OK, sorry to be the ancient languages scrooge, but I have heard this
particular piece of legend several times, including the long rhapsody on it
in The Joy of Childbirth, and I'm hear to tell you that the Hebrew word
"etsev" clearly has a negative valence.

It's used in the bible mainly about childbirth, so you can't learn one as a
comment on the other that well.   It's in Proverbs a few times to mean
"work," but clearly there it means "the hard painful work of life that we
can't avoid"  (Proverbs 10:22, 14:23) -- probably "toil" is the right
translation, connoting nasty work.  The third time it shows up in Proverbs is
even farther from "work" and nastier, and the JPS Bible translates it (well,
IMO) this way:   "A gentle response alays wrath; a harsh (etsev) word
provokes anger."    One might quibble about the meaning of the sentence but
it clearly doesn't mean anything like "satisfying strong work."    Also
compare 1Kings 1:6, where it says that King David never gave his son Adonijah
"etsev" ever, meaning that the son was spoiled.

So while I kind of like this business of "work" not "suffering" as a gloss on
the text, the plain meaning is clearly in between, at best.

Elisheva Urbas
International Board Certified Ancient Languages Consultant (TIC!!)

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