What Does the Bible Say About Child Abuse?

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 61 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Mark 9:42 ESV / 52 helpful votes

“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.

Deuteronomy 27:25 ESV / 35 helpful votes

“‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Matthew 18:6 ESV / 33 helpful votes

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

Revelation 21:8 ESV / 22 helpful votes

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 21 helpful votes

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 18 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Mark 10:14 ESV / 14 helpful votes

But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.

Proverbs 19:18 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.

Exodus 23:7 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.

Luke 17:2 ESV / 12 helpful votes

It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 11 helpful votes

The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

Luke 12:42-46 ESV / 9 helpful votes

And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.

Matthew 15:19 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Matthew 2:16 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

Proverbs 12:10 ESV / 7 helpful votes

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

Job 3:16 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?

Exodus 21:22 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.

Romans 13:8-10 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Acts 2:38 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Proverbs 6:16 ESV / 6 helpful votes

There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:

Revelation 22:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Matthew 15:20 ESV / 5 helpful votes

These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Hosea 13:16 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

Lamentations 1:1-22 ESV / 5 helpful votes

How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow has she become, she who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces has become a slave. She weeps bitterly in the night, with tears on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her; all her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they have become her enemies. Judah has gone into exile because of affliction and hard servitude; she dwells now among the nations, but finds no resting place; her pursuers have all overtaken her in the midst of her distress. The roads to Zion mourn, for none come to the festival; all her gates are desolate; her priests groan; her virgins have been afflicted, and she herself suffers bitterly. Her foes have become the head; her enemies prosper, because the Lord has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions; her children have gone away, captives before the foe. ...

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.

Psalm 128:3-5 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life!

Psalm 8:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

Job 3:3 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’

2 Kings 8:12 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And Hazael said, “Why does my lord weep?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with the sword and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women.”

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

John 8:16-18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.”

Luke 1:31 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

Mark 16:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Matthew 25:45 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

Matthew 25:40 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

Joel 2:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

Proverbs 13:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A wise son hears his father's instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.

Job 3:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Numbers 12:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb.”

Exodus 21:22-25 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Isaiah 49:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name.

Proverbs 1:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Psalm 139:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

Job 10:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man's years,

Proverbs 6:17 ESV / 1 helpful vote

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

Job 4:17 ESV / 1 helpful vote

‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?

Bible Verses about Child Abuse