5352. 'For God has made me forget all my labour' means a removal after temptations have finished. This is clear from the meaning of 'forgetting' as removal, 5170, 5278; and from the meaning of 'labour' as conflicts, and so temptations. From these meanings one may see that 'God has made me forget all my labour' means a removal after temptations - a removal of the evils that caused distress. The fact that these things are meant is also evident from what is recorded about Joseph in the land of Canaan when among his brothers, and after that in Egypt. In the land of Canaan he was thrown into the pit and sold; in Egypt he served as a slave and was kept in prison for several years. Temptations were meant by those experiences, as has been shown already; and the fact that those experiences are what is meant by 'labour' is self-evident.