57 Bible Verses about Suffering, Hardship

The rich man's wealth is his strong city; the destruction of the poor is their poverty.

For the needy shall never cease from within the land; therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thy hand bountifully unto thy brother, to thy poor and to thy needy, in thy land.

Lo, as wild asses in the desert, they go forth to their work, seeking early for the prey: the wilderness yieldeth them food for their children. They reap in the field the fodder thereof, and they gather the vintage of the wicked; They pass the night naked without clothing, and have no covering in the cold;read more.
They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and for want of a shelter embrace the rock ... They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor: These go naked without clothing, and, hungry, they bear the sheaf; They press out oil within their walls, they tread their winepresses, and suffer thirst.

For ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always.

for ye have the poor always with you, and whenever ye would ye can do them good; but me ye have not always.

for ye have the poor always with you, but me ye have not always.

They wandered in the wilderness in a desert way, they found no city of habitation; Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them:

And the seven years of plenty that were in the land of Egypt were ended; and the seven years of the dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said. And there was dearth in all lands; but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. And all the land of Egypt suffered from the dearth. And the people cried to Pharaoh for bread; and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph: what he says to you, that do.read more.
And the famine was on all the earth. And Joseph opened every place in which there was provision, and sold grain to the Egyptians; and the famine was grievous in the land of Egypt. And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was grievous on the whole earth.

And Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness of Shur; and they went three days in the wilderness, and found no water. And they came to Marah, and could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter; therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink?

And the whole assembly of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, Would that we had died by the hand of Jehovah in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh-pots, when we ate bread to the full; for ye have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole congregation with hunger!

And all the assembly of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, according to their journeys, at the command of Jehovah; and they encamped in Rephidim; and there was no water for the people to drink. And the people contended with Moses, and said, Give us water, that we may drink! And Moses said to them, Why do ye dispute with me? Why do ye tempt Jehovah? And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Why is it that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

And the mixed multitude that was among them lusted; and the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who will give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish that we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic; and now our soul is dried up: there is nothing at all but the manna before our eyes.

And it came to pass after a while that the torrent dried up, for there had been no rain in the land. And the word of Jehovah came to him saying, Arise, go to Zarephath, which is by Zidon, and abide there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee.read more.
And he arose and went to Zarephath; and when he came to the entrance of the city, behold, a widow woman was there gathering sticks. And he called to her and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And she went to fetch it, and he called to her and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thy hand. And she said, As Jehovah thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse; and behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.

And there was a great cry of the people and of their wives against their brethren the Jews. And there were that said, We, our sons and our daughters, are many, and we must procure corn that we may eat and live. And there were that said, We have had to pledge our fields, and our vineyards, and our houses, that we might procure corn in the dearth.read more.
And there were that said, We have borrowed money for the king's tribute upon our fields and vineyards; yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and behold, we must bring into bondage our sons and our daughters to be servants, and some of our daughters are brought into bondage already; neither is it in the power of our hand to redeem them, for other men have our fields and our vineyards.

and having fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards he hungered.

forty days, tempted of the devil; and in those days he did not eat anything, and when they were finished he hungered.

And to Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed be the ground on thy account; with toil shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; and thorns and thistles shall it yield thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return to the ground: for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return.

These twenty years have I been with thee: thy ewes and thy she-goats have not cast their young, and the rams of thy flock I have not eaten. What was torn I have not brought to thee; I had to bear the loss of it: of my hand hast thou required it, whether stolen by day or stolen by night. Thus it was with me: in the day the heat consumed me, and the frost by night; and my sleep fled from mine eyes.read more.
I have been these twenty years in thy house: I have served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy flock; and thou hast changed my wages ten times. Had not the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, been with me, it is certain thou wouldest have sent me away now empty. God has looked upon my affliction and the labour of my hands, and has judged last night.

And they sent and called him; and Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam saying, Thy father made our yoke grievous; and now lighten the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee.

For ye remember, brethren, our labour and toil: working night and day, not to be chargeable to any one of you, we have preached to you the glad tidings of God.

By reason of the multitude of oppressions they cry; they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty:

And they set over them service-masters to oppress them with their burdens. And they built store-cities for Pharaoh, Pithom and Rameses.

And it came to pass during those many days, that the king of Egypt died. And the children of Israel sighed because of the bondage, and cried; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage;

And the number of the bricks they have made heretofore shall ye lay upon them: ye shall not diminish any of it, for they are idle; therefore they cry, saying, Let us go and sacrifice to our God. Let them put heavier labour on the men, that they may be taken up with it, and not regard vain words.

And a woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried to Elisha saying, Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant feared Jehovah; and the creditor is come to take my two children to be bondmen.

Because of the oppression of the afflicted, because of the sighing of the needy, now will I arise, saith Jehovah, I will set him in safety, at whom they puff.

Be gracious unto me, Jehovah, for I am in trouble: mine eye wasteth away with vexation, my soul and my belly. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength faileth through mine iniquity, and my bones are wasted. More than to all mine oppressors, I am become exceedingly a reproach, even to my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that see me without flee from me.read more.
I am forgotten in their heart as a dead man; I am become like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many terror on every side when they take counsel together against me: they plot to take away my life.

For thus hath Jehovah of hosts said: Hew ye down trees, and cast a mound against Jerusalem. She is the city to be visited; she is wholly oppression in the midst of her.

Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great uproar in the midst thereof, and the oppressions that are within her:

Behold, the wages of your labourers, who have harvested your fields, wrongfully kept back by you, cry, and the cries of those that have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.

And we laboured in the work; and half of them held the spears from the rising of the dawn till the stars appeared. Likewise at the same time I said to the people, Let every one with his servant lodge within Jerusalem, that in the night they may be a guard to us, and be for labour in the day. And neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants, nor the men of the guard that followed me, none of us put off our garments: every one had his weapon on his right side.

And Moses told his father-in-law all that Jehovah had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel's sake; all the trouble that had befallen them on the way, and how Jehovah had delivered them.

And the king said to Abiathar the priest, Go to Anathoth, to thine own fields; for thou art worthy of death; but I will not at this time put thee to death, because thou didst bear the ark of Adonai Jehovah before David my father, and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted.

And three of the thirty chiefs went down to the rock to David, to the cave of Adullam, when the army of the Philistines was encamped in the valley of Rephaim. And David was then in the stronghold; and the Philistines' garrison was then at Bethlehem. And David longed, and said, Oh that one would give me to drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is in the gate!read more.
And the three broke through the camp of the Philistines, and drew water out of the well of Bethlehem, which is in the gate, and took it, and brought it to David; David however would not drink of it, but poured it out to Jehovah. And he said, My God forbid it me, that I should do this thing! should I drink the blood of these men who went at the risk of their lives? for at the risk of their lives they brought it. Therefore he would not drink it. These things did the three mighty men.

And when the fourteenth night was come, we being driven about in Adria, towards the middle of the night the sailors supposed that some land neared them, and having sounded found twenty fathoms, and having gone a little farther and having again sounded they found fifteen fathoms; and fearing lest we should be cast on rocky places, casting four anchors out of the stern, they wished that day were come.read more.
But the sailors wishing to flee out of the ship, and having let down the boat into the sea under pretext of being about to carry out anchors from the prow, Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, Unless these abide in the ship ye cannot be saved. Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the boat and let her fall. And while it was drawing on to daylight, Paul exhorted them all to partake of food, saying, Ye have passed the fourteenth day watching in expectation without taking food. Wherefore I exhort you to partake of food, for this has to do with your safety; for not a hair from the head of any one of you shall perish. And, having said these things and taken a loaf, he gave thanks to God before all, and having broken it began to eat. And all taking courage, themselves also took food. And we were in the ship, all the souls, two hundred and seventy-six. And having satisfied themselves with food, they lightened the ship, casting out the wheat into the sea. And when it was day they did not recognise the land; but they perceived a certain bay having a strand, on which they were minded, if they should be able, to run the ship ashore; and, having cast off the anchors, they left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the lashings of the rudders, and hoisting the foresail to the wind, they made for the strand. And falling into a place where two seas met they ran the ship aground, and the prow having stuck itself fast remained unmoved, but the stern was broken by the force of the waves. And the counsel of the soldiers was that they should kill the prisoners, lest any one should swim off and escape. But the centurion, desirous of saving Paul, hindered them of their purpose, and commanded those who were able to swim, casting themselves first into the sea, to get out on land; and the rest, some on boards, some on some of the things that came from the ship; and thus it came to pass that all got safe to land.

Because thou servedst not Jehovah thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, thou shalt serve thine enemies whom Jehovah will send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of everything; and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee.

who led thee through the great and terrible wilderness, a wilderness of fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where there is no water; who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint;

And the Egyptians evil-entreated us, and afflicted us, and laid upon us hard bondage; and we cried to Jehovah, the God of our fathers, and Jehovah heard our voice, and looked on our affliction, and our labour, and our oppression;

{A Song of degrees.} Jehovah, remember for David all his affliction;

but in everything commending ourselves as God's ministers, in much endurance, in afflictions, in necessities, in straits, in stripes, in prisons, in riots, in labours, in watchings, in fastings,

For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched.

And having announced the glad tidings to that city, and having made many disciples, they returned to Lystra, and Iconium, and Antioch, establishing the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to abide in the faith, and that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God.

To the present hour we both hunger and thirst, and are in nakedness, and buffeted, and wander without a home, and labour, working with our own hands. Railed at, we bless; persecuted, we suffer it; insulted, we entreat: we are become as the offscouring of the world, the refuse of all, until now.

For we do not wish you to be ignorant, brethren, as to our tribulation which happened to us in Asia, that we were excessively pressed beyond our power, so as to despair even of living. But we ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not have our trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;

Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as being beside myself) I above measure so; in labours exceedingly abundant, in stripes to excess, in prisons exceedingly abundant, in deaths oft. From the Jews five times have I received forty stripes, save one. Thrice have I been scourged, once I have been stoned, three times I have suffered shipwreck, a night and day I passed in the deep:read more.
in journeyings often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own race, in perils from the nations, in perils in the city, in perils in the desert, in perils on the sea, in perils among false brethren; in labour and toil, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things that are without, the crowd of cares pressing on me daily, the burden of all the assemblies. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is stumbled, and I burn not?

Not that I speak as regards privation, for as to me I have learnt in those circumstances in which I am, to be satisfied in myself. I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound. In everything and in all things I am initiated both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer privation. I have strength for all things in him that gives me power.read more.
But ye have done well in taking part in my affliction.

Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

For ye both sympathised with prisoners and accepted with joy the plunder of your goods, knowing that ye have for yourselves a better substance, and an abiding one.

They were stoned, were sawn asunder, were tempted, died by the death of the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, destitute, afflicted, evil treated, (of whom the world was not worthy,) wandering in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caverns of the earth.

Ye endure for chastening, God conducts himself towards you as towards sons; for who is the son that the father chastens not?

and endurest, and hast borne for my name's sake, and hast not wearied:

But we ourselves had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not have our trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;

and ye shall be hated of all on account of my name. But he that has endured to the end, he shall be saved.

And ye will be hated of all on account of my name; but he that has endured to the end, he shall be saved.

Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for, having been proved, he shall receive the crown of life, which He has promised to them that love him.

Behold, we call them blessed who have endured. Ye have heard of the endurance of Job, and seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is full of tender compassion and pitiful.

For this is acceptable, if one, for conscience sake towards God, endure griefs, suffering unjustly.