Work names what is done, but its character depends on the agent and the passage's judgment. The song in Deuteronomy calls the Lord's work perfect and His ways just, then contrasts His faithfulness with the people's corruption.
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Full entry for פֹּעַל (H6467) · Open the biblical lexicon
Work names what is done, but its character depends on the agent and the passage's judgment. The song in Deuteronomy calls the Lord's work perfect and His ways just, then contrasts His faithfulness with the people's corruption.
The BSB source-word alignment has 37 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include the work (4), according to their deeds (2), exploits (2), His work (2), a work (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Deuteronomy 32:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Psalms (11), Isaiah (6), Job (5), Proverbs (5).
Work names what is done, but its character depends on the agent and the passage's judgment. The song in Deuteronomy calls the Lord's work perfect and His ways just, then contrasts His faithfulness with the people's corruption. Psalm 104 places a person's daily work within its account of creation, alongside creatures receiving provision. Jeremiah condemns palace building that uses people without paying their wages.
The noun can therefore appear in praise, ordinary labor and a denunciation of exploitation without making all work equally righteous. Readers should ask who acts, what is accomplished and how the text assesses it. Productive activity does not excuse injustice, and a person's output does not measure that person's entire worth. The Lord's perfect work must not become a demand that tired, limited people prove divine perfection through their own labor.
God's perfect work, a person's daily labor and unpaid work in a condemned palace project have different agents and moral settings. The passages assess action through faithfulness, provision and justice rather than treating productivity as its own approval.
He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He.
The song praises the Rock's perfect work and just ways, then names the people's corrupt response; the claim of perfection belongs to God rather than to their actions.
Man goes forth to his work and to his labor until evening.
Daily human work appears between the movements of animals and praise of the Lord's wise creation, locating labor in the psalm's ordered account rather than promising unlimited productivity.
“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his countrymen serve without pay, and fails to pay their wages,
The palace builder is condemned for unrighteousness and for failing to pay those who serve him; an impressive building cannot turn withheld wages into faithful work.
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. Concrete deed or accomplishment; emphasizes the tangible product or result of action rather than the action itself
Concrete deed or accomplishment; emphasizes the tangible product or result of action rather than the action itself
an act or work (concretely) BDB: doing Usage: act, deed, do, getting, maker, 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 38 lexical occurrence verses.
פֹּעַל is built from this root:
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Jeremiah's palace scene exposes the difference between an impressive result and a just way of obtaining it. Spacious rooms, cedar panels and bright finishes do not answer the charge that people worked without their wages. The following comparison recalls the king's father administering justice and righteousness, bringing the focus back to how people are treated.
Deuteronomy's song places another distinction beside the work noun: the Lord is faithful and just while the people's conduct is corrupt. Psalm 104, meanwhile, describes daily human labor within the larger world of God's provision. Together these scenes train readers to assess work by its stated agent, purpose and moral conditions. They do not authorize contempt for ordinary labor or applause for exploitation.
Nor do they make limited productivity a spiritual diagnosis or allow a human accomplishment to borrow the perfection explicitly ascribed to God.
Jer.22.13
The Hebrew noun concerns a concrete act or work. Different passages supply divine agency, daily labor or morally assessed conduct. Its relation to other work vocabulary is a lexical comparison rather than permission to combine every Hebrew or Greek work term into one doctrinal definition.
James 2:14-18 tests a profession of faith through the actual response to a brother or sister lacking clothing and daily food. That Greek discussion of deeds can be compared with Jeremiah's concern for people denied wages without claiming one shared Strong's identity or making this Hebrew noun settle every question about faith and justification.