Amal encompasses the full range of human suffering and struggle — toil that exhausts, trouble that besets, and misery that overwhelms. It appears frequently in Job and Ecclesiastes as the word for the wearisome, often futile labor that characterizes fallen human existence. Qoheleth uses it repeatedly: 'What do people gain from all their amal at which they toil under the sun?' (Eccl 1:3). It is also used for the trouble caused by wicked oppressors (Ps 7:14; Hab 1:3) and for the iniquity of those who 'conceive trouble' (Job 15:35).
Amal names the experience of Ecclesiastes — that life in a fallen world is hard, often meaningless-seeming, and exhausting. Yet the biblical response to amal is not resignation but hope. The servant of the LORD in Isaiah 53 'sees the fruit of the amal of his soul' and is satisfied (Isa 53:11) — His suffering produces justification for many. Jesus invites those burdened by amal: 'Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest' (Matt 11:28). Paul declares that our present suffering is not worth comparing to the glory to come (Rom 8:18).