Lexicon :: Strong's H5999 - ʿāmāl

Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh[fn] and said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and my whole family.”

He considers no disaster for Jacob;

he sees no trouble for Israel.[fn]

The LORD their God is with them,

and there is rejoicing over the King among them.

“So we called out to the LORD, the God of our ancestors, and the LORD heard our cry and saw our misery, hardship, and oppression.

So they got rid of the foreign gods among them and worshiped the LORD, and he became weary of Israel’s misery.

For that night did not shut

the doors of my mother’s womb,

and hide sorrow from my eyes.

In my experience, those who plow injustice

and those who sow trouble reap the same.

For distress does not grow out of the soil,

and trouble does not sprout from the ground.

So I have been made to inherit months of futility,

and troubled nights have been assigned to me.

For you will forget your suffering,

recalling it only as water that has flowed by.

They conceive trouble and give birth to evil;

their womb prepares deception.

I have heard many things like these.

You are all miserable comforters.

See, the wicked one is pregnant with evil,

conceives trouble, and gives birth to deceit.

His trouble comes back on his own head;

his own violence comes down on top of his head.

Cursing, deceit, and violence fill his mouth;

trouble and malice are under his tongue.

But you yourself have seen trouble and grief,

observing it in order to take the matter into your hands.

The helpless one entrusts himself to you;

you are a helper of the fatherless.

Consider my affliction and trouble,

and forgive all my sins.

day and night they make the rounds on its walls.

Crime and trouble are within it;

They are not in trouble like others;

they are not afflicted like most people.

When I tried to understand all this,

it seemed hopeless[fn]

Our lives last[fn] seventy years

or, if we are strong, eighty years.

Even the best of them are[fn] struggle and sorrow;

indeed, they pass quickly and we fly away.

Can a corrupt throne be your ally,

a throne that makes evil laws?

He gave them the lands of the nations,

and they inherited

what other peoples had worked for.

He broke their spirits[fn] with hard labor;

they stumbled, and there was no one to help.

When those who surround me rise up,[fn]

may the trouble their lips cause overwhelm them.

for their hearts plan violence,

and their words stir up trouble.

Let him drink so that he can forget his poverty

and remember his trouble no more.

What does a person gain for all his efforts

that he labors at under the sun?

All that my eyes desired, I did not deny them. I did not refuse myself any pleasure, for I took pleasure in all my struggles. This was my reward for all my struggles.

I hated all my work that I labored at under the sun because I must leave it to the one who comes after me.

There is nothing better for a person than to eat, drink, and enjoy[fn][fn] his work. I have seen that even this is from God’s hand,

It is also the gift of God whenever anyone eats, drinks, and enjoys all his efforts.

I saw that all labor and all skillful work is due to one person’s jealousy of another. This too is futile and a pursuit of the wind.[fn]

Better one handful with rest

than two handfuls with effort and a pursuit of the wind.

There is a person without a companion,[fn] without even a son or brother, and though there is no end to all his struggles, his eyes are still not content with riches. “Who am I struggling for,” he asks, “and depriving myself of good things? ” This too is futile and a miserable task.

As he came from his mother’s womb, so he will go again, naked as he came; he will take nothing for his efforts that he can carry in his hands.

Here is what I have seen to be good: It is appropriate to eat, drink, and experience good in all the labor one does under the sun during the few days of his life God has given him, because that is his reward.

All of a person’s labor is for his stomach,[fn]

yet the appetite is never satisfied.

So I commended enjoyment because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat, drink, and enjoy himself, for this will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun.

Enjoy life with the wife you love all the days of your fleeting[fn] life, which has been given to you under the sun, all your fleeting days. For that is your portion in life and in your struggle under the sun.

The struggles of fools weary them,

for they don’t know how to go to the city.

Woe to those enacting crooked statutes

and writing oppressive laws

After his anguish,

he will see light[fn] and be satisfied.

By his knowledge,

my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will carry their iniquities.