32 Bible Verses about Ingratitude

Is it not enough that you brought us up from a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? Do you also have to appoint yourself as ruler over us?

King Joash didn’t remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him, but killed his son. While he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and demand an account.”

They repay me evil for good,
making me desolate.

Should good be repaid with evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for me.
Remember how I stood before You
to speak good on their behalf,
to turn Your anger from them.

David had just said, “I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness for nothing. He was not missing anything, yet he paid me back evil for good.

But they were disobedient and rebelled against You.
They flung Your law behind their backs
and killed Your prophets
who warned them
in order to turn them back to You.
They committed terrible blasphemies.

Is this how you repay the Lord,
you foolish and senseless people?
Isn’t He your Father and Creator?
Didn’t He make you and sustain you?

For though they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became nonsense, and their senseless minds were darkened.

You also took your beautiful jewelry made from the gold and silver I had given you, and you made male images so that you could engage in prostitution with them. Then you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set My oil and incense before them.

Then Jesus said, "Were not 10 cleansed? Where are the nine? Didn't any return to give glory to God except this foreigner?"

Even my friend in whom I trusted,
one who ate my bread,
has raised his heel against me.

Those who repay evil for good
attack me for pursuing good.

Malicious witnesses come forward; they question me about things I do not know. They repay me evil for good, making me desolate. Yet when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, and my prayer was genuine. read more.
I went about [grieving] as if for my friend or brother; I was bowed down with grief, like one mourning a mother. But when I stumbled, they gathered in glee; they gathered against me. Assailants I did not know tore at me and did not stop. With godless mockery they gnashed their teeth at me.

In return for my love they accuse me, but I continue to pray. They repay me evil for good, and hatred for my love.

If anyone returns evil for good,
evil will never depart from his house.

Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your anger from them. Therefore, hand their children over to famine, and pour the sword's power on them. Let their wives become childless and widowed, their husbands slain by deadly disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

David had just said, “I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness for nothing. He was not missing anything, yet he paid me back evil for good.

so David sent 10 young men instructing them, "Go up to Carmel, and when you come to Nabal, greet him in my name. Then say this: 'Long life to you, and peace to you, to your family, and to all that is yours. I hear that you are shearing. When your shepherds were with us, we did not harass them, and nothing of theirs was missing the whole time they were in Carmel. read more.
Ask your young men, and they will tell you. So let [my] young men find favor with you, for we have come on a feast day. Please give whatever you can afford to your servants and to your son David.' " David's young men went and said all these things to Nabal on David's behalf, and they waited. Nabal asked them, "Who is David? Who is Jesse's son? Many slaves these days are running away from their masters. Am I supposed to take my bread, my water, and my meat that I butchered for my shearers and give them to men who are from I don't know where?"

They repay me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.

Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man.

Then David asked, “Will the citizens of Keilah hand me and my men over to Saul?”

“They will,” the Lord responded.

Then David and his men went to Keilah, fought against the Philistines, drove their livestock away, and inflicted heavy losses on them. So David rescued the inhabitants of Keilah.

The Israelites said to them, “If only we had died by the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat and ate all the bread we wanted. Instead, you brought us into this wilderness to make this whole assembly die of hunger!”

So the people complained to Moses: "Give us water to drink." "Why are you complaining to me?" Moses replied to them. "Why are you testing the Lord?" But the people thirsted there for water, and grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you ever bring us out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" Then Moses cried out to the Lord, "What should I do with these people? In a little while they will stone me!"

Moses sent for Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, but they said, "We will not come! Is it not enough that you brought us up from a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? Do you also have to appoint yourself as ruler over us? Furthermore, you didn't bring us to a land flowing with milk and honey or give us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Will you gouge out the eyes of these men? We will not come!"

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

Those who repay evil for good
attack me for pursuing good.

They repay me evil for good,
making me desolate.

In return for my love they accuse me,
but I continue to pray.

I will most gladly spend and be spent for you. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

King Joash didn’t remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him, but killed his son. While he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and demand an account.”

For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

If anyone returns evil for good,
evil will never depart from his house.

I've been with you these 20 years. Your ewes and female goats have not miscarried, and I have not eaten the rams from your flock. I did not bring you any of the flock torn by wild beasts; I myself bore the loss. You demanded [payment] from me for what was stolen by day or by night. There I was-the heat consumed me by day and the frost by night, and sleep fled from my eyes. read more.
For 20 years I have worked in your household-14 years for your two daughters and six years for your flocks-and you have changed my wages 10 times! If the God of my father, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac, had not been with me, certainly now you would have sent me off empty-handed. But God has seen my affliction and my hard work, and He issued His verdict last night."

You know that I've worked hard for your father and that he has cheated me and changed my wages 10 times. But God has not let him harm me.

and said to David, “You are more righteous than I, for you have done what is good to me though I have done what is evil to you.

Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.

My house guests and female servants regard me as a stranger; I am a foreigner in their sight. I call for my servant, but he does not answer, even if I beg him with my own mouth.

My loved ones and friends stand back from my affliction,
and my relatives stand at a distance.

Then David and his men went to Keilah, fought against the Philistines, drove their livestock away, and inflicted heavy losses on them. So David rescued the inhabitants of Keilah. Abiathar son of Ahimelech fled to David at Keilah, and he brought an ephod with him. When it was reported to Saul that David had gone to Keilah, he said, "God has handed him over to me, for he has trapped himself by entering a town with barred gates." read more.
Then Saul summoned all the troops to go to war at Keilah and besiege David and his men. When David learned that Saul was plotting evil against him, he said to Abiathar the priest, "Bring the ephod." Then David said, "Lord God of Israel, Your servant has heard that Saul intends to come to Keilah and destroy the town because of me. Will the citizens of Keilah hand me over to him? Will Saul come down as Your servant has heard? Lord God of Israel, please tell Your servant." The Lord answered, "He will come down." Then David asked, "Will the citizens of Keilah hand me and my men over to Saul?" "They will," the Lord responded.

David sent orders to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." So Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the troops were doing and how the war was going. Then he said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king followed him. read more.
But Uriah slept at the door of the palace with all his master's servants; he did not go down to his house. When it was reported to David, "Uriah didn't go home," David questioned Uriah, "Haven't you just come from a journey? Why didn't you go home?" Uriah answered David, "The ark, Israel, and Judah are dwelling in tents, and my master Joab and his soldiers are camping in the open field. How can I enter my house to eat and drink and sleep with my wife? As surely as you live and by your life, I will not do this!" "Stay here today also," David said to Uriah, "and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. Then David invited Uriah to eat and drink with him, and David got him drunk. He went out in the evening to lie down on his cot with his master's servants, but he did not go home. The next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In the letter he wrote: Put Uriah at the front of the fiercest fighting, then withdraw from him so that he is struck down and dies. When Joab was besieging the city, he put Uriah in the place where he knew the best [enemy] soldiers were. Then the men of the city came out and attacked Joab, and some of the men from David's soldiers fell [in battle]; Uriah the Hittite also died.

Then Moses cried out to the Lord, “What should I do with these people? In a little while they will stone me!”

if I have done harm to one at peace with me or have plundered my adversary without cause, may an enemy pursue and overtake me; may he trample me to the ground and leave my honor in the dust. Selah

for my father fought for you, risked his life, and delivered you from the hand of Midian, and now you have attacked my father's house today, killed his 70 sons on top of a large stone, and made Abimelech, the son of his slave, king over the lords of Shechem 'because he is your brother'-

There was a small city with few men in it. A great king came against it, surrounded it, and built large siege works against it. Now a poor wise man was found in the city, and he delivered the city by his wisdom. Yet no one remembered that poor man. And I said, "Wisdom is better than strength, but the wisdom of the poor man is despised, and his words are not heeded."

My relatives stop coming by,
and my close friends have forgotten me.

"You also know what Joab son of Zeruiah did to me and what he did to the two commanders of Israel's army, Abner son of Ner and Amasa son of Jether. He murdered them [in a time] of peace to avenge blood shed in war. He spilled that blood on his own waistband and on the sandals of his feet. Act according to your wisdom, and do not let his gray head descend to Sheol in peace.

Should good be repaid with evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for me.
Remember how I stood before You
to speak good on their behalf,
to turn Your anger from them.

David had just said, “I guarded everything that belonged to this man in the wilderness for nothing. He was not missing anything, yet he paid me back evil for good.

King Joash didn’t remember the kindness that Zechariah’s father Jehoiada had extended to him, but killed his son. While he was dying, he said, “May the Lord see and demand an account.”

Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.

They did not show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) for all the good he had done for Israel.