this tree seems to be superior to the vivifying power of the breath of God, since its fruit would have drawn into death's toils him on whom the divine breath had bestowed life. If we maintain that God is the responsible cause of death, then we can be held to accuse him of inconsistency.

   Everything gathered on Genesis 3:19→

   Verse page →Original language →

2. Exodus 20:9–11

   Six days you shall labor and do all your work,

   ›Commentary on Exodus 20:9–111 voice

   “He commands imitation of himself, when he says: Six days you shall labor. Concerning this imitation the Apostle says: Be imitators of God, as most beloved children: and in Luke it is said: Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Now there are six …

   Everything gathered on Exodus 20:9–11→

   Verse page →Original language →

3. Exodus 23:12

   For six days you are to do your work, but on the seventh day you must cease, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the son of your maidservant may be refreshed, as well as the foreign resident.

   ›Commentary on Exodus 23:121 voice

   “Six days thou shalt do thy work,....

   Everything gathered on Exodus 23:12→

   Verse page →Original language →

4. Exodus 34:21

   Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even in the seasons of plowing and harvesting, you must rest.

   ›Commentary on Exodus 34:211 voice

   “Six days shalt thou work, but on the seventh day thou shalt rest,....

   Everything gathered on Exodus 34:21→

   Verse page →Original language →

5. Leviticus 19:13

   You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.

   ›Commentary on Leviticus 19:131 voice

   “Let no one deny the hireling the wage he is owed, since we too are hirelings of our God, and from him we look forward to the reward of our labor. And if you indeed, whatever type of businessman you are, deny your hireling a monetary payment that is a perishable trifle, you shall be denied the reward of heaven that has been promised. You shall not defraud, as the law says, the hireling of his pay.

   Everything gathered on Leviticus 19:13→

   Verse page →Original language →

6. Deuteronomy 24:14

   Do not oppress a hired hand who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother or a foreigner residing in one of your towns.

   ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 24:141 voice

   “Thou shall not oppress an hired servant,....

   Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 24:14→

   Verse page →Original language →

7. Deuteronomy 24:15

   You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

   ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 24:151 voice

   “At his day thou shalt give him his hire,....

   Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 24:15→

   Verse page →Original language →

8. Deuteronomy 25:4

   Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.

   ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 25:41 voice

   “Let him use those tenths and first-fruits, which are given according to the command of God, as a man of God; as also let him dispense in a right manner the free-will offerings which are brought in on account of the poor, to the orphans, the widows, the afflicted, and strangers in distress, as having that God for the examiner of his accounts who has committed the disposition to him.

   Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 25:4→

   Verse page →Original language →

9. Ecclesiastes 5:12

   The sleep of the worker is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of the rich man permits him no sleep.

   ›Commentary on Ecclesiastes 5:121 voice

   “Ecclesiastes sees that riches are kept for ill by one who possesses them, for their loss causes a very great anxiety and disquiet. Indeed they are lost, for they are left here and can be of no advantage to one who is dead.

   Everything gathered on Ecclesiastes 5:12→

   Verse page →Original language →

10. Jeremiah 22:13

    “Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,

    ›Commentary on Jeremiah 22:132 voices

    “(Verse 12 and following) Woe to him who builds his house with injustice, and his upper rooms without justice. He oppresses his neighbor in vain, and does not pay him his wages. He says, 'I will build for myself a spacious house with large upper rooms.' He opens windows for himself, and makes it with cedar and paints it with vermilion. Are you going to reign because you have luxury? Didn't your father eat and drink, and do judgment and justice when he was prospering?

    “But such a house as this sensual persons, they who dwell in cieled houses and delight in chased silver, do not build. For as they despise pure silver, so also they despise simple dwellings. They enlarge the site of their houses, they add more and more, joining house to house and farm to farm, they dig up the ground; so that the very earth itself gives way to their habitations, and like sons of the earth they are laid up within her womb, and hidden in her bowels.

    Everything gathered on Jeremiah 22:13→

    Verse page →Original language →

11. Malachi 3:5

    “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

    ›Commentary on Malachi 3:51 voice

    “(Verse 5) And I will come to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers, and perjurers, and those who oppress the hired worker, the widow, and the fatherless, and those who thrust aside the sojourner: they have not feared me, says the Lord of hosts. LXX: And I will come to you in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against evildoers, and against adulterers, and against those who swear falsely by my name.

    Everything gathered on Malachi 3:5→

    Verse page →Original language →

12. Matthew 20:1–15

    “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.

    ›Commentary on Matthew 20:1–151 voice

    “Chapter 20, Verse 1 onwards: The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. After agreeing to pay them the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out again at about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace and said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and I will give you whatever is right.' So they went. Again he went out about the sixth and ninth hour and did the same.

    Everything gathered on Matthew 20:1–15→

    Verse page →Original language →

13. Luke 10:7

    Stay at the same house, eating and drinking whatever you are offered. For the worker is worthy of his wages. Do not move around from house to house.

    ›Commentary on Luke 10:71 voice

    “Another virtue is added, that we should not go about easily, changing from house to house. For it follows, Go not from house to house; that is, that we should preserve a consistency in our love towards our hosts, nor lightly loose any bond of friendship.

    Everything gathered on Luke 10:7→

    Verse page →Original language →

14. Acts 20:35

    In everything, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

    ›Commentary on Acts 20:351 voice

    “Somehow or other the very one who begs leave to offer you a gift holds you the cheaper for your acceptance of it; while, if you refuse it, it is wonderful how much more he will come to respect you.

    Everything gathered on Acts 20:35→

    Verse page →Original language →

15. 1 Corinthians 9:9

    For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it about oxen that God is concerned?

    ›Commentary on 1 Corinthians 9:91 voice

    “What was the use, however, of adducing the Creator's, which he was destroying? It was vain to do so; for his god had no such authority! (The apostle) says: "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn," and adds: "Doth God take care of oxen? "Yes, of oxen, for the sake of men! For, says he, "it is written for our sakes.

    Everything gathered on 1 Corinthians 9:9→

    Verse page →Original language →

16. Ephesians 4:28

    He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing good with his own hands, that he may have something to share with the one in need.

    ›Commentary on Ephesians 4:281 voice

    “Those who live in the midst of this life's intense business appear to be forced, for the sake of food and necessary provisions, to buy and sell certain things and to seek unfair profit from business. It is difficult even for those who have been set free from the other passions—namely fornication, idolatry, adultery and murder—to escape being caught by this subtle vice.

    Everything gathered on Ephesians 4:28→

    Verse page →Original language →