Hebrew word · H6001

עָמֵל

'amel

laborious

An adjective or noun from ʿāmal, 'to toil, to labor wearily.' It means one who toils, one who is worn out, a wretched or suffering person. The related noun ʿāmāl means 'toil, trouble, misery,' and sometimes 'mischief' (trouble caused to others, Ps 7:14, 16).

Appears 9 times in 9 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

adj v

toiling

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

From the study of Job 20:22

Range of meaning

An adjective or noun from ʿāmal, 'to toil, to labor wearily.' It means one who toils, one who is worn out, a wretched or suffering person. The related noun ʿāmāl means 'toil, trouble, misery,' and sometimes 'mischief' (trouble caused to others, Ps 7:14, 16).

Against the English

KJV has 'the wicked' and YLT has 'perverse,' following the 'mischief' sense of the related noun. ESV, NASB and WEB have 'everyone in misery / who suffers,' following the Hebrew vowels. NIV and BSB have 'the full force of misery,' reading the abstract noun ʿāmāl.

How it drifted

KJV's 'wicked' reflects older lexical tradition, which linked the word to ʿāmāl as 'iniquity.' The same form in Job 3:20 clearly means 'the sufferer' (KJV there: 'him that is in misery').

Used elsewhere in the period

Job 3:20 ('light to the one in misery'), Prov 16:26 ('the laborer's appetite'), Judg 5:26 ('the workmen's hammer'), and Eccl 2:18, 22 (the toiler). The Greek translation renders the verse abstractly: pasa anankē, 'every hardship.' The Vulgate does the same: omnis dolor, 'every pain.'

From the study of Job 3:20

Range of meaning

An adjective or noun from the root ʿ-m-l, 'to toil, labour wearily'. It means a worker, a toiler (Judg 5:26 'the workmen's hammer'), someone labouring (Eccl 2:22; 4:8; 9:9), and by extension someone weighed down by trouble or misery (Job 20:22). The related noun ʿāmāl means toil, hardship, trouble or mischief. It is a key word in Job (3:10; 4:8; 5:6–7; 7:3; 16:2) and in Ecclesiastes.

Against the English

'Miserable', 'in misery' and 'sufferer' capture the distress but lose the picture of grinding labour. The Hebrew describes someone worn out, not just someone unhappy.

How it drifted

English 'misery/miserable' comes through the Latin Vulgate's 'misero' ('to the wretched one'). Modern 'miserable' leans toward a mood (very unhappy), or even an insult ('a miserable person').

Used elsewhere in the period

Prov 16:26: 'the appetite (nepeš) of the labourer (ʿāmēl) labours for him', which joins the same two words as this verse. Jer 20:18 has 'to see toil (ʿāmāl)'. Job 7:1–3 compares human life to the forced labour of a hired worker and a slave given 'nights of trouble (ʿāmāl)'.

Where it appears

Judges · 1

  1. Judges 5:26 עֲמֵלִ֑ים workmen

    She reached for the tent peg, her right hand for the workman’s hammer. She struck Sisera and crushed his skull; she shattered and pierced his temple.

Job · 2

  1. Job 3:20 לְעָמֵ֣ל to a sufferer

    Why is light given to the miserable, and life to the bitter of soul,

    Here: 'To one who toils' or 'to the trouble-worn'. The word describes someone ground down by hard labour and hardship. It picks up the forced labourers, prisoners and slaves of vv. 17–19 and echoes Job's own word for trouble (ʿāmāl) in v. 10.

  2. Job 20:22 עָמֵ֣ל a sufferer

    In the midst of his plenty, he will be distressed; the full force of misery will come upon him.

    Here: As vowelled in the Hebrew text, 'a toiler, a wretched one.' Job uses the same word for the person 'in misery' in 3:20. Read in context, these are the poor he crushed (20:19), who now reach out against him.

Proverbs · 1

  1. Proverbs 16:26 עָ֭מֵל a laborer

    A worker’s appetite works for him because his hunger drives him onward.

    Here: One who does hard, wearying labor, the kind that costs sweat and strength. It identifies whose appetite is meant: the man who has to toil to eat.

Ecclesiastes · 5

  1. Ecclesiastes 2:18 עָמֵ֖ל [was] a laborer

    I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.

    Here: A verbal adjective from the same root as "toil." Read as a present ("that I am toiling"), it describes labor still going on, not only finished work. Repeating the root ("my toil that I toil") stresses how wearisome it is.

  2. Ecclesiastes 2:22 עָמֵ֖ל [was] a laborer

    For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?

    Here: A verbal adjective from the same root as 'toil,' meaning 'is toiling.' The repetition is deliberate: 'his toil... which he toils.' The same phrase appears in 3:9 and 9:9. The sound of the sentence enacts the endless round of work.

  3. Ecclesiastes 3:9 עָמֵֽל׃ [is] a laborer

    What does the worker gain from his toil?

  4. Ecclesiastes 4:8 עָמֵ֗ל a laborer

    There is a man all alone, without even a son or brother. And though there is no end to his labor, his eyes are still not content with his wealth: “For whom do I toil and bereave my soul of enjoyment?” This too is futile—a miserable task.

    Here: 'Am toiling', an ongoing action from the same root as 'toil' above. The verse keeps returning to this word.

  5. Ecclesiastes 9:9 עָמֵ֖ל [are] a laborer

    Enjoy life with your beloved wife all the days of the fleeting life that God has given you under the sun—all your fleeting days. For this is your portion in life and in your labor under the sun.

    Here: 'Toiling', from the same root as 'toil'. 'Your toil that you toil' doubles the weight of the labor.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.