(Abstractly) work
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פְּעֻלָּה (peullah) can name work or deed and can also denote the wages, reward, or recompense associated with work. Leviticus 19:13 forbids holding a hired worker's wages overnight, while Psalms 28:5 and 109:20 use the noun in evaluating deeds and their return.
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Full entry for פְּעֻלָּה (H6468) · Open the biblical lexicon
פְּעֻלָּה (peullah) can name work or deed and can also denote the wages, reward, or recompense associated with work. Leviticus 19:13 forbids holding a hired worker's wages overnight, while Psalms 28:5 and 109:20 use the noun in evaluating deeds and their return.
The BSB source-word alignment has 14 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and His recompense (2), and My reward (1), As for the deeds (1), as the reward (1), deeds (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Leviticus 19:13. Its strongest book concentrations include Isaiah (5), Psalms (3), Proverbs (2), 2 Chronicles (1).
פְּעֻלָּה (peullah) can name work or deed and can also denote the wages, reward, or recompense associated with work. Leviticus 19:13 forbids holding a hired worker's wages overnight, while Psalms 28:5 and 109:20 use the noun in evaluating deeds and their return. Context therefore decides whether attention falls on the action, its fruit, a worker's due payment, or a judicial recompense.
Wisdom distinguishes outcomes without offering a mechanical prosperity formula. Proverbs 10:16 contrasts the wages of the righteous with the gain of the wicked, and 11:18 contrasts deceptive wages with sure reward. These sayings teach moral patterns within wisdom's broader framework; they do not promise that every righteous person receives immediate financial success or that hardship proves wrongdoing.
Prophetic texts use peullah for both human wages and divine recompense. Isaiah 40:10 and 62:11 announce the Lord coming with reward and recompense, Isaiah 49:4 places the servant's recompense with God despite apparent wasted labor, Jeremiah 31:16 promises reward after grief, and Ezekiel 29:20 calls Egypt wages for Babylon's labor against Tyre. The word can describe grace-filled restoration, earned wages, or judgment according to the passage, not one universal merit system.
Peullah links work with its result or return. Law protects wages, wisdom compares moral fruit, lament and prophecy evaluate deeds, and restoration texts speak of recompense from God without collapsing wage, gift, judgment, and hope.
A hired worker's wages must not be withheld overnight.
The wicked fail to regard the Lord's deeds and the work of his hands.
Deceptive wages are contrasted with sure reward for sowing righteousness.
The sovereign Lord comes with might, reward, and recompense before him.
The servant entrusts justice and recompense to God after describing apparently fruitless labor.
Zion hears that salvation comes with reward and recompense.
Weeping is addressed with a promise that labor has a reward and children will return.
Egypt is assigned to Babylon as wages for military labor against Tyre.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Work as concrete product or wage earned, emphasizing tangible outcome rather than mere activity
Work as concrete product or wage earned, emphasizing tangible outcome rather than mere activity
(abstractly) work BDB: work Usage: labour, reward, wages, work.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 14 lexical occurrence verses.
פְּעֻלָּה is built from this root:
The word emphasizes the outcome or fruit of a person's labor. Proverbs 10:16
The term emphasizes the concept of outcome or return from one's actions. Proverbs 11:18
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Peullah makes labor and its return morally visible. Leviticus requires timely wages, so teaching about work must include the employer's duty and the worker's material vulnerability. Wisdom asks what kind of fruit a deed produces but should not be turned into a guarantee of immediate prosperity. Isaiah's servant can name apparent futility while entrusting recompense to God, validating faithful labor that does not yet show results.
Prophetic reward language must be read alongside grace, covenant, judgment, and restoration rather than converted into a formula for earning salvation. Congregations can apply this word to wage theft, unpaid labor, exploitative ministry expectations, recognition, delayed outcomes, and hope. They should not promise wealth, shame exhausted workers, or equate visible success with divine approval.
Isa.40.10
H6468 can focus on an action or on what returns from labor. Work, deed, wages, reward, and recompense are contextual translations, and their moral or theological character comes from the passage.
The New Testament distinguishes grace from wages owed, commands just treatment of workers, and speaks of judgment and reward according to deeds. These themes can illuminate peullah without flattening distinct contexts into a single merit account.
MorphGNT Strong's Dictionary XML — CC0 1.0 Public Domain
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (morphhb/OSHB) — CC BY 4.0
Open Scriptures Hebrew Lexicon — CC BY 4.0
Berean Standard Bible (BSB) source-word alignment - CC0 Public Domain