“Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.

• Exodus 34:21

and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then David and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.

• 1 Chronicles 20:3

Solomon conscripted the descendants of all these people remaining in the land—whom the Israelites had not destroyed—to serve as slave labor, as it is to this day.

• 2 Chronicles 8:8

Trembling seized them there, pain like that of a woman in labor.

• Psalm 48:6

“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

• Luke 12:27

This quiz comes out on Labor Day weekend, not Labor Day, but then again, you may not get around to viewing it until Labor Day.  This quiz is about “labor.”  The verses in this quiz have the word “labor” in them and there are 115 from which to choose.

You can see from the Psalm Scripture above that “labor” can be used in more ways than doing a 9-5 job.

The questions are in biblical order and all questions are from the Old Testament.

The Questions:

	Question	Bible Reference	Answers
1	When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God pronounced a curse on the serpent, the woman, and the man.  What was the curse of the woman relating to labor?
2	Who placed the Israelites into slave labor to have Pithom and Ramses built?
3	Two tribes failed in driving out all the Canaanites from their lands, but they required forced labor.  Who are these two tribes that descended from Joseph?  Note: Just those mentioned in Joshua.
4	When the wife of Phinehas, Eli’s son, found out her husband had died, what happened with her?
5	After Solomon was born of Bathsheba, Joab finally took a city’s water supply.  David then besieged the city and captured it, putting its people into forced labor.  What was the city?
6	In conscripting labor, five of the seven mentions of “conscript” refer to Solomon building what?
7	The entire book of Nehemiah is about the labor to do something, but the word “labor” is only mentioned once.  What were the people of Judah laboring to do?
8	In one of the Ascension Psalms, the people sing that they will obtain what for their labors?  Hint: This was not always a guarantee as sometimes others placed them into exile and obtained this by force.
9	What did the proverb writer say about the appetite of a laborer?
10	In Isaiah’s Invitation to the Thirsty, God invites those without money to come and buy something to drink.  God asks why we spend money on what is not bread and labor …  What is the result of the labor of these sinful people?

Note: Judges begins with Zebulun and Naphtali both requiring Canaanites into slave labor, as they were unable to drive them from their land.  Thus, four of the tribes, and others (the Danites were confined to the hill country by the Amorites), had Canaanites in their midst, tempting them to worship other gods.

Regarding question six, I turned nineteen during one of the years when the conscription process for military service entailed pulling ping pong balls (or something like them) from a big fishbowl.  Each had a date on it.  The first date pulled got the lottery number 1, the second – 2, etc.  My lottery number was less than ten, and I would have been the first drafted in the northern region of Mississippi that year, but the day they pulled the lottery numbers, I was offered an ROTC scholarship.  My life plans had just changed, but then the war in Vietnam was over, the last troops leaving Vietnam about a week before I graduated.  The army then did not need me right away and they suggested I go to graduate school, where I met my wife.  Odd, how a ping pong ball can make that much difference in a person’s life.  And God had a lot to do with that and everything that followed.

Bible References:

	Question	Bible Reference	Answers
1	When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God pronounced a curse on the serpent, the woman, and the man.  What was the curse of the woman relating to labor?	Genesis 3:16
2	Who placed the Israelites into slave labor to have Pithom and Ramses built?	Exodus 1:8-11
3	Two tribes failed in driving out all the Canaanites from their lands, but they required forced labor.  Who are these two tribes that descended from Joseph?  Note: Just those mentioned in Joshua.	Joshua 16:10 and Joshua 17:13
4	When the wife of Phinehas, Eli’s son, found out her husband had died, what happened with her?	1 Samuel 4:19
5	After Solomon was born of Bathsheba, Joab finally took a city’s water supply.  David then besieged the city and captured it, putting its people into forced labor.  What was the city?	2 Samuel 12:29-31, same story as the second Scripture above
6	In conscripting labor, five of the seven mentions of “conscript” refer to Solomon building what?	1 Kings 5:13
7	The entire book of Nehemiah is about the labor to do something, but the word “labor” is only mentioned once.  What were the people of Judah laboring to do?	Nehemiah 4:10
8	In one of the Ascension Psalms, the people sing that they will obtain what for their labors?  Hint: This was not always a guarantee as sometimes others placed them into exile and obtained this by force.	Psalm 128:2
9	What did the proverb writer say about the appetite of a laborer?	Proverbs 16:26
10	In Isaiah’s Invitation to the Thirsty, God invites those without money to come and buy something to drink.  God asks why we spend money on what is not bread and labor …  What is the result of the labor of these sinful people?	Isaiah 55:2

Labor Day is in a couple of days, upon this quiz coming out.

We should honor those who toil under the sun.  And we should honor those who made America what it was in the Twentieth Century.

It seems we have lost sight of two things in the USA.  We have lost sight of how an honest day’s labor built this country.  And we have lost sight of our God who reigns sovereign over the universe.  Without Him, the USA is nothing.  Ignoring God, as our politicians in general are doing, will lead to disaster.  We should never think of our freedom as a birthright, for it can easily be taken away.  And most often in the past, people lose freedom willingly, wanting something without paying the labor in which to obtain it.

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The Answers:

	Question	Bible Reference	Answers
1	When Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, God pronounced a curse on the serpent, the woman, and the man.  What was the curse of the woman relating to labor?	Genesis 3:16	Childbearing will be with severe pain, and painful labor
2	Who placed the Israelites into slave labor to have Pithom and Ramses built?	Exodus 1:8-11	A new Pharoah who the name “Joseph” meant nothing.  Or simply Pharoah
3	Two tribes failed in driving out all the Canaanites from their lands, but they required forced labor.  Who are these two tribes that descended from Joseph?  Note: Just those mentioned in Joshua.	Joshua 16:10 and Joshua 17:13	Ephraim and Manasseh
4	When the wife of Phinehas, Eli’s son, found out her husband had died, what happened with her?	1 Samuel 4:19	She went into labor, giving birth to Ichabod.
5	After Solomon was born of Bathsheba, Joab finally took a city’s water supply.  David then besieged the city and captured it, putting its people into forced labor.  What was the city?	2 Samuel 12:29-31, same story as the second Scripture above	Rabbah, but the significant thing is that this is the same city they were fighting when he slept with Bathsheba, the same city where Uriah was killed.
6	In conscripting labor, five of the seven mentions of “conscript” refer to Solomon building what?	1 Kings 5:13	The Temple
7	The entire book of Nehemiah is about the labor to do something, but the word “labor” is only mentioned once.  What were the people of Judah laboring to do?	Nehemiah 4:10	Rebuild the wall around Jerusalem and in this verse the people lament that they are getting too tired and the enemies might attack.
8	In one of the Ascension Psalms, the people sing that they will obtain what for their labors?  Hint: This was not always a guarantee as sometimes others placed them into exile and obtained this by force.	Psalm 128:2	The fruit of their labor
9	What did the proverb writer say about the appetite of a laborer?	Proverbs 16:26	Their appetite helps them, their hunger drives them on.
10	In Isaiah’s Invitation to the Thirsty, God invites those without money to come and buy something to drink.  God asks why we spend money on what is not bread and labor …  What is the result of the labor of these sinful people?	Isaiah 55:2	Labor that does not satisfy

Whether you did well on this quiz or, ummm, not so well, … Here is the Choir of Trinity College Cambridge singing Come Labor On.

Here are the Isaacs singing Labor of Love.  This is a Christmas song that takes you to what might be more true than what we usually sing during the Advent season.

And here are the Asidors (the adults this time) singing He Will Carry You.  When we labor, we do not labor alone.  God is with us.

And here is Enough.  It is sung by Elias Dummer.  He starts by saying that I am not what I make, but Who made me.  We labor to make our mark, but what we do does not define us. Jesus is Enough; we need not strive for any other mark we might make in this world.

If you like these Saturday morning Bible quizzes, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Saturday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.