When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor.

He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me?

I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me.

I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.

The Appointment of Leaders

At that time I said to you, “You are too heavy a burden for me to carry alone.

But how can I bear your problems and your burdens and your disputes all by myself?

my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”

“No, my son,” the king replied. “All of us should not go; we would only be a burden to you.” Although Absalom urged him, he still refused to go but gave him his blessing.

David said to him, “If you go with me, you will be a burden to me.

I am now eighty years old. Can I tell the difference between what is enjoyable and what is not? Can your servant taste what he eats and drinks? Can I still hear the voices of male and female singers? Why should your servant be an added burden to my lord the king?

But the earlier governors—those preceding me—placed a heavy burden on the people and took forty shekels of silver from them in addition to food and wine. Their assistants also lorded it over the people. But out of reverence for God I did not act like that.

If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who see everything we do? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?

My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear.

You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs.

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.

They are free from common human burdens; they are not plagued by human ills.

“I removed the burden from their shoulders; their hands were set free from the basket.

Stone is heavy and sand a burden, but a fool’s provocation is heavier than both.

I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind!

I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race.

Your New Moon feasts and your appointed festivals I hate with all my being. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.

For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor.

In that day their burden will be lifted from your shoulders, their yoke from your neck; the yoke will be broken because you have grown so fat.

I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down. His yoke will be taken from my people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.”

You have not brought me sheep for burnt offerings, nor honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with grain offerings nor wearied you with demands for incense.