Bible topic
Work and Labor in the Bible
Work can be meaningful, but Ecclesiastes highlights its frustrations: toil can be driven by envy, outlasted by death, or handed to someone who did not earn it. Labor is not finally able to secure permanence.
Still, diligent effort and skillful work have their place within life’s limits.
In context
This theme appears in passages such as Ecclesiastes, where the Bible develops it through story, instruction, warning, and promise. In Ecclesiastes 2:17–23 the speaker says his work and achievements make him loathe life, because everything he gains must be handed to someone after him. That successor might be wise or foolish, yet will control what the speaker built with skill. This realization drives him into despair about work. In Ecclesiastes 2:17–23 the speaker says his work and achievements make him loathe life, because everything he gains must be handed to someone after him. That successor might be wise or foolish, yet will control what the speaker built with skill. This realization drives him into despair about work.
Where to keep reading
Start with Ecclesiastes 2:17-23, Ecclesiastes 2:17-23, Ecclesiastes 2:17-23, then follow the related passages in their own setting before drawing broad conclusions.
Reading guardrail
A theme page is strongest when it follows the Bible's own contexts. The goal is not to collect matching words, but to see how repeated ideas develop across passages, books, and the whole biblical story.
Passages currently include Ecclesiastes.
Coverage by Book
Ecclesiastes 10:18
18By slothfulness the roof sinks in; And through idleness of the hands the house leaks.
Ecclesiastes 11:6
6In 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.
Ecclesiastes 2:17-23
17So 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.
18I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
19Who 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 showed myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
20Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun.
21For 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 therein. This also is vanity and a great evil.
22For what has a man of all his labor, and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun?
23For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity.
Ecclesiastes 3:22
22Therefore 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?
Ecclesiastes 4:4-6
4Then I saw all of labor and of achievement that is the envy of a man`s neighbor. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
5The fool folds his hands together and ruins himself.
6Better is a handful, with quietness, than two handfuls with labor and chasing after wind.
Ecclesiastes 5:18-20
18Behold, 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.
19Every 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.
20For he shall not often reflect on the days of his life; because God occupies him with the joy of his heart.
Ecclesiastes 9:10
10Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.
Common questions
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