100 Bible Verses about Human Responsibility Toward Animals

Proverbs 12:10 ESV / 9 helpful votes

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

Genesis 1:26 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Matthew 10:29 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.

Matthew 6:26 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

Jeremiah 2:7 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And I brought you into a plentiful land to enjoy its fruits and its good things. But when you came in, you defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination.

Genesis 1:28 ESV / 7 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.”

Nehemiah 9:6 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.

Matthew 25:31-46 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, ...

Isaiah 24:4-6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.

Isaiah 5:8-10 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Woe to those who join house to house, who add field to field, until there is no more room, and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land. The Lord of hosts has sworn in my hearing: “Surely many houses shall be desolate, large and beautiful houses, without inhabitant. For ten acres of vineyard shall yield but one bath, and a homer of seed shall yield but an ephah.”

Psalm 145:9 ESV / 5 helpful votes

The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.

Exodus 20:13 ESV / 5 helpful votes

“You shall not murder.

Genesis 8:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided.

Genesis 1:1-31 ESV / 5 helpful votes

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ...

Revelation 20:12 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.

Revelation 11:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

2 Peter 3:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.

Colossians 1:16 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.

Romans 8:22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.

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.

Luke 16:13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”

Matthew 12:11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

He said to them, “Which one of you who has a sheep, if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it and lift it out?

Matthew 6:1-34 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. “Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. ...

Jeremiah 1:5 ESV / 4 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.”

Ecclesiastes 3:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?

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 104:24-25 ESV / 4 helpful votes

O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom have you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures. Here is the sea, great and wide, which teems with creatures innumerable, living things both small and great.

Psalm 104:1-35 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent. He lays the beams of his chambers on the waters; he makes the clouds his chariot; he rides on the wings of the wind; he makes his messengers winds, his ministers a flaming fire. He set the earth on its foundations, so that it should never be moved. ...

Psalm 50:11 ESV / 4 helpful votes

I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.

Psalm 50:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.

Psalm 24:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,

Job 12:7-10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.

Deuteronomy 25:4 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain.

Deuteronomy 5:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.

Leviticus 25:23-24 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the country you possess, you shall allow a redemption of the land.

Genesis 9:6 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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

Genesis 9:1-29 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man. ...

Genesis 3:21 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.

Genesis 2:15 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.

Genesis 2:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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.

Genesis 1:31 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Genesis 1:27 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

Revelation 11:1-19 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Then I was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, “Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, 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. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth.” These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth. And if anyone would harm them, fire pours from their mouth and consumes their foes. If anyone would harm them, this is how he is doomed to be killed. ...

Revelation 5:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”

1 John 4:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV / 3 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.

James 3:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

Hebrews 12:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

Hebrews 9:27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Hebrews 1:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

2 Timothy 3:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

That the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

1 Timothy 4:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 1:20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Colossians 1:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Colossians 1:16-17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

Philippians 2:5-8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 1:1-30 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. ...

Ephesians 1:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

As a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

Romans 12:2 ESV / 3 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.

Romans 8:29 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Romans 8:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Romans 7:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.

Romans 5:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Romans 5:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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

Romans 1:20 ESV / 3 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.

Romans 1:19-20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 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 11:1-18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.” But Peter began and explained it to them in order: “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision, something like a great sheet descending, being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to me. ...

John 21:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

When they got out on land, they saw a charcoal fire in place, with fish laid out on it, and bread.

John 21:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He said to them, “Cast the net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in, because of the quantity of fish.

John 3:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

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.

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.

John 1:3 ESV / 3 helpful votes

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Luke 24:42-43 ESV / 3 helpful votes

They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them.

Luke 16:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.

Luke 12:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.

Luke 5:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

Mark 14:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, “Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?”

Matthew 24:1-51 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. ...

Matthew 17:27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”

Matthew 12:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Of how much more value is a man than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”

Matthew 10:29-31 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Matthew 7:1-29 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. ...

Matthew 6:30 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Matthew 6:10 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Zechariah 12:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The oracle of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him:

Habakkuk 2:17 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The violence done to Lebanon will overwhelm you, as will the destruction of the beasts that terrified them, for the blood of man and violence to the earth, to cities and all who dwell in them.

Hosea 2:18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.

Daniel 4:30-32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” While the words were still in the king's mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.”

Ezekiel 34:17-18 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“As for you, my flock, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pasture; and to drink of clear water, that you must muddy the rest of the water with your feet?

Jeremiah 22:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah: “‘You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city.

Isaiah 44:9-20 ESV / 3 helpful votes

All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his companions shall be put to shame, and the craftsmen are only human. Let them all assemble, let them stand forth. They shall be terrified; they shall be put to shame together. The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. ...

Isaiah 43:20-21 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

Isaiah 11:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

Ecclesiastes 12:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

Proverbs 27:23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Know well the condition of your flocks, and give attention to your herds,

Psalm 147:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry.

Psalm 19:1 ESV / 3 helpful votes

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

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