Quotes About Struggle

“What is your name?” the man asked. “Jacob,” he replied.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”

And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.

The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel, and he was limping because of his hip.

Later, they set out from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult.

For their possessions were too great for them to dwell together; the land where they stayed could not support them because of their livestock.

When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb.

But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez.

Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and he was named Zerah.

And the second son he named Ephraim, saying, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

So ten of Josephís brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.

Their father Jacob said to them, “You have deprived me of my sons. Joseph is gone and Simeon is no more. Now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is going against me!”

For the famine has covered the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.

The archers attacked him with bitterness; they aimed at him in hostility.

“Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become too numerous and too powerful for us.

But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and flourished; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites.

They worked the Israelites ruthlessly

But I know that the king of Egypt will not allow you to go unless a mighty hand compels him.

But the king of Egypt said to them, “Moses and Aaron, why do you draw the people away from their work? Get back to your labor!”

Pharaoh also said, “Look, the people of the land are now numerous, and you would be stopping them from their labor.”

“You shall no longer supply the people with straw for making bricks. They must go and gather their own straw.

But require of them the same quota of bricks as before; do not reduce it. For they are lazy; that is why they are crying out, ëLet us go and sacrifice to our God.í

Go and get your own straw wherever you can find it; but your workload will in no way be reduced.í”

So the people scattered all over the land of Egypt to gather stubble for straw.