20 Bible Verses about Backsliders

And it happened [that] after Amaziah came [back] from killing the Edomites, he brought the gods of the sons of Seir, and he stood them up to himself as gods and bowed down before them and make smoke offerings for them.

And he did what was right in the eyes of Yahweh, only not with a fully-devoted heart.

And they turned and were treacherous like their ancestors. They twisted like a crooked bow.

What will I do with you, Ephraim? What will I do with you, Judah? Your love [is] like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early in the morning.

and those who turned back from {following} Yahweh, and who did not seek Yahweh, and did not inquire of him."

O God, restore us, and cause your face to shine that we may be saved. O Yahweh God [of] hosts, {how long will you be angry} against the prayer of your people? You have fed them [the] bread of tears; you have given them tears to drink in full measure. read more.
You have made us [an object of] strife to our neighbors, and our enemies mock among themselves. O God [of] hosts, restore us and cause your face to shine that we may be saved.

Please return, O God [of] hosts. Observe from heaven and see, and pay attention to this vine, even[the] stalk that your right hand planted, and concerning [the] shoot you strengthened for yourself. [It is] burned with fire, cut down. They perish at the rebuke of your face. read more.
Let your hand be on the man of your right hand, on [the] son of humankind [whom] you made strong for yourself. Then we will not turn back from you. Restore us to life, and we will proclaim your name. O Yahweh God [of] hosts, restore us; cause your face to shine that we may be saved.

On that day, mankind will look to its maker, and its eyes will look to the holy one of Israel;

And those who err [in] spirit will {acquire} understanding, and those who grumble will learn instruction.

Turn back to [the one against] whom the sons of Israel have made deep rebellion. For on that day, each one will reject his idols of silver and his idols of gold which your hands have made [in] sin for you.

And the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, and the people gathered opposite Aaron, and they said to him, "Come, make for us gods who will go before us, because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."

They have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a cast-image bull calf, and they bowed to it, and they sacrificed to it, and they said, 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.'"

"I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not kept my word." {Samuel became angry}, and he cried out to Yahweh all night.

For this [reason] many of his disciples {drew back} and were not walking with him any longer.

The Spirit is the one who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. But there are some of you who do not believe." (For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.)

For already some have turned away [and followed] after Satan.

But I have against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, the one who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and deceives my slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols.

But I have [this] against you: that you have left your first love.

For already some have turned away [and followed] after Satan.

But I have a few [things] against you: that you have there those who hold fast to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, to eat food sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality. So likewise you also have those who hold fast to the teaching of the Nicolaitans.

Be on the alert and strengthen the remaining [things] that are about to die, for I have not found your works completed before my God. Therefore remember how you have received and heard, and observe [it], and repent. If therefore you are not on the alert, I will come like a thief, and you will never know [at] what hour I will come against you.

And Peter remembered the statement Jesus had said, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times," and he went outside [and] wept bitterly.

And immediately a rooster crowed for the second time. And Peter remembered the statement, how Jesus had said to him, "Before the rooster crows twice, you will deny me three times," and throwing himself down, he began to weep.

And he went outside [and] wept bitterly.

Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard, and a female slave came up to him [and] said, "You also were with Jesus the Galilean." But he denied [it] in the presence of [them] all, saying, "I do not know what you mean!" And [when he] went out to the gateway, another [female slave] saw him and said to those [who were] there, "This man was with Jesus the Nazarene." read more.
And again he denied [it] with an oath, "I do not know the man!" And after a little [while] those who were standing there came up [and] said to Peter, "You really are [one] of them also, because even your accent {reveals who you are}." Then he began to curse and to swear with an oath, "I do not know the man!" And immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the statement Jesus had said, "Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times," and he went outside [and] wept bitterly.

I am astonished that you are turning away so quickly from the one who called you by the grace of Christ to a different gospel,

O foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed [as] having been crucified?

But now, [because you] have come to know God, or rather have come to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and miserable elemental spirits? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? You carefully observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid [for] you, lest perhaps I have labored for you in vain!

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

"Whenever an unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it travels through waterless places searching for rest, and does not find [it]. It says, 'I will return to my house from which I came out.' And [when it] arrives it finds [the house] swept and put in order.

Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and [they] go in [and] live there. And the last [state] of that person becomes worse than the first!"

It is reported everywhere [that there] is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind which [does] not [even exist] among the Gentiles, so that someone has the wife of [his] father. And you are inflated with pride, and should you not rather have mourned, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst? For [although I] am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already passed judgment on the one who has done this in this way, as [if I] were present. read more.
In the name of our Lord Jesus, [when] you are assembled, and my spirit, together with the power of our Lord Jesus, [I have decided] to hand over such a person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord. Your boasting [is] not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? Clean out the old leaven in order that you may be a new batch of dough, just as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. So then, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven or with the leaven of wickedness and sinfulness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

For I am afraid lest somehow [when I] arrive, I will not find you as I want, and I may be found by you as you do not want. [I am afraid] lest somehow [there will be] strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, slander, gossip, pride, disorder. [I am afraid] lest [when I] come again my God will humiliate me {in your presence}, and I will grieve over many of those who sinned previously and have not repented because of their impurity and sexual immorality and licentiousness that they have practiced.

Did not King Solomon of Israel sin in this way? And among the many nations there was no king like him, and he was beloved by his God, and God made him king over all Israel. Yet the foreign women made even him sin.

It happened at the time of Solomon's old age that his wives guided his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully with Yahweh his God as the heart of David his father [had been]. Solomon went after Ashtoreth the god of [the] Sidonians and after Molech the abhorrence of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of Yahweh and did not fully [follow] after Yahweh as David his father. read more.
At that time, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, on the mountain which {faces} Jerusalem and for Molech, the abomination of the {Ammonites}. Thus he did for all of his foreign wives, offering incense and sacrificing to their gods. Yahweh was angry with Solomon, for he had turned his heart from Yahweh, the God of Israel who had appeared to him twice. And he had commanded him concerning this matter not to go after other gods, but he did not keep that which Yahweh commanded. So Yahweh said to Solomon, "Because this was with you, and you did not keep my covenant and my ordinances which I have commanded you, I will certainly tear the kingdom from you, and I will give it to your servant. However, I will not do it in your days, for the sake of David your father; from the hand of your son I will tear it [away]. Yet all of the kingdom I will not tear [away]. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen." Then Yahweh raised an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, from the descendants of that king in Edom. It had happened that when David was at Edom, Joab the commander of the army went up to bury the slain, and he killed every male in Edom. For Joab and all Israel had stayed there six months until he exterminated every male in Edom. But Hadad himself had fled, and some Edomite men from the servants of his father with him, to go to Egypt, when Hadad [was] a young boy. They had set out from Midian until they came to Paran where they took men from Paran with them and came [to] Egypt, [to] Pharaoh king of Egypt. He gave to him a house and assigned food for him and gave him land. Hadad found great favor in the eyes of Pharaoh, and he gave him the sister of his wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen, as wife. The sister of Tahpenes bore Genubath his son for him, and Tahpenes weaned him in the middle of the house of Pharaoh. Genubath was [in] the house of Pharaoh in the midst of the children of Pharaoh. Now Hadad heard in Egypt that David had slept with his ancestors and that Joab the commander of the army was dead. Then Hadad said to Pharaoh, "Send me away that I may go to my land." Pharaoh said to him, "What do you lack with me that you now [are] seeking to go to your land?" He said, "No, but you must surely send me away." God had [also] raised Rezon the son of Eliada as an adversary against him, who had fled from Hadadezer the king of Zobah, his master. He gathered men around him and he became the commander of bandits. When David killed [some of] them, they went to Damascus and settled {there}, and they reigned in Damascus. He was an adversary for Israel all the days of Solomon, and [along with] the evil that Hadad [did], he detested Israel [while] he reigned over Aram. Now Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah (now the name of his mother [was] Zeruah, a widow woman), a servant of Solomon {rebelled against the king}. This [is] the reason that he rebelled against the king: [when] Solomon built the Millo, he closed the gap of the city of David his father. Now the man Jeroboam [was] a man of ability, and Solomon saw that the young man {was a diligent worker}, so he appointed him over all of the forced labor for the house of Joseph. It happened at that time that Jeroboam went out from Jerusalem, and he accidentally met Ahijah the Shilonite the prophet on the way. Now he had clothed himself with new clothing. While the two of them [were] alone in the field, Ahijah took hold of the new cloak which [was] on him and tore it into twelve pieces. Then he said to Jeroboam, "Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I [am about] to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and I will give to you ten tribes, but one tribe shall be for him, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel; because he has forsaken me, and they bowed down to Ashtoreth, the god of [the] Sidonians, to Chemosh, the god of Moab, and to Molech, the god of the {Ammonites}. They did not walk in my ways to do right in my eyes, my ordinances, or my judgments, as [did] David his father. But I will not take all of the kingdom from his hand, but I will make him a leader all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my ordinances. But I will take the kingship from the hand of his son, and I will give ten tribes to you. To his son I will give one tribe in order to be a lamp for my servant David, always before my face, in Jerusalem the city in which I have chosen to place my name. You I will take, and you shall reign over all your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel. It shall be that if you listen to all that I command you and you walk in my ways and you do right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, then I will be with you, and I will build an enduring house for you as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you. I will punish the offspring of David on account of this; however, not always.'" Then Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam got up and fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king of Egypt, and he remained in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

For this [reason] many of his disciples {drew back} and were not walking with him any longer.

But all this has happened in order that the scriptures of the prophets would be fulfilled." Then the disciples all abandoned him [and] fled.

"I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not kept my word." {Samuel became angry}, and he cried out to Yahweh all night.

But Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of Yahweh, and he has rejected you from being king over Israel!" As Samuel turned around to go, he caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. Then Samuel said to him, "Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to your neighbor {who is better than you}.

And the {Israelites}, the priests, the Levites, and the rest of the {returned exiles} celebrated the dedication of this house of God with joy. And they offered during the dedication of this house of God one hundred young bulls, two hundred young rams, four hundred lambs, and twelve male goats as a sin offering for Israel [according to] the number of the tribes of Israel. Then they set the priests in their divisions and the Levites in their sections for the work of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the book of Moses. read more.
On the fourteenth day of the first month the returned exiles observed the Passover feast. For the priests and Levites together had consecrated themselves; all of them were clean. And they slaughtered the Passover sacrifice for all of the returned exiles, for their brothers the priests, and for themselves. The {Israelites} who returned from the exile and all those who separated themselves from the uncleanness of the nations of the earth to seek Yahweh the God of Israel, ate.

For Demas deserted me, [because he] loved the present age, and went to Thessalonica. Crescens [went] to Galatia; Titus [went] to Dalmatia.

For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and you have not remembered the rock of your refuge; therefore you plant plants of pleasantness, and you {plant} a vine of a foreigner. On your planting day you make [them] grow, and in the morning [of] your sowing you bring [them] into bloom, [yet] the harvest will flee in a day [of] sickness and incurable pain.

Then he said to Thomas, "Place your finger here and see my hands, and place your hand and put [it] into my side. And do not be unbelieving, but believing!" Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed [are] those who have not seen and have believed."

He abandoned Yahweh the God of his ancestors and did not walk in the way of Yahweh. The servants of Amon conspired against him and killed the king in his palace.

It happened at the time of Solomon's old age that his wives guided his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully with Yahweh his God as the heart of David his father [had been].

Now the king and his princes, and all the assembly in Jerusalem had taken counsel to make the Passover feast in the second month-- but they were not able to make it at that time, for the priests had not consecrated themselves {in sufficient numbers}, and the people had not been assembled in Jerusalem-- and the plan seemed right in the eyes of the king and in the eyes of all the assembly. read more.
So they let the decree stand, {to make a proclamation} throughout all Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, to come to make a Passover feast to Yahweh the God of Israel. And the runners went with the letter from the hand of the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah according to the command of the king, saying, "O sons of Israel, return to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may turn again to the remnant of you who escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria. Do not be like your fathers and like your brothers, who acted unfaithfully before Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, so that he made them as a desolation, as you see. Now, do not stiffen your neck as your fathers, but give a hand to Yahweh and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve Yahweh your God that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For when you return to Yahweh, your brothers and your children [will find] compassion before their captors and return to this land, for Yahweh your God [is] gracious and compassionate, and he will not turn away his face from you if you return to him." And it happened [that] the runners were passing from city to city in the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, and up to Zebulun, but they were laughing at them and mocking them. Only men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem. The hand of God was also upon Judah, to give them one heart to obey the command of the king and the princes concerning the word of Yahweh.

having faith and a good conscience, which some, [because they] have rejected [these], have suffered shipwreck concerning their faith, among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan, in order that they may be taught not to blaspheme.

And when the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and when he was strengthened, he forsook the law of Yahweh, and all Israel with him. And it happened [that] in the fifth year of King Rehoboam (for they had acted unfaithfully against Yahweh), Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem

And at that time Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Judah and said to him, "On account of your reliance upon the king of Aram, and [since] you did not rely on Yahweh your God, therefore the troops of the king of Aram escaped from your hand. Were not the Cushites and Libyans a mighty army with very abundant chariots and horsemen? And because of your reliance on Yahweh he gave them into your hand. For the eyes of Yahweh roam throughout all the earth to strengthen those whose heart is fully devoted to him. You have been foolish in this, for from now on you will have wars."

And all the community of the {Israelites} set out from the desert of Sin for their journeys according to the command of Yahweh, and they camped in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. And the people quarreled with Moses, and they said, "Give us water so that we can drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?" And the people thirsted for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why {ever} did you bring us up from Egypt to kill me and my sons and my cattle with thirst?" read more.
And Moses cried out to Yahweh, saying, "What will I do with this people? A little longer and they will stone me." And Yahweh said to Moses, "Go on before the people and take with you [some] from the elders of Israel, and the staff with which you struck the Nile take in your hand, and go. Look, I [will be] standing before you there on the rock in Horeb, and you will strike the rock, and water will come out from it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so before the eyes of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the quarrel of the {Israelites} and because of their testing Yahweh [by] saying, "Is Yahweh in our midst or not?"

And from the time that Amaziah turned away from Yahweh, they had plotted a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem. And he fled to Lachish, but they sent after him to Lachish and killed him there.

Though the army of Aram came with few men, Yahweh gave a very large army into their hand, for they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their ancestors. And they inflicted punishment on Joash.

And those on the rock [are those] who receive the word with joy when they hear [it], and these do not have [enough] root, who believe for a time and in a time of testing fall away.

You know this, that all those in Asia turned away from me, among whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes.

For Demas deserted me, [because he] loved the present age, and went to Thessalonica. Crescens [went] to Galatia; Titus [went] to Dalmatia.

But Jonah set out to flee toward Tarshish from {the presence of} Yahweh. And he went down [to] Joppa and found a merchant ship going [to] Tarshish, and paid her fare, and went on board her to go with them toward Tarshish from {the presence of} Yahweh.

And again, the {Israelites} did evil in the eyes of Yahweh. They served the Baals, the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, Sidon, Moab, and the gods of the {Ammonites} and Philistines; they abandoned Yahweh and did not serve him. And {the anger of Yahweh burned} against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of [the] Philistines and the {Ammonites}. They crushed and oppressed the {Israelites} in that year; for eighteen years they [crushed] all the {Israelites} who [were] beyond the Jordan, in the land of the Amorites, which [is] in Gilead. read more.
The {Ammonites} crossed the Jordan to fight also against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was very distressed. Then the {Israelites} cried out to Yahweh, saying, "We have sinned against you; we have abandoned our God and served the Baals." And Yahweh said to the {Israelites}, "[Did I] not [deliver you] from [the] Egyptians, the Amorites, from the {Ammonites}, and from the Philistines? And when [the] Sidonians, [the] Amalekites, and [the] Maonites oppressed you, you cried out to me, and I delivered you from their hand. Yet you have abandoned me and served other gods. Therefore I will no longer deliver you. Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your trouble." And the {Israelites} said to Yahweh, "We have sinned; {do to us accordingly as you see fit}; only please deliver us this day." So they removed the foreign gods from their midst and served Yahweh; and {he could no longer bear} the misery of Israel. And the {Ammonites} were summoned, and they camped in Gilead. And the {Israelites} gathered and camped at Mizpah. The people, the ones commanding Gilead, {said to each other}, "Who [is] the man that will begin to fight against the {Ammonites}? He will be as head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."

And again, the {Israelites} did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and Yahweh gave them into the hand of [the] Philistines forty years.