a.mal denotes burdensome labor, personal affliction, and trouble associated with harmful conduct in the supplied verses.

The term most often names toil or labor, especially work evaluated for its profit, burden, or enjoyment. It also denotes affliction and misery endured or seen, and in several clauses it is associated with trouble conceived, spoken, or produced alongside evil and oppression.

1. Burdensome labor and its outcome · dominant

   In Ecclesiastes 1:3 the singular construct form occurs in the question about a person's gain from work under the sun, while Ecclesiastes 2:18 concerns labor that must be left to a successor. Ecclesiastes 4:9 presents a return for labor, and Ecclesiastes 5:18 joins seeing welfare with the toil performed during life.

   Ecclesiastes 1:3Ecclesiastes 2:18Ecclesiastes 4:9Ecclesiastes 5:18Ecclesiastes 6:7Psalm 105:44
2. Affliction, misery, or distress · common

   In Deuteronomy 26:7 the construct form is included among what the LORD saw when Israel cried out. Job 11:16 speaks of forgetting trouble, Psalm 25:18 asks that affliction and trouble be seen, and Jeremiah 20:18 laments coming from the womb to see toil and sorrow.

   Deuteronomy 26:7Job 11:16Psalm 25:18Psalm 107:12Jeremiah 20:18Genesis 41:51
3. Trouble bound up with evil or oppression · occasional

   In Job 15:35 the absolute form appears in the clause that people conceive trouble and bring forth evil. Job 4:8 likewise places it in the image of sowing trouble and reaping it, while Proverbs 24:2 describes lips speaking trouble in a context of violence.

   Job 15:35Job 4:8Proverbs 24:2Isaiah 59:4Psalm 10:7Habakkuk 1:3

In the Anselm Project Bible: The APB presents the term with varying English within whole-verse translations, including “toil,” “labor,” “trouble,” and “anguish.” These renderings confirm the broader clauses rather than assign a fixed English equivalent in every occurrence.