57 Bible Verses about Bad Parents

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

He who withholds his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him disciplines him diligently.

Train up a child in the way he should go,
Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.read more.
“He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.

Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.read more.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Fathers, do not exasperate your children, so that they will not lose heart.

For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.

When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

Discipline your son while there is hope,
And do not desire his death.

For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what He has spoken about him.”

Correct your son, and he will give you comfort;
He will also delight your soul.

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment.read more.
The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”

For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;

Tell your sons about it,
And let your sons tell their sons,
And their sons the next generation.

Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.

“I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers or keep their ordinances or defile yourselves with their idols.

Do not hold back discipline from the child,
Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.

Hear, my son, your father’s instruction
And do not forsake your mother’s teaching;

‘Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the Lord your God gives you.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), so that it may be well with you, and that you may live long on the earth.read more.
Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise),

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him to have a heavy millstone hung around his neck, and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

He lifted his eyes and saw the women and the children, and said, “Who are these with you?” So he said, “The children whom God has graciously given your servant.”

Behold, children are a gift of the Lord,
The fruit of the womb is a reward.

so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,

“It is the living who give thanks to You, as I do today;
A father tells his sons about Your faithfulness.

and that you may tell in the hearing of your son, and of your grandson, how I made a mockery of the Egyptians and how I performed My signs among them, that you may know that I am the Lord.”

We will not conceal them from their children,
But tell to the generation to come the praises of the Lord,
And His strength and His wondrous works that He has done.

He blessed Joseph, and said,
“The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked,
The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even regarding things to come.

In all the land no women were found so fair as Job’s daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers.

The proverbs of Solomon.
A wise son makes a father glad,
But a foolish son is a grief to his mother.

And Abraham said to God, “Oh that Ishmael might live before You!”

and *implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get well and live.”

Her children rise up and bless her;
Her husband also, and he praises her, saying:

His descendants will be mighty on earth;
The generation of the upright will be blessed.

Assuredly, the evil man will not go unpunished,
But the descendants of the righteous will be delivered.

“They will not labor in vain,
Or bear children for calamity;
For they are the offspring of those blessed by the Lord,
And their descendants with them.

You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

“You will not be united with them in burial,
Because you have ruined your country,
You have slain your people.
May the offspring of evildoers not be mentioned forever.

Our fathers sinned, and are no more;
It is we who have borne their iniquities.

but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,”

Thus says the Lord,
“For three transgressions of Judah and for four
I will not revoke its punishment,
Because they rejected the law of the Lord
And have not kept His statutes;
Their lies also have led them astray,
Those after which their fathers walked.

My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord
Or loathe His reproof,
For whom the Lord loves He reproves,
Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

“If any man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not even listen to them, then his father and mother shall seize him, and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gateway of his hometown. They shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.’read more.
Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death; so you shall remove the evil from your midst, and all Israel will hear of it and fear.

How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones
Against the rock.

Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear.

and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.