What Does the Bible Say About Punishing?

Matthew 25:46 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

Matthew 25:41 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Matthew 5:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.

Revelation 20:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.

Revelation 20:1-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. 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. ...

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 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the living one. I died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.

Jude 1:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

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—

1 John 3:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

1 John 2:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

2 Peter 2:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

1 Peter 3:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison,

James 3:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.

Titus 2:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Bondservants are to be submissive to their own masters in everything; they are to be well-pleasing, not argumentative,

1 Corinthians 15:55 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

1 Corinthians 15:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Romans 1:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Acts 16:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the jailer called for lights and rushed in, and trembling with fear he fell down before Paul and Silas.

Acts 2:1-47 ESV / 2 helpful votes

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. ...

Acts 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

(Now this man acquired a field with the reward of his wickedness, and falling headlong he burst open in the middle and all his bowels gushed out.

John 4:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

John 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Luke 12:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him!

Mark 9:47 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell,

Mark 9:45 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell.

Mark 9:43 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.

Matthew 23:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?

Matthew 23:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

Matthew 18:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into the hell of fire.

Matthew 11:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

Matthew 10:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 5:29-30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Malachi 4:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts.

Jonah 2:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

At the roots of the mountains. I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever; yet you brought up my life from the pit, O Lord my God.

Jonah 1:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.

Ezekiel 28:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your trade you profaned your sanctuaries; so I brought fire out from your midst; it consumed you, and I turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all who saw you.

Jeremiah 33:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me.”

Jeremiah 17:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’”

Isaiah 26:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

Isaiah 14:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Sheol beneath is stirred up to meet you when you come; it rouses the shades to greet you, all who were leaders of the earth; it raises from their thrones all who were kings of the nations.

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 2 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.

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 2 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 / 2 helpful votes

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

Psalm 86:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.

Psalm 37:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But the wicked will perish; the enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish—like smoke they vanish away.

Psalm 16:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

Job 26:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He stretches out the north over the void and hangs the earth on nothing.

Job 17:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

If I hope for Sheol as my house, if I make my bed in darkness,

Joshua 15:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then the boundary goes up by the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the southern shoulder of the Jebusite (that is, Jerusalem). And the boundary goes up to the top of the mountain that lies over against the Valley of Hinnom, on the west, at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim.

Deuteronomy 20:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But in the cities of these peoples that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes,

Numbers 13:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim), and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.”

Genesis 19:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven.

Genesis 9:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Genesis 3:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

Genesis 3:1-24 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’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ...

Genesis 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

59 Bible Verses about Punishing

Matthew 25:46 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 25:41 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 5:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 20:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 20:1-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 13:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jude 1:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jude 1:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 John 3:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 John 2:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Peter 2:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Peter 3:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

James 3:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Titus 2:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 15:55 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 15:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 1:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 16:29 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 2:1-47 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 1:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 4:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 12:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 9:47 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 9:45 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 9:43 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 18:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 11:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 10:28 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 5:29-30 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Malachi 4:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jonah 2:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jonah 1:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ezekiel 28:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jeremiah 33:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jeremiah 17:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 26:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 14:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 86:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 37:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 16:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Job 26:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Job 17:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Joshua 15:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 20:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Numbers 13:33 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 19:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 9:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 3:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 3:1-24 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 1:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Suggest a Verse

Enter a Verse Reference (e.g., John 3:16-17)