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.

Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

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 long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come 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 person's enemies will be those of his own household.read more.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land."

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.read more.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, "It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." Thus Job did continually.

Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.

For I have chosen him, 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 to Abraham what he has promised him."

Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.

"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 first commandment.read more.
And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."

For I have come 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 children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children to another generation.

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him.

"And I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols.

Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching,

"'Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

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

"Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh."

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

but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.

And when Esau lifted up his eyes and saw the women and children, he said, "Who are these with you?" Jacob said, "The children whom God has graciously given your servant."

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.

and so train the young women to love their husbands and children,

The living, the living, he thanks you, as I do this day; the father makes known to the children your faithfulness.

and that you may tell in the hearing of your son and of your grandson how I have dealt harshly with the Egyptians and what signs I have done among them, that you may know that I am the LORD."

We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might, and the wonders that he has done.

And 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 long to this day,

By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.

And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers.

The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is a sorrow 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. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live."

Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:

His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.

Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered.

They shall not labor in vain or bear children for calamity, for they shall be the offspring of the blessed of the LORD, and their descendants with them.

You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me,

You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land, you have slain your people."May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named!

Our fathers sinned, and are no more; and we bear their iniquities.

but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.

Thus says the LORD: "For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not revoke the punishment, because they have rejected the law of the LORD, and have not kept his statutes, but their lies have led them astray, those after which their fathers walked.

My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof, for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

"If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, 'This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.'read more.
Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast 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, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.