Life situation
Bible verses about work
Last reviewed
The Bible has a good deal to say about work, and rather more of it is addressed to employers than verse lists usually acknowledge. Wages withheld, weights falsified and workers exploited are recurring concerns of the prophets and of James.
Alongside that sit passages about doing ordinary work carefully, about rest being built into the week, and about the limits of what work can provide.
Ecclesiastes in particular is worth reading in full if work has come to occupy more of your life than you intended.
11 passages
Each shows its reference and translation, and links to the chapter it comes from.
23And whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance; for you serve the Lord Christ.
Commit your deeds to the LORD, and your plans shall succeed.
12I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice, and to do good as long as they live. 13Also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy good in all his labour, is the gift of God.
Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of those who reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Armies.
14You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. 15In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it, for he is poor and sets his heart on it, lest he cry against you to the LORD, and it be sin to you.
In all hard work there is profit, but the talk of the lips leads only to poverty.
9You shall labour six days, and do all your work, 10but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
Do you see a man skilled in his work? He will serve kings. He won’t serve obscure men.
There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God.
“‘You shall not oppress your neighbour, nor rob him. “‘The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
11and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you, 12that you may walk properly towards those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible British Edition, which is in the public domain. “World English Bible” is a trademark of eBible.org.