Bible verses about grief
These are the passages people return to when someone has died, and they are set out here with a sentence on each — what it says, and why it has been a comfort — rather than as a list to scroll. Scripture does not hurry grief, and neither does this page.
Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit. — Psalm 34:18 · WEB
He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. — Psalm 147:3 · WEB
The one who counts the stars and names them is described, in the next breath, as binding up wounds.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. — Psalm 23:4 · WEB
Jesus wept. — John 11:35 · WEB
Mary says the same thing her sister said, and he does not answer her at all.
When the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her and said to her, “Don’t cry.” — Luke 7:13 · WEB
Two crowds meet at a town gate, one going to a burial — and nobody has asked him for anything.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him. — Isaiah 53:3 · WEB
A man nobody looked at twice, and the verse at the center that says whose sin it was and who put it on him.
It is because of Yahweh’s loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his mercies don’t fail. — Lamentations 3:22 · WEB
The turn in the book's center is produced by remembering rather than by any change in circumstances, and nothing outside the man has improved.
a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; — Ecclesiastes 3:4 · WEB
He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked will I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.” — Job 1:21 · WEB
The disasters arrive without a pause between them, and the man who has lost everything grieves fully and worships in the same breath.
Yahweh says: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children. She refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.” — Jeremiah 31:15 · WEB
The restoration is promised first to the tribes lost a century earlier, and the mother weeping over the deportation road is told her work will be paid.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, — 2 Corinthians 1:3 · WEB
One word appears ten times in five verses, and the passage describes it as something that passes through a person rather than stopping in him.
Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. — Romans 12:15 · WEB
But we don’t want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you don’t grieve like the rest, who have no hope. — 1 Thessalonians 4:13 · WEB
The problem is grief, not curiosity — and the remedy Paul reaches for is one fact about Jesus.
But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” — 1 Corinthians 15:54 · WEB
The living and the dead are changed at one moment, and the chapter ends by taunting death with the prophets' own words.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. — Matthew 5:4 · WEB
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; neither will there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more. The first things have passed away.” — Revelation 21:4 · WEB
The new creation opens with a city dressed as a bride, God moves in with his people, and the tears are wiped by hand — with death gone because the first things went.