Hebrew word · H3018
יְגִיעַ
yegia'
toil
Toil, wearisome labor; the product of labor, earnings or gain (Ps 128:2 'you shall eat the toil of your hands'; Hag 1:11). Related to the verb yāgaʿ, 'to grow weary', which is a key word in Isaiah 40:28-31 ('they shall run and not grow weary').
Appears 16 times in 16 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
1) toil, work
2) product, produce, acquired property (as a result of work)
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Toil, wearisome labor; the product of labor, earnings or gain (Ps 128:2 'you shall eat the toil of your hands'; Hag 1:11). Related to the verb yāgaʿ, 'to grow weary', which is a key word in Isaiah 40:28-31 ('they shall run and not grow weary').
- Against the English
KJV/BSB/WEB/ESV 'labor' covers the effort. NASB's 'wages' covers the earnings. Hebrew holds both: the work and what it earns.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Psalm 128:2 and Deuteronomy 28:33 ('a nation you do not know will eat the fruit of your land and all your toil') present losing your toil to others as a covenant curse.
From the study of Genesis 31:42
- Range of meaning
Yəḡîaʿ comes from yāḡaʿ, 'to toil, grow weary'. It means wearying labor and also its product, the earnings or fruit of work (Ps 128:2; Hag 1:11; Job 10:3). Kap is the palm or hollow of the hand. The form here is dual, 'my two palms'.
- Against the English
'The labour of my hands' (KJV) and 'the toil of my hands' (BSB) are good. English 'labor' can lose the second sense, the wages or yield that the labor produced and Laban held back.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Ps 128:2 ('you shall eat the toil of your palms'). Job 10:3 ('the work of your palms', of God's creatures). Deut 28:33 (enemies eat 'the fruit of your ground and all your toil').
- Range of meaning
yᵉgîaʿ means wearying labor and its product: earnings, produce, possessions gained by work. Its root yāgaʿ means "to toil, grow weary." kaph is the palm or hollow of the hand. Together the phrase means "what your palms toiled to produce."
- Against the English
KJV, BSB and WEB: "work of your hands"; YLT: "labour of Thy hands." "Work" can sound like a finished object. "Labour" better keeps the sense of effort spent. The usual Hebrew for "work of your hands" is maʿăśēh yādêkhā (Job 14:15; Ps 138:8). The poet chose a word that stresses toil instead.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Gen 31:42: "God saw my affliction and the toil (yᵉgîaʿ) of my palms." Ps 128:2: "You shall eat the toil (yᵉgîaʿ) of your palms." Hag 1:11: "all the toil of the palms." Job 39:11 uses it of the produce a farmer expects from his ox's labor.
Where it appears
Genesis · 1
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Genesis 31:42 יְגִ֧יַע [the] toil of
If the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, surely by now you would have sent me away empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and the toil of my hands, and last night He rendered judgment.”
Here: Wearying labor and what that labor earns. God saw both how hard Jacob worked and what he was owed for it.
Deuteronomy · 1
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Deuteronomy 28:33 יְגִ֣יעֲךָ֔ [the] result of toil your
A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.
Here: Your wearying labor and what it earns. It refers not only to the effort but to what the effort yields: flocks, stores, earnings, which strangers will consume.
Nehemiah · 1
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Nehemiah 5:13 וּמִ֣יגִיע֔וֹ and from property his
I also shook out the folds of my robe and said, “May God likewise shake out of his house and possessions every man who does not keep this promise. May such a man be shaken out and have nothing!” The whole assembly said, “Amen,” and they praised the LORD. And the people did as they had promised.
Here: “And from his toil”: everything his work has earned him. A man who swallowed up others' labor is to lose his own.
Job · 3
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Job 10:3 יְגִ֣יעַ [the] product of
Does it please You to oppress me, to reject the work of Your hands and favor the schemes of the wicked?
Here: "The toil of…": exhausting labor and what it produces. The word implies effort spent and something valued for that reason. Here it is God's own labor.
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Job 39:11 יְגִיעֶֽךָ׃ toil your
Can you rely on his great strength? Will you leave your hard work to him?
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Job 39:16 יְגִיעָ֣הּ labor its
She treats her young harshly, as if not her own, with no concern that her labor was in vain.
Psalms · 3
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Psalm 78:46 וִֽ֝יגִיעָ֗ם and [the] result of toil their
He gave their crops to the grasshopper, the fruit of their labor to the locust.
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Psalm 109:11 יְגִיעֽוֹ׃ property his
May the creditor seize all he owns, and strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
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Psalm 128:2 יְגִ֣יעַ [the] product of
For when you eat the fruit of your labor, blessings and prosperity will be yours.
Here: Hard, wearying labor and what it produces, here the harvest that labor brings in. It stands first in the sentence for emphasis: *your own* toil is what you will eat.
Isaiah · 2
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Isaiah 45:14 יְגִ֨יעַ [the] produce of
This is what the LORD says: “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, along with the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge behind you; they will come over in chains and bow down to you. They will confess to you: ‘God is indeed with you, and there is no other; there is no other God.’”
Here: The fruit of Egypt's labour: its produce, earnings and wealth. It does not mean the workers themselves. The Nile valley's agricultural surplus was proverbial.
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Isaiah 55:2 וִיגִיעֲכֶ֖ם and toil your
Why spend money on that which is not bread, and your labor on that which does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of foods.
Here: 'And your toil', meaning both the wearying work and what it earns. The verb 'weigh out' carries over to it: you spend your hard-won earnings too.
Jeremiah · 2
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Jeremiah 3:24 יְגִ֥יעַ [the] toil of
From our youth, that shameful god has consumed what our fathers have worked for—their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.
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Jeremiah 20:5 יְגִיעָ֖הּ property its
I will give away all the wealth of this city—all its products and valuables, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah—to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon.
Here: 'Its toil' in the sense of what toil produces: harvests, earnings, goods made by hard work. It echoes the covenant curse in Deuteronomy 28:33, where a foreign nation eats up Israel's yegîaʿ.
Ezekiel · 1
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Ezekiel 23:29 יְגִיעֵ֔ךְ property your
They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity
Hosea · 1
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Hosea 12:8 יְגִיעַ֕י toil<s> my
And Ephraim boasts: “How rich I have become! I have found wealth for myself. In all my labors, they can find in me no iniquity that is sinful.”
Here: 'My toils', meaning chiefly what the toil has produced: earnings, gains, assets. This is why WEB and NIV say 'wealth'. Ephraim points to his business dealings and their profits.
Haggai · 1
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Haggai 1:11 יְגִ֥יעַ [the] toil of
I have summoned a drought on the fields and on the mountains, on the grain, new wine, and oil, and on whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all the labor of your hands.”
Here: Hard, wearying work, and also what that work produces. The word holds both the effort and its fruit, and here both come to nothing.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.