26 Bible Verses about Desire For Death

And in those days people will seek death and will not find it; and they will long to die [to escape the pain], but [will discover that] death evades them.

“Why did I not die at birth,
Come forth from the womb and expire?

‘Why then did You bring me out of the womb?
Would that I had perished and no eye had seen me!

Cursed be the day on which I was born;
Do not bless the day on which my mother gave birth to me!

Cursed be the man who brought the news
To my father, saying,
“A son has been born to you!”
Making him very glad.

And let that man be like the cities
Which the Lord overthrew without regret.
Let him hear an outcry in the morning
And a shout of alarm at noon;
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Because he did not kill me before my birth,
So that my mother might have been my grave,
And her womb always pregnant.

Why did I come out of the womb
To see trouble and sorrow,
So that my days have been filled with shame?

He said to me, ‘Stand up facing me and kill me, for [terrible] agony has come over me, yet I still live [and I will be taken alive].’

“Oh that my request would come to pass,
And that God would grant me the thing that I long for!

“I wish that it would please God to crush me,
That He would let loose His hand and cut me off.

“Oh, that You would hide me in Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead),
That You would conceal me until Your wrath is past,
That You would set a definite time and then remember me [and in Your lovingkindness imprint me on your heart]!

But he himself traveled a day’s journey into the wilderness, and he came and sat down under a juniper tree and asked [God] that he might die. He said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

Therefore now, O Lord, just take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

When the sun came up God prepared a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he fainted and he wished to die, and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’

And death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant of those who remain of this evil family (nation), who remain in all the places to which I have driven them,” says the Lord of hosts.

Who wait for death, but it does not come,
And dig (search) for death more [diligently] than for hidden treasures,

So I congratulated and thought more fortunate are those who are already dead than the living who are still living.

and the Israelites said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and ate bread until we were full; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this entire assembly with hunger.”

All the Israelites murmured [in discontent] against Moses and Aaron; and the whole congregation said to them, “Oh that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or that we had died in this wilderness!

The people contended with Moses, and said, “If only we had perished when our brothers perished [in the plague] before the Lord!

The king was deeply moved and went to the upper room over the gate and wept [in sorrow]. And this is what he said as he walked: “O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! How I wish that I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!”

Who rejoice exceedingly,
And rejoice when they find the grave?

“But the eyes of the wicked will fail,
And they will not escape [the justice of God];
And their hope is to breathe their last [and die].”

Also the high places of Aven (Beth-aven), the sin of Israel, will be destroyed;
The thorn and the thistle will grow on their [pagan] altars,
And [in despair] they will say to the mountains,
“Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!”

“Though they dig into Sheol [to hide in the deepest pit],
From there My hand will take them [for judgment];
And though they climb up to heaven [to hide in the realm of light],
From there will I bring them down [for judgment].

My enemies speak evil of me, saying,
“When will he die and his name perish?”

For my enemies have spoken against me;
Those who watch for my life have consulted together,

For you love those who hate you and hate those who love you. For you have shown today that commanders and servants are nothing to you; for today I know that if Absalom had lived and all the rest of us had died today, then you would be pleased.