100 Bible Verses about Cursing

Ephesians 4:29 ESV / 767 helpful votes

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Ephesians 5:4 ESV / 646 helpful votes

Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.

James 1:26 ESV / 545 helpful votes

If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless.

James 3:8-10 ESV / 518 helpful votes

But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Colossians 3:8 ESV / 423 helpful votes

But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.

Luke 6:28 ESV / 362 helpful votes

Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

Colossians 4:6 ESV / 302 helpful votes

Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

Romans 12:14 ESV / 286 helpful votes

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

Exodus 20:7 ESV / 263 helpful votes

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

Matthew 15:18-20 ESV / 247 helpful votes

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Matthew 15:11 ESV / 228 helpful votes

It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

Psalm 109:17 ESV / 200 helpful votes

He loved to curse; let curses come upon him! He did not delight in blessing; may it be far from him!

Proverbs 18:21 ESV / 172 helpful votes

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.

Matthew 15:10-11 ESV / 160 helpful votes

And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”

1 Peter 3:10 ESV / 137 helpful votes

For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit;

James 3:10 ESV / 131 helpful votes

From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Leviticus 20:9 ESV / 111 helpful votes

For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him.

Matthew 5:22 ESV / 103 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.

James 5:12 ESV / 96 helpful votes

But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.

Luke 6:45 ESV / 94 helpful votes

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

2 Kings 2:23-24 ESV / 90 helpful votes

He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!” And he turned around, and when he saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the boys.

2 Timothy 2:16 ESV / 88 helpful votes

But avoid irreverent babble, for it will lead people into more and more ungodliness,

Proverbs 21:23 ESV / 86 helpful votes

Whoever keeps his mouth and his tongue keeps himself out of trouble.

Proverbs 15:1 ESV / 85 helpful votes

A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

Proverbs 4:24 ESV / 75 helpful votes

Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.

Matthew 12:36 ESV / 70 helpful votes

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,

Psalm 109:18 ESV / 69 helpful votes

He clothed himself with cursing as his coat; may it soak into his body like water, like oil into his bones!

Philippians 4:8 ESV / 65 helpful votes

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Romans 3:14 ESV / 64 helpful votes

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”

Leviticus 24:15 ESV / 64 helpful votes

And speak to the people of Israel, saying, Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.

Matthew 5:33-37 ESV / 60 helpful votes

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn.’ But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Psalm 19:14 ESV / 60 helpful votes

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

Matthew 5:21-22 ESV / 57 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ 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.

Proverbs 15:4 ESV / 53 helpful votes

A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but perverseness in it breaks the spirit.

Leviticus 19:14 ESV / 53 helpful votes

You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.

James 3:9-12 ESV / 52 helpful votes

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

Leviticus 19:12 ESV / 51 helpful votes

You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 50 helpful votes

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Numbers 23:8 ESV / 50 helpful votes

How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?

1 Peter 1:15 ESV / 48 helpful votes

But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,

Hosea 4:2 ESV / 48 helpful votes

There is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Psalm 10:7 ESV / 47 helpful votes

His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.

Psalm 34:13-14 ESV / 46 helpful votes

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit. Turn away from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.

Deuteronomy 5:11 ESV / 45 helpful votes

“‘You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.

James 4:7 ESV / 44 helpful votes

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

2 Timothy 3:2 ESV / 44 helpful votes

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

Matthew 5:37 ESV / 44 helpful votes

Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.

Matthew 5:34 ESV / 43 helpful votes

But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God,

1 Thessalonians 5:22 ESV / 40 helpful votes

Abstain from every form of evil.

Proverbs 26:2 ESV / 39 helpful votes

Like a sparrow in its flitting, like a swallow in its flying, a curse that is causeless does not alight.

James 3:5-6 ESV / 38 helpful votes

So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 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.

Romans 3:14-17 ESV / 38 helpful votes

“Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.” “Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known.”

Proverbs 4:23 ESV / 38 helpful votes

Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.

Psalm 59:12 ESV / 38 helpful votes

For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips, let them be trapped in their pride. For the cursing and lies that they utter,

Psalm 39:1 ESV / 38 helpful votes

To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.”

Luke 1:37 ESV / 37 helpful votes

For nothing will be impossible with God.”

James 3:1-18 ESV / 36 helpful votes

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! ...

1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV / 36 helpful votes

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Genesis 3:17 ESV / 35 helpful votes

And to Adam he said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life;

Psalm 109:28 ESV / 34 helpful votes

Let them curse, but you will bless! They arise and are put to shame, but your servant will be glad!

James 3:8 ESV / 32 helpful votes

But no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

Matthew 5:44 ESV / 32 helpful votes

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Proverbs 30:11 ESV / 32 helpful votes

There are those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers.

Proverbs 8:13 ESV / 32 helpful votes

The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.

Revelation 1:1-20 ESV / 31 helpful votes

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, who bore witness to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw. Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, for the time is near. John to the seven churches that are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood ...

Romans 12:21 ESV / 31 helpful votes

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Hosea 10:4 ESV / 30 helpful votes

They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

Ecclesiastes 7:21-22 ESV / 30 helpful votes

Do not take to heart all the things that people say, lest you hear your servant cursing you. Your heart knows that many times you yourself have cursed others.

Proverbs 12:16 ESV / 30 helpful votes

The vexation of a fool is known at once, but the prudent ignores an insult.

2 Peter 2:14 ESV / 28 helpful votes

They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

James 1:19 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

Acts 17:10-11 ESV / 28 helpful votes

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.

John 14:6 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jeremiah 23:10 ESV / 28 helpful votes

For the land is full of adulterers; because of the curse the land mourns, and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. Their course is evil, and their might is not right.

Romans 8:31 ESV / 27 helpful votes

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Matthew 6:33 ESV / 27 helpful votes

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Malachi 3:9 ESV / 26 helpful votes

You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.

Proverbs 30:9 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Lest I be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.

Genesis 3:14 ESV / 26 helpful votes

The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

James 3:9-10 ESV / 25 helpful votes

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

Psalm 109:1-31 ESV / 25 helpful votes

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Be not silent, O God of my praise! For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me, speaking against me with lying tongues. They encircle me with words of hate, and attack me without cause. In return for my love they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. So they reward me evil for good, and hatred for my love. ...

Hebrews 6:8 ESV / 24 helpful votes

But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

Ephesians 4:24 ESV / 23 helpful votes

And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Exodus 21:17 ESV / 23 helpful votes

“Whoever curses his father or his mother shall be put to death.

Titus 2:7-8 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.

1 Corinthians 6:15-19 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own,

1 Corinthians 3:16 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

John 3:16 ESV / 22 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 15:4 ESV / 22 helpful votes

For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’

Proverbs 28:27 ESV / 22 helpful votes

Whoever gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes will get many a curse.

Psalm 34:13 ESV / 21 helpful votes

Keep your tongue from evil and your lips from speaking deceit.

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 18 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Exodus 21:15 ESV / 18 helpful votes

“Whoever strikes his father or his mother shall be put to death.

2 Timothy 1:7 ESV / 17 helpful votes

For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

1 Corinthians 12:3 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says “Jesus is accursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except in the Holy Spirit.

Proverbs 20:20 ESV / 17 helpful votes

If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.

Hebrews 12:14 ESV / 16 helpful votes

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Matthew 12:36-37 ESV / 16 helpful votes

I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Matthew 5:13 ESV / 15 helpful votes

“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.

James 5:1-20 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. ...

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