Amal (Χ’ΦΈΧΦΈΧ) encompasses the broad semantic range of toil, wearisome labor, trouble, and misery. It carries both the physical sense of hard work and the psychological weight of suffering that accompanies it. The word is prominent in Ecclesiastes (where it appears over 20 times), Job, and the Psalms, always conveying the burdensome character of human striving under the sun.
Ecclesiastes uses amal to frame the great question of meaning: "What profit does a man have in all his toil (amal) at which he toils under the sun?" (Eccl. 1:3). The preacher's answer is not nihilism but a theology of divinely ordered limitation: human toil disconnected from God is vanity; toil received as God's gift has meaning (Eccl. 5:18-20).
Psalm 90:10 (Moses) describes human life as largely "toil and trouble" (amal and aven). Yet Jesus directly invites the burdened: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest\” (Matthew 11:28-29). Christ is the answer to amal β not by eliminating work, but by transforming it into purposeful rest-in-labor through His yoke.