72 Bible Verses about Persecution, Nature Of

The wicked proudly persecutes the poor people. He will be caught in the schemes that he contrived.

Jehovah said: I will not withdraw punishment from Gaza for they transgressed many times. They captured all the people and delivered them to Edom.

Jehovah said: I will not withdraw punishment for the many transgressions of Moab. He burned the bones of the king of Edom to lime.

Behold, I bring the Chaldeans to power, that bitter and impetuous nation. They march through the expanse of the earth to possess dwelling places that are not theirs. They are feared and dreaded. Their justice and dignity are of their own being. Their horses are swifter than leopards. They are fiercer than the evening wolves. Their horsemen proudly press on. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle in a hurry to eat.read more.
They all come for violence. Their crowds look straight ahead and gather prisoners like the sand. They scoff at kings, and princes are derision to them. They laugh at every stronghold, for they build earthen ramps and capture them. They will sweep by like a wind and continue on. They will be held guilty for might is their god.

I looked, and there was a pale horse. The name of the one who sat on him was Death. The grave followed him. Power was given to them over a fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with pestilence, and with the beasts of the earth.

The appearance of the locusts was like horses prepared for battle. They wore gold crowns on their heads and their faces were like the faces of men. Their hair was like the hair of women. Their teeth were like the teeth of lions. They had breastplates like iron. The sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots with many horses running to battle.read more.
Their tails were like scorpions' tails, for there were stings in their tails. They had power to hurt men five months.

And I will put enmity (hostility) (hatred) between you and the woman, and between your offspring (seed) and hers. He will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) you in the head, and you will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) him in the heel. (Romans 16:20)

Jehovah told Satan: He is in your power, but you must spare his life! Satan left Jehovah's presence and struck Job with painful boils from the bottom of his feet to the top of his head.

He showed me Joshua the high priest. Joshua was standing before the angel of Jehovah, and Satan was standing at his right hand to be his adversary.

Satan entered into Judas who was called Iscariot. He was one of the twelve. He went away to discuss with the chief priests and captains, how he might deliver Jesus to them.

Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion walks about, seeking whom he may devour (consume).

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil (false accuser) (Devil) is about to throw you into prison, that you may be tested. You will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful even if you must die, and I will give you the crown of life.

If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

Do not be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.

But those field workers said among themselves: This is the heir let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours.

The Jews intensified their efforts to kill him for these reasons: he broke the Sabbath and he also called God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. I chose you out of the world. The world hates you because you are not of the world.

I gave them your word. The world hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

They strengthened the disciples and encouraged them to continue in the faith. They said, We must enter the kingdom of God through much tribulation.

You brothers became imitators of the congregations of God that are in Judea in Christ Jesus. You also suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews. They killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They did not please God and are contrary to all men.

Observe the love the Father gave to us that we should be called the children of God. That is what we are! For this reason the world does not know us. This is because it did not know him.

Be on guard for they will deliver you up to courts. You will be beaten in the meeting places. You will be taken before governors and kings for a testimony to them for my sake.

She sent a message to Elijah: May the gods strike me dead if by this time tomorrow I do not do the same thing to you that you did to the prophets.

Word was given to Sanballat and Tobiah and to Geshem the Arabian and to the rest of our enemies, that I had done the building of the wall and that there were no more broken places in it though even then I had not put up the gates in the gateways.

Powerful people persecute me without cause. Yet my heart stands in awe of your words.

So they took me and let me down by ropes into Prince Malchiah's well, which was in the palace courtyard. There was no water in the well, only mud, and I sank down in it.

Then Nebuchadnezzar in his rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. They brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar said to them: Is it true Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that you do not serve my god, nor worship the golden image that I set up? Now if you are ready at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, zither, pipes, and all kinds of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, good! But if you do not worship it you will be thrown into the midst of a blazing furnace that same hour. What god will be able to rescue you from my hand?read more.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king: O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If it is so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the blazing furnace. He will deliver us out of your hand, O king.

Beware of men! They will take you to court! They will have you beaten in their meeting places.

At that time Herod the king mistreated those of the congregation. He killed James the brother of John with a sword. He saw that it pleased the Jews so he captured Peter also. This happened during the feast of unleavened bread.

For this purpose we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received from us the word of the message, even the word of God, you accepted it, not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who believe. You brothers became imitators of the congregations of God that are in Judea in Christ Jesus. You also suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews. They killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out. They did not please God and are contrary to all men.read more.
They hindered us from speaking to the nations so that they may be saved. The result was that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost.

As soon as I had finished saying all that Jehovah commanded me to say, they grabbed me and shouted: You ought to be killed for this!

Amaziah said to Amos: Go, run away, you seer. Go into the land of Judah. Eat bread and prophesy there. Do not prophesy any more at Bethel for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is a royal house.

Look! I am sending you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will torture and kill. Others you will torment and persecute from city to city. You are responsible for all the righteous blood shed on earth. That includes the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation (those living at that time).read more.
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you kill the prophets and stone the messengers who are sent to you! How often I wanted to gather your children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings. But you were not willing!

Truly both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the people of the nations and the people of Israel, were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you have anointed. They were there to do the things your hand and council foreordained to occur. Now Jehovah behold their threats and grant that your servants keep speaking your word with boldness.

Then the high priest rose up, and all those of the sect of the Sadducees who were with him were filled with zeal (indignation). They captured the apostles and put them in the common prison.

I persecuted the people who followed this Way to the point of death. I arrested men and women and threw them into prison.

It was granted to him to wage war with the holy ones, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all tribes, and tongues, and nations.

I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the holy ones, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And when I saw her I wondered greatly.

A man's enemies will be from his own family.

The son dishonors the father. The daughter rises up against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies are the men of his own house.

While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

People will hand over their brothers to be put to death. Parents will oppose children and children will oppose parents, causing them to be put to death.

When his own people heard of this they went to apprehend him. They said: He has lost his senses.

Just like then, the son who was conceived in a natural way according to the flesh persecuted the son conceived in a spiritual way. That is exactly what is happening now!

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then I am strong.

Why should the king of Israel be out chasing me, anyway? I am as worthless as a dead dog or a flea.

([[Psalm of David] when Saul sent men to watch and kill him:]) Rescue me from my enemies, O my God. Protect me from those who attack me. Deliver me from troublemakers. Save me from bloodthirsty people. They lie in ambush for me right here! Fierce men attack me, O Jehovah, but not because of any disobedience.read more.
And not because any sin or any guilt on my part. They hurry to take positions against me. Wake up, and help me; see for yourself.

([Psalm of David]) Listen to my concerns, O God, and protect me from my terrible enemies. Keep me safe from secret plots of corrupt evildoers. Their words cut like swords, and their cruel remarks sting like sharp arrows.read more.
They fearlessly ambush and shoot innocent people.

We are pressed (afflicted) (troubled) on every side, but not crushed. We are perplexed yet not to despair. We are persecuted, yet not forsaken. We are struck down, yet not destroyed. We always carry in the body the death of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body.read more.
For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death works in us, but life in you.

Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more in labors more abundant, beaten beyond number, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times I received forty stripes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, I suffered shipwreck three times, a night and a day I have spent in the deep.read more.
In journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brothers;

What more shall I say? For the time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, affected righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, and turned to flight foreign armies.read more.
Women received their dead by a resurrection, and others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mocking and scourging and bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawed in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented. The world was not worthy of them! They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Yes, and all who would live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

There is no root in him. He endures for a while. When he has tribulation or persecution because of the word, he falls away.

Jesus said: Truly I tell you, a man that has left house, or brothers, or sisters, or mother, or father, or children, or lands, for my sake, and for the sake of the good news, will receive a hundred times as much now in this time, and in the age to come everlasting life.

When we were with you, we told you that we would suffer tribulation and affliction. It happened, as you know.

Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many places. These things are the beginning of birth pains (Greek: odin': in the throws of pain, such as childbirth). People will cause you tribulation, and kill you. You will be hated by all the nations for my name's sake.read more.
Many will stumble and betray and hate one another.

Do not let anyone deceive you about this in any way. That day will not come unless apostasy (a falling away from truth) takes place first, and the man of lawlessness (sin), the man of destruction, is revealed. (2 Timothy 4:3) He opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god and object of worship. As a result, he seats himself in the sanctuary of God and declares (promotes) himself to be like God. (Ezekiel 28:2)

Each of them was given a white robe. They were told that they should rest for a little while. [They were to wait] until the [number] of their fellow servants and their brothers, who would be killed, as they were, should be fulfilled.

Jehovah has sent them in all directions. He will no longer take care of them. They had no respect for the priests and gave no honor to the elders. Our eyes are still wasting away in looking for our false help. We watch for a nation unable to give salvation. They go after our steps so that we may not go in our streets. Our end is near. Our days are numbered. Our end has come.read more.
Those who went after us were quicker than the eagles of the heaven. They drive us before them on the mountains. They wait secretly for us in the wasteland.

Jehovah says: Behold, a people is coming from the northland! A great nation will be aroused from the remote parts of the earth. They seize bow and spear. They are cruel and have no mercy. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride on horses. They are arrayed as a man for the battle against you, O daughter of Zion! We have heard the report! Our hands are limp. Anguish has seized us! We have pain like a woman in childbirth.read more.
Do not go out into the field. Do not walk on the road. The enemy has a sword and terror is on every side. O my people put on sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn as for an only son, a lamentation most bitter. For suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

Jehovah continued to speak his word to Jeremiah: Behold! I am Jehovah the God of all humanity. Nothing is too hard for me. This is what Jehovah says: 'I am going to hand this city over to the Babylonians and King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. They will capture it.read more.
The Babylonians who are attacking this city will break in, set this city on fire, and burn it down. They will burn down the houses of people who made me furious by going up to the roofs to burn incense to Baal and to pour out wine offerings to other gods.'

But the Babylonian army pursued them and captured Zedekiah in the plains near Jericho. Then they took him to King Nebuchadnezzar, who was in the city of Riblah in the territory of Hamath, and there Nebuchadnezzar passed sentence on him. At Riblah he put Zedekiah's sons to death while Zedekiah was looking on, and he also had the officials of Judah executed. After that, he had Zedekiah's eyes put out and had him placed in chains to be taken to Babylon.read more.
The Babylonians burned down the royal palace and the houses of the people and tore down the walls of Jerusalem. Finally Nebuzaradan, the commanding officer, took away as prisoners to Babylon the people who were left in the city, together with those who had deserted to him. He left in the land of Judah some of the poorest people, who owned no property, and he gave them vineyards and fields.

For they persecute him whom you have wounded. They tell of the sorrow of those whom you have hurt.

The Jews persecuted Jesus because he did these things on the Sabbath.

I will offer my back to those who whip me. I will offer my cheeks to those who pluck hairs out of my beard. I will not turn my face away from those who humiliate me and spit on me.

He was oppressed and afflicted and yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. He was silent like sheep ready to be sheared. He did not open his mouth.

will receive a hundred times as much now in this time, and in the age to come everlasting life.

Even before all these things, they will capture you, and persecute you. You will be delivered to synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake.

Remember the word I said to you. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they obeyed my word, they will obey yours also.

Then I said: O Jehovah you understand. Remember me and help me. Let me have revenge on those who persecute me. Do not be so patient with them that they succeed in killing me. Remember that it is for your sake that I have suffered reproach.

Jehovah of Hosts proclaims: 'He sent me after glory! He sent me to the nations that plundered you. For he that touches you touches the pupil of his eye.'

He fell to the earth and heard a voice saying: Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me? Who are you Lord? He asked. The Lord said: I am Jesus whom you persecute.