Caravaggio, Saint Jerome Writing (c. 1605), Galleria Borghese. Public domain.
20 verses in the King James Version. Word study for “strive” →
And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.
And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac’s herdmen, saying, The water is ours: and he called the name of the well Esek; because they strove with him.
And if men strive together, and one smite another with a stone, or with his fist, and he die not, but keepeth his bed:
If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her , and yet no mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon him; and he shall pay as the judges determine .
When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draweth near for to deliver her husband out of the hand of him that smiteth him, and putteth forth her hand, and taketh him by the secrets:
And of Levi he said, Let thy Thummim and thy Urim be with thy holy one, whom thou didst prove at Massah, and with whom thou didst strive at the waters of Meribah;
And now art thou any thing better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them,
Why dost thou strive against him? for he giveth not account of any of his matters.
Plead my cause , O LORD , with them that strive with me: fight against them that fight against me.
Strive not with a man without cause, if he have done thee no harm.
Go not forth hastily to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end thereof, when thy neighbour hath put thee to shame.
Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.
Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.
Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me;
And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.
Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers.
And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men , apt to teach, patient,
