noun · masculine
kopos
Strong’sG2873
trouble, toil, labor
stem kop-18 times in the New Testamentin 10 of 27 books7 of 10 forms occur
What it means
A plain-English reading of the word, with the lexicons it draws on — Abbott-Smith, Strong's, and Liddell-Scott-Jones — right below it, in full.
AI Summary
Labor, toil, trouble - the effort, hardship, or weariness that comes from hard work 1234. It covers work done, as in toil undertaken for the gospel or for others 1; the fatigue and weariness that such toil produces, including being overcome by weariness 13; and the trouble or bother caused to someone else, as in the phrase "to give trouble" to a person 13. Strong's derives the word from a root meaning "a cut," extended to toil as something that wears away the strength, and so also to pains 2.
In one Old Testament occurrence the word instead means a striking or beating, used as an equivalent for beating the breast in mourning 1.
Sources: 1 Abbott-Smith 2 Strong's 3 LSJ 4 Dodson. Condensed by anthropic/claude-sonnet-5 on 2026-09-23 — it may still misstate what these say; check them yourself if it matters to you.
The lexicons it was drawn from, in full:
Abbott-Smith — the 1922 lexicon entry, in full
κόπος, -ου, ὁ
(< κόπτω), [in LXX chiefly for עָמָל, also for אָוֶן, etc.;]
SYN.: μόλθος, labour; πόνος (q.v.), toil, painful effort; in cl., "π. gives prominence to the effort (work as requiring force), κ. to the fatigue, μ. (chiefly poetic) to the hardship" (Thayer, s.v. κ.).
G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament, 1922 — public domain. References open in the reader.
Strong’s G2873 — the 1890 definition, and where the word comes from
Saidkop'-os
a cut, i.e. (by analogy) toil (as reducing the strength), literally or figuratively; by implication, pains
Fromfrom G2875;
King Jameslabour, + trouble, weariness.
James Strong, Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, 1890 — public domain. The numbers in it link to the entries here.
Liddell-Scott-Jones — the classical dictionary this word appears in
(κόπτω) striking, beating, ὀξύχειρι σὺν κόπῳ (Pauw for κτύπῳ) Refs 4th c.BC+; στέρνων κόπους (Seidler for κτύπους) Refs 5th c.BC+; ={κοπανισμός}, Refs 5th c.AD+
II toil and trouble, suffering, Refs 5th c.BC+; pain of a disease, Refs 5th c.BC+; κόπους παρέχειν τινί to give trouble, NT+2nd c.BC+; κόπον ἔχειν Refs 1st c.BC+
II.2 fatigue, Refs 5th c.BC+; κόπου ὕπο from very weariness, Refs 5th c.BC+; κόπῳ δαμέντες, ἁλίσκεσθαι, NT+5th c.BC+; περὶ κόπων title of work by Refs 4th c.BC+
II.3 work, exertion, καμάραν ἀφ᾽ ἱδίων κόπων ἐποίησεν Refs 1st c.AD+; κόπῳ κόπον λύειν proverbial in Refs 4th c.AD+
H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. S. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon (9th ed., 1925–1940) — digitised by the Perseus Digital Library and corrected and expanded by Tyndale House, Cambridge, via STEPBible-Data's TFLSJ table, CC BY 4.0. Covers all of Greek literature, not just the Bible.
Translated as
Every occurrence, sorted by the English it was actually given — the evidence for what the word means, not a gloss of it.
Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain — berean.bible.
Biblang forms
Every form this word takes in Biblang, with the Greek it corresponds to and how often the New Testament uses it.
| Job in the sentence case | one singular | more than one plural |
|---|---|---|
| subject nominative | kopos2×κόπος | kopois |
| object accusative | kopon5×κόπον | kopoin4×κόπους |
| direct address vocative | kopor | kopoir |
| of, belonging to genitive | kopou1×κόπου | kopoiu1×κόπων |
| to, for dative | kopo2×κόπῳ | kopoi3×κόποις |
Tinted cells are forms the New Testament never uses, so there is no Greek to show against them — but they are still correct Biblang, built from the slots below like any other.
Why these forms, and no others — the slots that make them
kopo is this word in every one of its forms. The slots after it make all the rest.
same in every form varies — every value shown
Words built on the same stem
Other words sharing the exact same stem — not merely related in meaning.
Where it appears
Every verse the word appears in, filed under the form it takes there.
18 occurrences, every one of them listed
kopos“labor”subjectnominative singular2×
1 Corinthians 15:58… tou kuriou pantote, oidarēntois hoti tos kopos vu ouk atō kenos en kurio.… Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in …
1 Thessalonians 3:5… peirazarōntos kai eis kenem geneteia tos kopos nu.… somehow tempted you and that our labor might have been in vain.
kopon“labor”objectaccusative singular5×
Luke 18:5“bothering”dia ge tem parecharō mi kopon tan chēran houtan ekdikami autan hina …yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice. Otherwise, she …
John 4:38… allosois kopialē, kai vis eis ton kopon autoiu eiserchavē.… now you have taken up their labor.”
1 Corinthians 3:8… idion misthon labeti kata ton idion kopon,… be rewarded according to his own labor.
1 Thessalonians 2:9Mnēmoneuavō gar, adelfoir, ton kopon nu kai ton mochthon; nuktau kai …Surely you recall, brothers, our labor and toil. We worked night and …
Revelation 2:2Oidamē teim ergeim su, kai ton kopon kai tan hupomonan su, kai hoti …I know your deeds, your labor, and your perseverance. I know that …
kopou“labor”of, belonging togenitive singular1×
1 Thessalonians 1:3… teu ergeu tau pistiau kai tou kopou tau agapau kai tau hupomonau tau …… Father your work of faith, your labor of love, and your enduring hope …
kopo“toil”to, fordative singular2×
2 Corinthians 11:27kopo kai mochtho, en agrupniai pollakis, en …in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger …
2 Thessalonians 3:8… arton esthiana para tinou, alla en kopo kai mochtho nuktau kai hēmerau ergazorōntois …… for it. Instead, in labor and toil, we worked night and day so …
kopoin“trouble”objectaccusative plural4×
Matthew 26:10“* trouble”… de tos Iēsus legata autoi; Tinem kopoin parechavō ta gunaika? ergem gar kalem …… of this, Jesus asked, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has …
Mark 14:6“trouble”… Iēsus legata; Afiēkavar autan; tinem auta kopoin parechavō? kalem ergem ergazeta en mi;But Jesus said, “Leave her alone; why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful deed to Me.
Luke 11:7“trouble”kakeinos esōthen apokrinirantos legateia; Mē mi kopoin parechasōr; ēdē tas thuras kleiotē, kai …And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Do not bother me. My door is already shut, and my children …
Galatians 6:17Teu loipeu kopoin mi mēdenos parechatōr, mis gar teim …… on let no one cause me trouble, for I bear on my body …
kopoiu“labors”of, belonging togenitive plural1×
Revelation 14:13… tem pneumem, hina anapauili ek toiu kopoiu autoiu, teim gar ergeim autoiu akolouthatō …… Spirit, “they will rest from their labors, for their deeds will follow them.”
kopoi“labors”to, fordative plural3×
2 Corinthians 6:5“labors”… plēgai, en fulakai, en akatastasiai, en kopoi, en agrupniai, en nēsteiai,in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in labor, sleepless nights, and hunger;
2 Corinthians 10:15… eis teim ametreim kauchorōntois en allotrioi kopoi, elpidan de echarōntois auxanorōntau tau pistiau …… boast beyond our limits in the labors of others. But we hope that …
2 Corinthians 11:23“labors”… alō? parafronarōntos lalamō, huper mis; en kopoi perissoterōs, en fulakai perissoterōs, en plēgai …Are they servants of Christ? (I am speaking as if I were out of my mind.) I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent …