I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

because we recall ¹  in the presence of our God and Father ²  your work of faith and labor of love and endurance of hope ³  in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, ¹  to acknowledge those who labor among you and preside over you in the Lord and admonish you,

To the woman he said, “I will greatly increase ¹  your labor pains; ²  with pain you will give birth to children. You will want to control your husband, ³  but he will dominate ⁴  you.”

He named him Noah, ¹  saying, “This one will bring us comfort ²  from our labor and from the painful toil of our hands because of the ground that the Lord has cursed.”

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 

As for the produce of your land and all your labor, a people you do not know will consume it, and you will be nothing but oppressed and crushed for the rest of your lives.

He removed the city’s residents and made them do hard labor with saws, iron picks, and axes. ¹  This was his policy ²  with all the Ammonite cities. Then David and all the army returned to Jerusalem.

Who knows if he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet ¹  he will be master over all the fruit of ²  my labor ³  for which I worked so wisely ⁴  on earth! ⁵  This also is futile!

For this reason my stomach churns; ¹  cramps overwhelm me like the contractions of a woman in labor. I am disturbed ²  by what I hear, horrified by what I see.

Be ashamed, O Sidon, for the sea ¹  says this, O fortress of the sea: “I have not gone into labor or given birth; I have not raised young men or brought up young women.” ² 

Assyria will fall by a sword, but not one human-made; ¹  a sword not made by humankind will destroy them. ²  They will run away from this sword ³  and their young men will be forced to do hard labor.

All of your people will be godly; ¹  they will possess the land permanently. I will plant them like a shoot; they will be the product of my labor, through whom I reveal my splendor. ² 

“‘Sure to be judged ¹  is the king who builds his palace using injustice and treats people unfairly while adding its upper rooms. ²  He makes his countrymen work for him for nothing. He does not pay them for their labor.

Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings, a nation will soar up and swoop down on Bozrah. At that time the soldiers of Edom will be as fearful as a woman in labor.” ¹ 

Jerusalem, why are you ¹  now shouting so loudly? ²  Has your king disappeared? ³  Has your wise leader ⁴  been destroyed? Is this why ⁵  pain grips ⁶  you as if you were a woman in labor?

So then, dear brothers and sisters, ¹  be firm. Do not be moved! Always be outstanding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

The one who steals must steal no longer; rather he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with the one who has need.

by holding on to ¹  the word of life so that on the day of Christ I will have a reason to boast that I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

Now when ¹  they are saying, “There is peace and security,” ²  then sudden destruction comes on them, like labor pains ³  on a pregnant woman, and they will surely not escape.