Bible Verses About Labor: General references

You shall labor six days, and do all your work,

but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;

for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers, or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates.

In his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it; lest he cry against you to the LORD, and it be sin to you.

“For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.

When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard.

He went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace.

To them he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went their way.

Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise.

About the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle. He said to them, ‘Why do you stand here all day idle?’

“They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ “He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and you will receive whatever is right.’

When evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last to the first.’

“When those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius.

When the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise each received a denarius.

When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household,

saying, ‘These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!’

“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn’t you agree with me for a denarius?

Take that which is yours, and go your way. It is my desire to give to this last just as much as to you.

Isn’t it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?’

and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you;

that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.

For you know how you ought to imitate us. For we didn’t behave ourselves rebelliously among you,

neither did we eat bread from anyone’s hand without paying for it, but in labor and travail worked night and day, that we might not burden any of you;

not because we don’t have the right, but to make ourselves an example to you, that you should imitate us.