What Does the Bible Say About Animal Cruelty?

Proverbs 12:10 ESV / 116 helpful votes

Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.

Proverbs 27:23 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds,

Exodus 23:5 ESV / 37 helpful votes

If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying down under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it; you shall rescue it with him.

Isaiah 1:11 ESV / 28 helpful votes

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.

Genesis 1:28 ESV / 28 helpful votes

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Deuteronomy 25:4 ESV / 22 helpful votes

“You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.

Genesis 1:30 ESV / 21 helpful votes

And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.

Luke 12:6 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.

Psalm 145:9 ESV / 7 helpful votes

The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Isaiah 11:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.

Genesis 2:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

Luke 15:4-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

Psalm 44:19 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.

Bible Verses about Animal Cruelty