amal · trouble, toil

What it means

amal (עָמָל) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “trouble, toil”.

Hard work, trouble, suffering.

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. Pain one goes through, or harm done to others.
2. Exhausting effort and what it earns.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

Hard toil and the suffering it brings: the weariness of one who labors, and also the harm or pain that one suffers or that another plots. It comes from the verb עָמַל, ‘toil, labor hard’.

• The toil of human work “under the sun” Ecclesiastes 1:3Ecclesiastes 2:11Ecclesiastes 2:24
• The suffering a person endures Genesis 41:51Job 5:7Psalms 25:18
• The oppression the people endures Deuteronomy 26:7Judges 10:16
• The harm the wicked plots Psalms 7:14Psalms 10:7Isaiah 59:4
• The suffering of the servant Isaiah 53:11

Historical and cultural background

Joseph names his firstborn Manasseh, “For Elohim has made me forget all my toil and all the house of my father” (Genesis 41:51).

How we translate it

“Toil” 26 times and “suffering” 22. This edition uses “toil” where the word speaks of labor (in Ecclesiastes, and also in Deuteronomy 26:7 and Genesis 41:51), and “suffering” in the Psalms, Job and Isaiah, where it is pain and not labor; “trouble” 6 (Numbers 23:21; Proverbs 24:2). In Psalm 105:44, “the toil of the peoples”.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• toil ×26
• suffering ×22
• trouble ×6
• hardship ×1

Related words

Words of the same family, by Strong’s numbering.

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Numbers×1
• Deuteronomy×1
• Judges×1
• Job×8
• Psalms×13
• Proverbs×2
• Ecclesiastes×22
• Isaiah×3
• Jeremiah×1
• Habakkuk×2

• Genesis 41:51

  Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, “For Elohim has made me forget all my toil and all the house of my father.”

• Numbers 23:21

  He has not looked on wickedness in Jacob, and he has not seen trouble in Israel. YHWH his Elohim is with him, and the acclamation of a king is among them.

• Deuteronomy 26:7

  And we cried out to YHWH, the Elohim of our fathers, and YHWH heard our voice and saw our affliction and our toil and our oppression.

• Judges 10:16

  They removed the foreign gods from among them and served YHWH; and his soul grew impatient with the toil of Israel.

• Job 3:10

  because it did not shut the doors of my belly and hide suffering from my eyes.

• Job 4:8

  As I have seen, those who plow wickedness and those who sow suffering reap it.

• Job 5:6

  For wickedness does not come out of the dust, nor does suffering sprout from the ground,

• Job 5:7

  but the human being is born for suffering, and the sons of the flame fly high.

• Job 7:3

  so I have been given as my inheritance months of emptiness, and nights of suffering have been assigned to me.

• Job 11:16

  for you will forget suffering; like waters that have passed by you will remember it.

• Job 15:35

  They conceive suffering and give birth to wickedness, and their belly prepares deceit.”

• Job 16:2

  “I have heard many things like these; comforters of suffering are you all.

• Psalms 7:14

  Look, he conceives wickedness, becomes pregnant with suffering, and gives birth to a lie.

• Psalms 7:16

  His suffering will return on his head, and on his crown will come down his violence.

• Psalms 10:7

  His mouth is full of cursing and of deceit and oppression; under his tongue are suffering and wickedness.

• Psalms 10:14

  You have seen it, for you look at suffering and grief to put it in your hand; to you the helpless abandons himself; you have been the helper of the orphan.

• Psalms 25:18

  See my affliction and my suffering, and take away all my sins.

• Psalms 55:10

  Day and night they go around it on its walls, and wickedness and suffering are within it.

• Psalms 73:5

  In the suffering of mortals they are not, and with human beings they are not struck.

• Psalms 73:16

  And I pondered to know this; it was suffering in my eyes,

• Psalms 90:10

  The days of our years —in them seventy years, and if by strength eighty years; and their pride is suffering and sorrow, for it passes quickly, and we fly away.

• Psalms 94:20

  Can a throne of calamities be allied with you, one that forms suffering upon a statute?

• Psalms 105:44

  And he gave them the lands of the nations, and the toil of the peoples they possessed,

• Psalms 107:12

  So he humbled their heart with hardship; they stumbled, and there was no one to help.

• Psalms 140:9

  As for the head of those who surround me, may the trouble of their lips cover them.

• Proverbs 24:2

  for their heart meditates devastation, and their lips speak trouble.

• Proverbs 31:7

  let him drink and forget his poverty, and his trouble let him not remember anymore.

• Ecclesiastes 1:3

  What profit is there for the human being in all his toil at which he toils under the sun?

• Ecclesiastes 2:10

  And whatever my eyes asked for I did not withhold from them; I did not keep back my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced from all my toil, and this was my portion from all my toil.

• Ecclesiastes 2:11

  And I turned to all my works that my hands had done and to the toil at which I had toiled in doing them, and look, all was vapor and striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.

• Ecclesiastes 2:18

  And I hated all my toil at which I toil under the sun, since I will leave it to the man who will be after me.

• Ecclesiastes 2:19

  And who knows whether he will be wise or witless? Yet he will rule over all my toil at which I have toiled and in which I have been wise under the sun. This too is vapor.

• Ecclesiastes 2:20

  And I turned around to make my heart despair over all the toil at which I had toiled under the sun.

• Ecclesiastes 2:21

  For there is a man whose toil is with wisdom and with knowledge and with skill, and to a man who has not toiled for it he will give it as his portion. This too is vapor and a great evil.

• Ecclesiastes 2:22

  For what is there for the man in all his toil and in the striving of his heart with which he toils under the sun?

• Ecclesiastes 2:24

  There is no good in the man that he should eat and drink and make his soul see good in his toil. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of Elohim.

• Ecclesiastes 3:13

  and also that every human being who eats and drinks and sees good in all his toil — it is the gift of Elohim.

• Ecclesiastes 4:4

  And I saw all the toil and all the skill of the work, that it is the envy of a man toward his neighbor. This too is vapor and striving after wind.

• Ecclesiastes 4:6

  Better is a full palm with rest than two full fists with toil and striving after wind.

• Ecclesiastes 4:8

  There is one, and no second; he has neither son nor brother, and there is no end to all his toil; also his eye is not satisfied with riches. “And for whom am I toiling and depriving my soul of good?” This too is vapor, and it is a bad occupation.

And 15 more times.