36 Bible Verses about Cowardice

Now Peter was seated in the open square outside the house: and a servant-girl came to him, saying, You were with Jesus the Galilaean. But he said before them all that it was false, saying, I have no knowledge of what you say. And when he had gone out into the doorway, another saw him and says to those who were there, This man was with Jesus the Nazarene. read more.
And again he said with an oath, I have no knowledge of the man. And after a little time those who were near came and said to Peter, Truly you are one of them; because your talk is witness against you. Then with curses and oaths he said, I have no knowledge of the man. And straight away there came the cry of a cock.

And while Peter was down in the open square of the building, one of the servant-girls of the high priest came; And seeing Peter warming himself by the fire, she gave him a look, and said, You were with this Nazarene, even Jesus. But he said, I have no knowledge of him, or of what you are saying: and he went out into the doorway; and there came the cry of a cock. read more.
And the girl saw him, and said again to those who were near, This is one of them. But again he said it was not so. And after a little time, again those who were near said to Peter, Truly you are one of them; for you are a Galilaean. But, with curses and oaths, he said, I have no knowledge of the man about whom you are talking. And in the same minute, the cock gave a second cry. And it came to Peter's mind how Jesus had said to him, Before the cock's second cry, you will say three times that you have no knowledge of me. And at this thought he was overcome with weeping.

And they made him a prisoner and took him away to the house of the high priest. But Peter went after them at a distance. And a fire was lighted in the middle of the open square, and they were seated together, and Peter was among them. And a certain woman-servant, seeing him in the light of the fire, and looking at him with attention, said, This man was with him. read more.
But he said, Woman, it is not true; I have no knowledge of him. And after a little time, another saw him and said, You are one of them; and he said, Man, I am not. And after about an hour, another man said, with decision, Certainly this man was with him, for he is a Galilaean. And Peter said, Man, I have no knowledge of these things of which you are talking. And straight away, while he was saying these words, there came the cry of a cock.

But Peter was kept outside at the door. Then this other disciple, who was a friend of the high priest, came out and had a word with the girl who kept the door, and took Peter in. Then the girl who was the door-keeper said to Peter, Are you not one of this man's disciples? In answer he said, I am not.

But Simon Peter was still there warming himself by the fire. They said to him, Are you not one of his disciples? He said, No, I am not.

And all the men of Israel, when they saw him, went in flight, overcome with fear.

And Saul's fear of David became all the greater, and he went on hating him, day by day.

There we saw those great men, the sons of Anak, offspring of the Nephilim: and we seemed to ourselves no more than insects, and so we seemed to them. Then all the people gave load cries of grief, and all that night they gave themselves up to weeping.

The men of Ai put to death about thirty-six of them, driving them from before the town as far as the stoneworks, and overcoming them on the way down: and the hearts of the people became like water.

And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.

After they had gone three or four miles they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near to the boat; and they had great fear.

For they all saw him, and were troubled. But straight away he said to them, Take heart, it is I, have no fear.

And he said to them, Why are you full of fear, O you of little faith? Then he got up and gave orders to the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.

And he said to them, Where is your faith? And fear and wonder overcame them, and they said to one another, Who then is this, who gives orders even to the winds and the water and they do what he says?

And he himself was in the back of the boat, sleeping on the cushion: and they, awaking him, said, Master, is it nothing to you that we are in danger of destruction?

Then all the people gave load cries of grief, and all that night they gave themselves up to weeping. And all the children of Israel, crying out against Moses and Aaron, said, If only we had come to our death in the land of Egypt, or even in this waste land! Why is the Lord taking us into this land to come to our death by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will get into strange hands: would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt? read more.
And they said to one another, Let us make a captain over us, and go back to Egypt. Then Moses and Aaron went down on their faces before the meeting of the people.

But going against the order of the Lord your God, you would not go up: And you made an angry outcry in your tents, and said, In his hate for us the Lord has taken us out of the land of Egypt, to give us up into the hands of the Amorites for our destruction. Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our hearts feeble with fear by saying, The people are greater and taller than we are, and the towns are great and walled up to heaven; and more than this, we have seen the sons of the Anakim there.

Now when he came near to Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, Truly, you are a fair woman and beautiful to the eye; And I am certain that when the men of Egypt see you, they will say, This is his wife: and they will put me to death and keep you. Say, then, that you are my sister, and so it will be well with me because of you, and my life will be kept safe on your account. read more.
And so it was that when Abram came into Egypt, the men of Egypt, looking on the woman, saw that she was fair. And Pharaoh's great men, having seen her, said words in praise of her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh's house. And because of her, he was good to Abram, and he had sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants and women-servants, and camels. And the Lord sent great troubles on Pharaoh's house because of Sarai, Abram's wife. Then Pharaoh sent for Abram, and said, What have you done to me? why did you not say that she was your wife? Why did you say that she was your sister? so that I took her for my wife: now, take your wife and go on your way.

And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech, king of Gerar, sent and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream in the night, and said to him, Truly you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken; for she is a man's wife. Now Abimelech had not come near her; and he said, Lord, will you put to death an upright nation? read more.
Did he not say to me himself, She is my sister? and she herself said, He is my brother: with an upright heart and clean hands have I done this. And God said to him in the dream, I see that you have done this with an upright heart, and I have kept you from sinning against me: for this reason I did not let you come near her. So now, give the man back his wife, for he is a prophet, and let him say a prayer for you, so your life may be safe: but if you do not give her back, be certain that death will come to you and all your house. So Abimelech got up early in the morning and sent for all his servants and gave them word of these things, and they were full of fear. Then Abimelech sent for Abraham, and said, What have you done to us? what wrong have I done you that you have put on me and on my kingdom so great a sin? You have done to me things which are not to be done. And Abimelech said to Abraham, Why did you do this thing? And Abraham said, Because it seemed to me that there was no fear of God in this place, and that they might put me to death because of my wife. And, in fact, she is my sister, the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife:

And David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, Come, let us go in flight, or not one of us will be safe from Absalom: let us go without loss of time, or he will overtake us quickly and send evil on us, and put the town to the sword.

But the people living in the land are strong, and the towns are walled and very great; further, we saw the children of Anak there.

But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they gave the children of Israel a bad account of the land they had been to see, saying, This land through which we went is a land causing destruction to those living in it; and all the people we saw there are men of more than common size. There we saw those great men, the sons of Anak, offspring of the Nephilim: and we seemed to ourselves no more than insects, and so we seemed to them.

But all this has taken place so that the writings of the prophets might come true. Then all his disciples went from him in flight.

Now when the news came to all the kings of the Amorites on the west side of Jordan, and all the kings of the Canaanites living by the sea, how the Lord had made the waters of Jordan dry before the children of Israel, till they had gone across, their hearts became like water, and there was no more spirit in them, because of the children of Israel.

And because of this news, our hearts became like water, and there was no more spirit in any of us because of you; for the Lord your God is God in heaven on high and here on earth.

Hearing this, Pilate had a desire to let him go free, but the Jews said in a loud voice, If you let this man go, you are not Caesar's friend: everyone who makes himself a king goes against Caesar. So when these words came to Pilate's ear, he took Jesus out, seating himself in the judge's seat in a place named in Hebrew, Gabbatha, or the Stone Floor. (It was the day when they made ready for the Passover; and it was about the sixth hour.) And he said to the Jews, There is your King! read more.
Then they gave a loud cry, Away with him! away with him! to the cross! Pilate said to them, Am I to put your King to death on the cross? The chief priests said in answer, We have no king but Caesar. So then he gave him up to them to be put to death on the cross. And they took Jesus away;

However, a number even of the rulers had belief in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not say so openly for fear that they might be shut out from the Synagogue: For the praise of men was dearer to them than the approval of God.

And one came to David and said, The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom. And David said to all his servants who were with him at Jerusalem, Come, let us go in flight, or not one of us will be safe from Absalom: let us go without loss of time, or he will overtake us quickly and send evil on us, and put the town to the sword. And the king's servants said to the king, See, your servants are ready to do whatever the king says is to be done. read more.
So the king went out, taking with him all the people of his house, but for ten of his women, who were to take care of the house. And the king went out, and all his servants went after him, and made a stop at the Far House.

Then the children of Joseph said to Joshua, Why have you given me only one part and one stretch of land for my heritage? For through the blessing given to me by the Lord up to now, I am a great people. Then Joshua said to them, If you are such a great people, go up into the woodlands, clearing a place there for yourselves in the land of the Perizzites and the Rephaim, if the hill-country of Ephraim is not wide enough for you. And the children of Joseph said, The hill-country is not enough for us: and all the Canaanites living in the valley have iron war-carriages, those in Beth-shean and its towns as well as those in the valley of Jezreel. read more.
Then Joshua said to the children of Joseph, to Ephraim and Manasseh, You are a great people, and have great power: you are not to have one property only, For the hill-country of Gilead will be yours ... the woodland and cut down ... its outskirts will be yours ... get the Canaanites out, for they have iron war-carriages ... strong.

And Aaron said, Let not my lord be angry; you have seen how the purposes of this people are evil. For they said to me, Make us a god to go before us: as for this Moses, who took us up out of the land of Egypt, we have no idea what has come to him. Then I said to them, Whoever has any gold, let him take it off; so they gave it to me, and I put it in the fire, and this image of an ox came out.

So now, let it be given out to the people that anyone who is shaking with fear is to go back from Mount Galud. So twenty-two thousand of the people went back, but there were still ten thousand.

The children of Ephraim, armed with bows, were turned back on the day of the fight.

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I made a protest against him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. For before certain men came from James, he did take food with the Gentiles: but when they came, he went back and made himself separate, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews went after him, so that even Barnabas was overcome by their false ways. read more.
But when I saw that they were not living uprightly in agreement with the true words of the good news, I said to Cephas before them all, If you, being a Jew, are living like the Gentiles, and not like the Jews, how will you make the Gentiles do the same as the Jews?

When the men of Israel saw the danger they were in, (for the people were troubled,) they took cover in cracks in the hillsides and in the woods and in rocks and holes and hollows. And a great number of the people had gone over Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead; but Saul was still in Gilgal, and all the people went after him shaking in fear.

After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, made a request to Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate said he might do so. So he went and took away his body.

Now there was among the Pharisees a man named Nicodemus, who was one of the rulers of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we are certain that you have come from God as a teacher, because no man would be able to do these signs which you do if God was not with him.

And when he was questioned by the men of the place about his wife, he said, She is my sister; fearing to say, She is my wife; for, he said, the men of the place may put me to death on account of Rebekah; because she is very beautiful. And when he had been there for some time, Abimelech, king of the Philistines, looking through a window, saw Isaac playing with Rebekah his wife. And he said to Isaac, It is clear that she is your wife: why then did you say, She is my sister? And Isaac said, For fear that I might be put to death because of her.

But these five kings went in flight secretly to a hole in the rock at Makkedah.

And all the men of Israel, when they saw him, went in flight, overcome with fear.

And Samuel said, How is it possible for me to go? If Saul gets news of it he will put me to death. And the Lord said, Take a young cow with you and say, I have come to make an offering to the Lord.

They said this because of their fear of the Jews: for the Jews had come to an agreement that if any man said that Jesus was the Christ he would be put out of the Synagogue.

And Jacob, in answer, said to Laban, My fear was that you might take your daughters from me by force.

And the keeper, coming out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, took his sword and was about to put himself to death, fearing that the prisoners had got away.

But all this has taken place so that the writings of the prophets might come true. Then all his disciples went from him in flight.

And the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree and I took it.

And for fear of him the watchmen were shaking, and became as dead men.

The men of Ai put to death about thirty-six of them, driving them from before the town as far as the stoneworks, and overcoming them on the way down: and the hearts of the people became like water.

The children of Ephraim, armed with bows, were turned back on the day of the fight.

So now, let it be given out to the people that anyone who is shaking with fear is to go back from Mount Galud. So twenty-two thousand of the people went back, but there were still ten thousand.