52 Bible Verses about Unreliability
Most Relevant Verses
They treacherously turned away like their fathers;
they became warped like a faulty bow.
“Can a woman forget her nursing child,
or lack compassion for the child of her womb?
Even if these forget,
yet I will not forget you.
What am I going to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I going to do with you, Judah?
Your loyalty is like the morning mist
and like the early dew that vanishes.
Indeed, we personally had a death sentence within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead.
Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.
Samuel said to Saul, “You have been foolish. You have not kept the command which the Lord your God gave you. It was at this time that the Lord would have permanently established your reign over Israel, but now your reign will not endure. The Lord has found a man loyal to Him, and the Lord has appointed him as ruler over His people, because you have not done what the Lord commanded.”
When Ephraim saw his sickness
and Judah his wound,
Ephraim went to Assyria
and sent a delegation to the great king.
But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.
Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, “So, couldn’t you stay awake with Me one hour?
Then He came and found them sleeping. “Simon, are you sleeping?” He asked Peter. “Couldn’t you stay awake one hour?
When He got up from prayer and came to the disciples, He found them sleeping, exhausted from their grief.
But all this has happened so that the prophetic Scriptures would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted Him and ran away.
Then they all deserted Him and ran away.
Trusting an unreliable person in a difficult time
is like a rotten tooth or a faltering foot.
Do not trust in nobles,
in man, who cannot save.
When his breath leaves him,
he returns to the ground;
on that day his plans die.
Put no more trust in man,
who has only the breath in his nostrils.
What is he really worth?
“Come, gather together,
and draw near, you fugitives of the nations.
Those who carry their wooden idols,
and pray to a god who cannot save,
have no knowledge.
There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see, hear, eat, or smell.
Their idols are silver and gold,
made by human hands.
They have mouths but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.
They have ears but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell.
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They have hands but cannot feel,
feet, but cannot walk.
They cannot make a sound with their throats.
Those who make them are just like them,
as are all who trust in them.
To one who shapes a pedestal,
choosing wood that does not rot?
He looks for a skilled craftsman
to set up an idol that will not fall over.
Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch,
their idols cannot speak.
They must be carried because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them for they can do no harm—
and they cannot do any good.
Everyone is stupid and ignorant.
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image,
for his cast images are a lie;
there is no breath in them.
They are worthless, a work to be mocked.
At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.
Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you and your nobles, wives, and concubines drank wine from them, you praised the gods made of silver and gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or understand. But you have not glorified the God who holds your life-breath in His hand and who controls the whole course of your life.
What use is a carved idol
after its craftsman carves it?
It is only a cast image, a teacher of lies.
For the one who crafts its shape trusts in it
and makes idols that cannot speak.
Then He said, “Watch out that you are not deceived. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Don’t follow them.
For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, since it is written: He catches the wise in their craftiness; and again, The Lord knows that the reasonings of the wise are meaningless.
Then the Benjaminites realized they had been defeated.
The men of Israel had retreated before Benjamin, because they were confident in the ambush they had set against Gibeah.
He traps the wise in their craftiness
so that the plans of the deceptive
are quickly brought to an end.
Therefore the Holy One of Israel says:
“Because you have rejected this message
and have trusted in oppression and deceit,
and have depended on them,
this iniquity of yours will be
like a spreading breach,
a bulge in a high wall
whose collapse will come in an instant—suddenly!
No one makes claims justly;
no one pleads honestly.
They trust in empty and worthless words;
they conceive trouble and give birth to iniquity.
Therefore this is what the Lord God says:
Because you regard your heart as that of a god,
I am about to bring strangers against you,
ruthless men from the nations.
They will draw their swords
against your magnificent wisdom
and will defile your splendor.
For it is written:
I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and I will set aside the understanding of the experts. Where is the philosopher? Where is the scholar? Where is the debater of this age? Hasn’t God made the world’s wisdom foolish? For since, in God’s wisdom, the world did not know God through wisdom, God was pleased to save those who believe through the foolishness of the message preached.
Although these have a reputation of wisdom by promoting ascetic practices, humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.
David said to the Philistine: “You come against me with a dagger, spear, and sword, but I come against you in the name of Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel’s armies—you have defied Him.
A king is not saved by a large army;
a warrior will not be delivered by great strength.
The horse is a false hope for safety;
it provides no escape by its great power.
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
and who depend on horses!
They trust in the abundance of chariots
and in the large number of horsemen.
They do not look to the Holy One of Israel
and they do not seek the Lord’s help.
The Rabshakeh said to them, “Tell Hezekiah:
The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on? I say that your strategy and military preparedness are mere words. What are you now relying on that you have rebelled against me? Look, you are trusting in Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will enter and pierce the hand of anyone who leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who trust in him.
You have relied on your swords, you have committed detestable acts, and each of you has defiled his neighbor’s wife. Should you then receive possession of the land?
But I will have compassion on the house of Judah,
and I will deliver them by the Lord their God.
I will not deliver them by bow, sword, or war,
or by horses and cavalry.
I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the power of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overturn chariots and their riders. Horses and their riders will fall, each by his brother’s sword.
Then Jesus told him, “Put your sword back in its place because all who take up a sword will perish by a sword.
Anyone trusting in his riches will fall,
but the righteous will flourish like foliage.
Place no trust in oppression,
or false hope in robbery.
If wealth increases,
pay no attention to it.
Why do you brag about your valleys,
your flowing valley,
you faithless daughter?
You who trust in your treasures
and boast, “Who can attack me?”
“You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought the harvest to your house, I ruined it. Why?” This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. “Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.
what state were you in? When someone came to a grain heap of 20 measures, it only amounted to 10; when one came to the winepress to dip 50 measures from the vat, it only amounted to 20. I struck you—all the work of your hands—with blight, mildew, and hail, but you didn’t turn to Me”—this is the Lord’s declaration.
Tyre has built herself a fortress;
she has heaped up silver like dust
and gold like the dirt of the streets.
Listen! The Lord will impoverish her
and cast her wealth into the sea;
she herself will be consumed by fire.
“Don’t collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
Now the one sown among the thorns—this is one who hears the word, but the worries of this age and the seduction of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.