50 Bible Verses about Tragedy

There is an evil I have seen under the sun, like an error which goes forth from the ruler—

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun and it is prevalent among men—

He called to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, have You also brought calamity to the widow with whom I am staying, by causing her son to die?”

While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape.

Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem?

If you are slack in the day of distress,
Your strength is limited.

I will also laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your dread comes,

The Lord will protect you from all evil;
He will keep your soul.

Sorrow is better than laughter,
For when a face is sad a heart may be happy.

No harm befalls the righteous,
But the wicked are filled with trouble.

When there is a man who has labored with wisdom, knowledge and skill, then he gives his legacy to one who has not labored with them. This too is vanity and a great evil.

a man to whom God has given riches and wealth and honor so that his soul lacks nothing of all that he desires; yet God has not empowered him to eat from them, for a foreigner enjoys them. This is vanity and a severe affliction.

There is a grievous evil which I have seen under the sun: riches being hoarded by their owner to his hurt.

This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.

“Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted;
State a proposal, but it will not stand,
For God is with us.”

Then he stretched himself upon the child three times, and called to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, I pray You, let this child’s life return to him.”

Moreover, man does not know his time: like fish caught in a treacherous net and birds trapped in a snare, so the sons of men are ensnared at an evil time when it suddenly falls on them.

Whatever you devise against the Lord,
He will make a complete end of it.
Distress will not rise up twice.

who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;

Do not be afraid of sudden fear
Nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes;

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,
Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?

The righteous man perishes, and no man takes it to heart;
And devout men are taken away, while no one understands.
For the righteous man is taken away from evil,

The One forming light and creating darkness,
Causing well-being and creating calamity;
I am the Lord who does all these.

And I set my mind to seek and explore by wisdom concerning all that has been done under heaven. It is a grievous task which God has given to the sons of men to be afflicted with.

But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

For not one of us lives for himself, and not one dies for himself;

When I am afraid,
I will put my trust in You.

Return to the stronghold, O prisoners who have the hope;
This very day I am declaring that I will restore double to you.

For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,

Then he went in to his wife, and she conceived and bore a son, and he named him Beriah, because misfortune had come upon his house.

This woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on it.

All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, “I have no delight in them”;

My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart!
My heart is pounding in me;
I cannot be silent,
Because you have heard, O my soul,
The sound of the trumpet,
The alarm of war.

Who redeems your life from the pit,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;

Because of this I must lament and wail,
I must go barefoot and naked;
I must make a lament like the jackals
And a mourning like the ostriches.

And Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until it rained on them from the sky; and she allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day nor the beasts of the field by night.

behold, the Lord is going to strike your people, your sons, your wives and all your possessions with a great calamity;

For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.

For He does not afflict willingly
Or grieve the sons of men.

For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

I went out full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has witnessed against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

Moreover David was greatly distressed because the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters. But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.

You shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see.

And she called the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God was taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband.