'Good' in the Bible

God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

God called the dry land earth, and the gathering of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good.

The earth brought forth vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them, after their kind; and God saw that it was good.

and to govern the day and the night, and to separate the light from the darkness; and God saw that it was good.

God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind; and God saw that it was good.

God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Out of the ground the Lord God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

The gold of that land is good; the bdellium and the onyx stone are there.

but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.”

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”

For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—

As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age.

But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her what is good in your sight.” So Sarai treated her harshly, and she fled from her presence.

Then the servant took ten camels from the camels of his master, and set out with a variety of good things of his master’s in his hand; and he arose and went to Mesopotamia, to the city of Nahor.

Then Laban and Bethuel replied, “The matter comes from the Lord; so we cannot speak to you bad or good.

that you will do us no harm, just as we have not touched you and have done to you nothing but good and have sent you away in peace. You are now the blessed of the Lord.’”

Then Leah said, “God has endowed me with a good gift; now my husband will dwell with me, because I have borne him six sons.” So she named him Zebulun.

Laban said, “Good, let it be according to your word.”

God came to Laban the Aramean in a dream of the night and said to him, “Be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad.”

It is in my power to do you harm, but the God of your father spoke to me last night, saying, ‘Be careful not to speak either good or bad to Jacob.’

He fell asleep and dreamed a second time; and behold, seven ears of grain came up on a single stalk, plump and good.

I saw also in my dream, and behold, seven ears, full and good, came up on a single stalk;

and the thin ears swallowed the seven good ears. Then I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.”

The seven good cows are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years; the dreams are one and the same.

Then let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and store up the grain for food in the cities under Pharaoh’s authority, and let them guard it.

Now the proposal seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants.

They had just gone out of the city, and were not far off, when Joseph said to his house steward, “Up, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, ‘Why have you repaid evil for good?

“When he saw that a resting place was goodAnd that the land was pleasant,He bowed his shoulder to bear burdens,And became a slave at forced labor.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.

So God was good to the midwives, and the people multiplied, and became very mighty.

So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite.

Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you are doing is not good.

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, a good distance from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting which was outside the camp.

Or if a person swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, in whatever matter a man may speak thoughtlessly with an oath, and it is hidden from him, and then he comes to know it, he will be guilty in one of these.

But Aaron spoke to Moses, “Behold, this very day they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord. When things like these happened to me, if I had eaten a sin offering today, would it have been good in the sight of the Lord?”

When Moses heard that, it seemed good in his sight.

The one who takes the life of an animal shall make it good, life for life.

Thus the one who kills an animal shall make it good, but the one who kills a man shall be put to death.

He shall not replace it or exchange it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; or if he does exchange animal for animal, then both it and its substitute shall become holy.

The priest shall value it as either good or bad; as you, the priest, value it, so it shall be.

‘Now if a man consecrates his house as holy to the Lord, then the priest shall value it as either good or bad; as the priest values it, so it shall stand.

He is not to be concerned whether it is good or bad, nor shall he exchange it; or if he does exchange it, then both it and its substitute shall become holy. It shall not be redeemed.’”

Then Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses’ father-in-law, “We are setting out to the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you’; come with us and we will do you good, for the Lord has promised good concerning Israel.”

So it will be, if you go with us, that whatever good the Lord does for us, we will do for you.”

How is the land in which they live, is it good or bad? And how are the cities in which they live, are they like open camps or with fortifications?

and they spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel, saying, “The land which we passed through to spy out is an exceedingly good land.

“God is not a man, that He should lie,Nor a son of man, that He should repent;Has He said, and will He not do it?Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

‘Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything contrary to the command of the Lord, either good or bad, of my own accord. What the Lord speaks, that I will speak’?

You answered me and said, ‘The thing which you have said to do is good.’

Then they took some of the fruit of the land in their hands and brought it down to us; and they brought us back a report and said, ‘It is a good land which the Lord our God is about to give us.’

‘Not one of these men, this evil generation, shall see the good land which I swore to give your fathers,

Moreover, your little ones who you said would become a prey, and your sons, who this day have no knowledge of good or evil, shall enter there, and I will give it to them and they shall possess it.

Let me, I pray, cross over and see the fair land that is beyond the Jordan, that good hill country and Lebanon.’

“Now the Lord was angry with me on your account, and swore that I would not cross the Jordan, and that I would not enter the good land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

For I will die in this land, I shall not cross the Jordan, but you shall cross and take possession of this good land.

and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied,

You shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which the Lord swore to give your fathers,

So the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God for our good always and for our survival, as it is today.

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, flowing forth in valleys and hills;

When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.

otherwise, when you have eaten and are satisfied, and have built good houses and lived in them,

In the wilderness He fed you manna which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, to do good for you in the end.

“Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stubborn people.

and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good?

Or the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and He will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain and the ground will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the Lord is giving you.

“Be careful to listen to all these words which I command you, so that it may be well with you and your sons after you forever, for you will be doing what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household.

The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow.

Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers;

Now behold, we are in your hands; do as it seems good and right in your sight to do to us.”

Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.

know with certainty that the Lord your God will not continue to drive these nations out from before you; but they will be a snare and a trap to you, and a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

“Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the Lord your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed.

It shall come about that just as all the good words which the Lord your God spoke to you have come upon you, so the Lord will bring upon you all the threats, until He has destroyed you from off this good land which the Lord your God has given you.

When you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the Lord will burn against you, and you will perish quickly from off the good land which He has given you.”

If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you after He has done good to you.”

nor did they show kindness to the household of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in accord with all the good that he had done to Israel.

But the fig tree said to them, ‘Shall I leave my sweetness and my good fruit, and go to wave over the trees?’

The sons of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to You; only please deliver us this day.”

Then his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you go to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?” But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she looks good to me.”

So he went down and talked to the woman; and she looked good to Samson.

They said, “Arise, and let us go up against them; for we have seen the land, and behold, it is very good. And will you sit still? Do not delay to go, to enter, to possess the land.

Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maids, so that others do not fall upon you in another field.”

Remain this night, and when morning comes, if he will redeem you, good; let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to redeem you, then I will redeem you, as the Lord lives. Lie down until morning.”

No, my sons; for the report is not good which I hear the Lord’s people circulating.

You will see the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all the good that I do for Israel; and an old man will not be in your house forever.

So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the Lord; let Him do what seems good to Him.”

Then the men of Jabesh said, “Tomorrow we will come out to you, and you may do to us whatever seems good to you.”

Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you; but I will instruct you in the good and right way.

Then Saul said, “Let us go down after the Philistines by night and take spoil among them until the morning light, and let us not leave a man of them.” And they said, “Do whatever seems good to you.” So the priest said, “Let us draw near to God here.”

Then he said to all Israel, “You shall be on one side and I and Jonathan my son will be on the other side.” And the people said to Saul, “Do what seems good to you.”

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.

If he says, ‘It is good,’ your servant will be safe; but if he is very angry, know that he has decided on evil.

Then Jonathan said to David, “The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have sounded out my father about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if there is good feeling toward David, shall I not then send to you and make it known to you?

The men of David said to him, “Behold, this is the day of which the Lord said to you, ‘Behold; I am about to give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it seems good to you.’” Then David arose and cut off the edge of Saul’s robe secretly.

You have declared today that you have done good to me, that the Lord delivered me into your hand and yet you did not kill me.

For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safely? May the Lord therefore reward you with good in return for what you have done to me this day.