48 Bible Verses about Forced Labor

Exodus 21:20 ESV / 12 helpful votes

“When a man strikes his slave, male or female, with a rod and the slave dies under his hand, he shall be avenged.

Leviticus 25:44 ESV / 9 helpful votes

As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you.

Romans 13:7 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

2 Samuel 20:24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And Adoram was in charge of the forced labor; and Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder;

Genesis 15:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then the Lord said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years.

Acts 22:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me.

John 21:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes

This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

Luke 3:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

Matthew 5:44 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Proverbs 21:25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor.

Proverbs 13:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing, while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

Proverbs 12:24 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put to forced labor.

Deuteronomy 23:1-25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“No one whose testicles are crushed or whose male organ is cut off shall enter the assembly of the Lord. “No one born of a forbidden union may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of his descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord. “No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the assembly of the Lord. Even to the tenth generation, none of them may enter the assembly of the Lord forever, because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. But the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you. ...

Exodus 22:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no bloodguilt for him,

Genesis 1:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Genesis 1:1-31 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ...

Luke 19:26-27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

‘I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’”

Matthew 24:1-51 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. ...

Matthew 10:34-35 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

Proverbs 27:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.

Proverbs 27:1-27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips. A stone is heavy, and sand is weighty, but a fool's provocation is heavier than both. Wrath is cruel, anger is overwhelming, but who can stand before jealousy? Better is open rebuke than hidden love. ...

Proverbs 22:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

Proverbs 22:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.

Proverbs 20:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The sluggard does not plow in the autumn; he will seek at harvest and have nothing.

Proverbs 18:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever is slack in his work is a brother to him who destroys.

Proverbs 16:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.

Proverbs 6:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.

Psalm 1:1-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers. The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; ...

Deuteronomy 20:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it.

Deuteronomy 20:10-11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you.

Deuteronomy 20:10-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“When you draw near to a city to fight against it, offer terms of peace to it. And if it responds to you peaceably and it opens to you, then all the people who are found in it shall do forced labor for you and shall serve you. But if it makes no peace with you, but makes war against you, then you shall besiege it. And when the Lord your God gives it into your hand, you shall put all its males to the sword, but the women and the little ones, the livestock, and everything else in the city, all its spoil, you shall take as plunder for yourselves. And you shall enjoy the spoil of your enemies, which the Lord your God has given you. ...

Deuteronomy 15:12-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, is sold to you, he shall serve you six years, and in the seventh year you shall let him go free from you. And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty-handed. You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, and out of your winepress. As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give to him. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God redeemed you; therefore I command you this today.

Deuteronomy 15:1-23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“At the end of every seven years you shall grant a release. And this is the manner of the release: every creditor shall release what he has lent to his neighbor. He shall not exact it of his neighbor, his brother, because the Lord's release has been proclaimed. Of a foreigner you may exact it, but whatever of yours is with your brother your hand shall release. But there will be no poor among you; for the Lord will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess— if only you will strictly obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all this commandment that I command you today. ...

Deuteronomy 13:1-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.

Leviticus 25:47 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger's clan,

Leviticus 25:44-46 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As for your male and female slaves whom you may have: you may buy male and female slaves from among the nations that are around you. You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. You may bequeath them to your sons after you to inherit as a possession forever. You may make slaves of them, but over your brothers the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another ruthlessly.

Leviticus 25:1-55 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the people of Israel and say to them, When you come into the land that I give you, the land shall keep a Sabbath to the Lord. For six years you shall sow your field, and for six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its fruits, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of solemn rest for the land, a Sabbath to the Lord. You shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap what grows of itself in your harvest, or gather the grapes of your undressed vine. It shall be a year of solemn rest for the land. ...

Leviticus 22:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But if a priest buys a slave as his property for money, the slave may eat of it, and anyone born in his house may eat of his food.

Exodus 23:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed.

Exodus 22:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Whoever sacrifices to any god, other than the Lord alone, shall be devoted to destruction.

Exodus 21:26-27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.

Exodus 21:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But if the slave survives a day or two, he is not to be avenged, for the slave is his money.

Exodus 21:7-11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she shall not go out as the male slaves do. If she does not please her master, who has designated her for himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has broken faith with her. If he designates her for his son, he shall deal with her as with a daughter. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights. And if he does not do these three things for her, she shall go out for nothing, without payment of money.

Genesis 21:1-34 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him. ...

Genesis 19:24-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

Genesis 17:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then Abraham took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with his money, every male among the men of Abraham's house, and he circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had said to him.

Genesis 9:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent.

Genesis 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you.”

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