What Does the Bible Say About Casting Lots?

Proverbs 16:33 ESV / 11 helpful votes

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.

Jonah 1:7 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And they said to one another, “Come, let us cast lots, that we may know on whose account this evil has come upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah.

Luke 1:9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

According to the custom of the priesthood, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

Acts 1:26 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell on Matthias, and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

Romans 2:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Acts 26:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them.

Matthew 27:35 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots.

1 Samuel 14:42 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then Saul said, “Cast the lot between me and my son Jonathan.” And Jonathan was taken.

Revelation 20:2-5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while. Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection.

Proverbs 18:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The lot puts an end to quarrels and decides between powerful contenders.

Joshua 14:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Their inheritance was by lot, just as the Lord had commanded by the hand of Moses for the nine and one-half tribes.

Numbers 34:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Moses commanded the people of Israel, saying, “This is the land that you shall inherit by lot, which the Lord has commanded to give to the nine tribes and to the half-tribe.

Revelation 17:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.

Revelation 13:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who was slain.

Revelation 13:1-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads. And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority. One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?” And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. ...

Revelation 12:7-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Revelation 11:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.”

Revelation 11:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months.

Revelation 9:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.

Jude 1:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—

2 Peter 1:20-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

James 4:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Hebrews 13:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Hebrews 9:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

Hebrews 2:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,

1 Timothy 6:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.

1 Thessalonians 2:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.

Galatians 1:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

1 Corinthians 15:52 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.

1 Corinthians 14:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

1 Corinthians 13:8-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

1 Corinthians 7:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.

1 Corinthians 2:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

Romans 10:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Romans 10:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Romans 6:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 5:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Acts 13:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them.

Acts 1:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So one of the men who have accompanied us during all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,

John 19:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things,

John 16:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

John 14:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

John 8:40 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did.

John 8:34 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.

Luke 21:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death.

Luke 16:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’”

Luke 12:40 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”

Luke 10:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Mark 16:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back—it was very large.

Mark 15:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take.

Mark 13:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“But be on your guard. For they will deliver you over to councils, and you will be beaten in synagogues, and you will stand before governors and kings for my sake, to bear witness before them.

Mark 9:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.”

Matthew 16:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.

Matthew 7:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’

Matthew 7:15-20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ...

Jeremiah 5:30-31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?

Jeremiah 4:23-27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. I looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the air had fled. I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger. For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.

Proverbs 26:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Like an archer who wounds everyone is one who hires a passing fool or drunkard.

Proverbs 13:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it.

Psalm 22:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.

1 Kings 8:39 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then hear in heaven your dwelling place and forgive and act and render to each whose heart you know, according to all his ways (for you, you only, know the hearts of all the children of mankind),

Deuteronomy 18:11 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead,

Leviticus 16:8-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.

Leviticus 16:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel.

Leviticus 16:1-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. ...

Genesis 6:1-22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When man began to multiply on the face of the land and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ...

Genesis 3:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Genesis 2:7 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

Bible Verses about Casting Lots