When the Lord gives you relief from your suffering and anxiety, ¹  and from the hard labor which you were made to perform,

I reported, ¹  “All of them are the most stubborn of rebels! ²  They are as hard as bronze or iron. They go about telling lies. They all deal corruptly.

‘Oh, Lord God, ¹  you did indeed ²  make heaven and earth by your mighty power and great strength. ³  Nothing is too hard for you!

The people ¹  to whom I am sending you are obstinate and hard-hearted, ²  and you must say to them, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says.’ ³ 

Jesus ¹  said to them, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because of your hard hearts, ²  but from the beginning it was not this way.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, ¹  it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven!

Then ¹  Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”

The disciples were astonished at these words. But again Jesus said to them, ¹  “Children, how hard it is ²  to enter the kingdom of God!

We do hard work, toiling with our own hands. When we are verbally abused, we respond with a blessing, when persecuted, we endure,

in hard work and toil, ¹  through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, many times without food, in cold and without enough clothing. ² 

Elders who provide effective leadership ¹  must be counted worthy ²  of double honor, ³  especially those who work hard in speaking ⁴  and teaching.

Let me take my wives and my children whom I have acquired by working for you. ¹  Then I’ll depart, ²  because you know how hard I’ve worked for you.” ³ 

They made their lives bitter ¹  by ²  hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service ³  in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous. ⁴ 

¹ In those days, ²  when ³  Moses had grown up, he went out to his people ⁴  and observed ⁵  their hard labor, and he saw an Egyptian man attacking ⁶  a Hebrew man, one of his own people. ⁷ 

But the magicians of Egypt did the same ¹  by their secret arts, and so ²  Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ³  and he refused to listen to Moses and Aaron ⁴  – just as the Lord had predicted.

The magicians said ¹  to Pharaoh, “It is the finger ²  of God!” But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ³  and he did not listen to them, just as the Lord had predicted.

Pharaoh sent representatives to investigate, ¹  and indeed, not even one of the livestock of Israel had died. But Pharaoh’s heart remained hard, ²  and he did not release the people.

I gave you a land in ¹  which you had not worked hard; you took up residence in cities you did not build and you are eating the produce of ²  vineyards and olive groves you did not plant.’

Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed hard ¹  and the temple collapsed on the rulers and all the people in it. He killed many more people in his death than he had killed during his life. ² 

She asked, ¹  ‘May I follow the harvesters and gather ²  grain among the bundles?’ ³  Since she arrived she has been working hard ⁴  from this morning until now ⁵  – except for ⁶  sitting ⁷  in the resting hut ⁸  a short time.” ⁹