18 Bible Verses about Cynicism

And they said to Moses, "Because there are no graves in Egypt? Is that why you have taken us to die in the desert? What [is] this you have done to us by bringing us out from Egypt! Isn't this the word we spoke to you in Egypt, saying, 'Leave us alone [so that] we can serve Egypt!' because serving Egypt is better for us than our dying in the desert."

And the {Israelites} said to them, "{If only we had died} by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat, when we ate bread {until we were full}, because you have brought us out to this desert to kill all of this assembly with hunger."

And the people quarreled with Moses and spoke, saying, "If only we died when our brothers were dying {before} Yahweh!

Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, "Thus may the gods do [to me], and may they add [to it], surely at this time tomorrow I will make your life as the life of one of them!" Then he became afraid, got up, and {fled for his life}. He came [to] Beersheba which belongs to Judah, and he left his servant there. Then he went into the wilderness one day's journey, and he went and sat under a certain broom tree. Then {he asked Yahweh that he might die}, and he said, "It is enough now, Yahweh; take my life, for I am no better than my ancestors."

{Afterward} Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. Thus Job {spoke up} and said, "Let [the] day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, 'A man-child is conceived.'read more.
Let that day become darkness; may God not seek it from above, nor may daylight shine on it.

"Why does he give light to one in misery and life to [those] bitter of soul, who wait for death, but {it does not come}, and search [for] it more than [for] treasures,

then you terrify me with dreams, and with visions you terrify me. So my inner self will choose strangling-- death more than my {existence}. I loathe [my life]; I would not live forever; depart from me, for my days [are] a breath.

So why did you bring me forth from the womb? I should have passed away, {and no eye should have seen me}. I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been brought from [the] womb to the grave.

Woe to me, my mother, that you gave birth to me, a man of contention and quarreling {to the whole land}. I have not lent out and {I have not borrowed}. All of them [are] cursing me.

Cursed be [the] day [on] which I was born, let not the day [on] which my mother gave birth to me be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought the news [to] my father, {saying}, "A child is born to you, a son!" and he made him very glad. And let that man be like the cities that Yahweh demolished without regret, and let him hear a cry for help in the morning, and an alarm at the time of noon.read more.
Because he did not kill me in [the] womb, so that my mother would have been for me my grave, and [her] womb [would be] pregnant forever. {Why} did I come out from [the] womb, to see toil, and sorrow, and [to] {end my days in shame}?

And so then, Yahweh, please take my life from me, because [for] me death [is] better than life!"

{And when the sun rose}, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah's head and he grew faint. {And he asked that he could die} and said, "My death [is] better than my life!"

If according to a human perspective I fought wild beasts at Ephesus, what benefit [is it] to me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.

His wealth will become hunger, and disaster is ready for his stumbling.

Then Elihu the son of Barakel the Buzite {spoke up} and said, "{I am young}, but you are old; therefore I feared and became afraid of explaining my knowledge to you. I thought, 'Let days speak, and let many years teach wisdom.' "Truly, it [is] a spirit in a human being, and the breath of Shaddai teaches them.read more.
[It is] not {the aged} [who] are wise, or [it is not] [the] elders [who] understand justice.

Like snow in the summer and like rain at the harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool. Like the sparrow [is] to fluttering and like the swallow [is] to flying, so an undeserved curse does not go forth. A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools.read more.
Do not answer a fool according to his folly lest you become like him--even you. Answer a fool according to his folly, or else he will be wise in his own eyes. [Like] cutting off feet [or] drinking violence, so [is] he who sends messages in the hand of a fool. [Like] legs that hang limp from a lame person, so [is] a proverb in the mouth of fools. Like binding a stone in a sling, so [is] giving honor to a fool. [Like] a thorn that goes up in the hand of a drunkard, so [is] a proverb in the mouth of fools. [Like] an archer who wounds everyone, so [is] he who hires a fool or he who hires passersby. Like a dog returning to his vomit [is] a fool reverting to his folly.

So all this I laid to my heart, and I concluded that the righteous and the wise, as well as their deeds, [are] in the hand of God. So no one knows anything that will [come] to them, whether [it will be] love or hatred. The same fate [comes] to everyone: to the righteous and to the wicked, to the good and to the wicked, to the clean and to the unclean, to those who sacrifice and to those who do not sacrifice. As [with] the good [man], so also to the sinner; [as with] those who swear an oath, so [also] those who fear oaths.

And they watched [him] closely [and] sent spies who pretended they were upright, in order that they could catch him in a statement, so that they could hand him over to the authority and the jurisdiction of the governor. And they asked him, saying, "Teacher, we know that you speak and teach rightly, and do not {show partiality}, but teach the way of God in truth. Is it permitted [for] us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?"read more.
But seeing through their craftiness, he said to them, "Show me a denarius! Whose image and inscription does it have?" And they answered [and] said, "Caesar's." So he said to them, "Well then, give to Caesar the things of Caesar, and to God the things of God!" And they were not able to catch [him] in a statement in the sight of the people, and astonished at his answer, they became silent.