86 Bible Verses about Fathers Who Leave Their Children

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 17 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 13 helpful votes

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

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 12 helpful votes

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Colossians 3:21 ESV / 11 helpful votes

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

Exodus 20:12 ESV / 9 helpful votes

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

Psalm 103:13 ESV / 8 helpful votes

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.

Proverbs 23:24 ESV / 6 helpful votes

The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.

Proverbs 13:24 ESV / 6 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 3:11-12 ESV / 6 helpful votes

My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV / 6 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.

Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ESV / 6 helpful votes

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Genesis 18:19 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Colossians 3:20 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

Ephesians 6:1-4 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Malachi 4:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”

Proverbs 22:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 14:26 ESV / 5 helpful votes

In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.

Joshua 24:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

John 3:16 ESV / 4 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.

Isaiah 14:1-2 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will again choose Israel, and will set them in their own land, and sojourners will join them and will attach themselves to the house of Jacob. And the peoples will take them and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them in the Lord's land as male and female slaves. They will take captive those who were their captors, and rule over those who oppressed them.

Proverbs 23:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Psalm 139:13-16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Psalm 68:5 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

Psalm 27:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For my father and my mother have forsaken me, but the Lord will take me in.

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

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.

Exodus 23:1-9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“You shall not spread a false report. You shall not join hands with a wicked man to be a malicious witness. You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice, nor shall you be partial to a poor man in his lawsuit. “If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him. 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. ...

Hebrews 12:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

Hebrews 12:5-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? ...

Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Ephesians 6:1-2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),

Ephesians 5:33 ESV / 3 helpful votes

However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

1 Corinthians 11:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 3 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. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Matthew 10:42 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.”

Proverbs 29:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.

Proverbs 29:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 23:13-14 ESV / 3 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 20:7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him!

Proverbs 19:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Proverbs 17:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Grandchildren are the crown of the aged, and the glory of children is their fathers.

Proverbs 13:22 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children, but the sinner's wealth is laid up for the righteous.

Proverbs 10:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow to his mother.

Proverbs 1:8-9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.

Psalm 127:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Psalm 106:37 ESV / 3 helpful votes

They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons;

Joshua 1:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Deuteronomy 11:19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Exodus 20:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

Revelation 1:1-20 ESV / 2 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 ...

1 John 4:18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Hebrews 13:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

2 Timothy 3:14-15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

1 Timothy 5:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

1 Timothy 5:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. Honor widows who are truly widows. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God. She who is truly a widow, left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplications and prayers night and day, ...

Ephesians 6:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),

Matthew 19:4-6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

Matthew 19:3-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one's wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” ...

Matthew 18:12-14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray? And if he finds it, truly, I say to you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine that never went astray. So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.

Matthew 18:10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 10:36 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

Isaiah 13:1-22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The oracle concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. On a bare hill raise a signal; cry aloud to them; wave the hand for them to enter the gates of the nobles. I myself have commanded my consecrated ones, and have summoned my mighty men to execute my anger, my proudly exulting ones. The sound of a tumult is on the mountains as of a great multitude! The sound of an uproar of kingdoms, of nations gathering together! The Lord of hosts is mustering a host for battle. They come from a distant land, from the end of the heavens, the Lord and the weapons of his indignation, to destroy the whole land. ...

Song of Solomon 2:1-17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women. As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Sustain me with raisins; refresh me with apples, for I am sick with love. ...

Proverbs 17:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding.

Proverbs 10:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.

Proverbs 6:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.

Proverbs 1:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching,

Psalm 113:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children. Praise the Lord!

Psalm 106:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And would make their offspring fall among the nations, scattering them among the lands.

Psalm 103:1-22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Of David. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. ...

Deuteronomy 11:18-21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

Deuteronomy 6:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. ...

Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Deuteronomy 4:9-10 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children— how on the day that you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so.’

Deuteronomy 4:9 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children's children—

Deuteronomy 1:29-31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then I said to you, ‘Do not be in dread or afraid of them. The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’

Leviticus 19:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father, and you shall keep my Sabbaths: I am the Lord your God.

Exodus 34:6-7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

Genesis 18:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth

Genesis 18:1-33 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” ...

Genesis 2:1-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up—for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, ...

Genesis 1:28 ESV / 2 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.”

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