Bible verses about encouragement run from the first pages of Israel’s story to the final letters of the New Testament. They show God strengthening frightened leaders, prophets speaking hope to exiles, Jesus telling His friends to be of good cheer, and ordinary believers lifting one another up in small house churches.
This page is a study rather than a quick list. It looks at what the Bible verses about encouragement actually say in their setting, how the idea grows from the Old Testament to the New, the Hebrew and Greek words behind it, and a few honest questions people ask when encouragement seems slow to arrive.
If you are looking for ways to use these passages in daily life, the companion page of Bible verses for encouragement in everyday situations covers that ground. Here the focus is on understanding the message itself.
Every verse below is quoted word for word from the King James Version, with the reference under each passage.
Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.
Deuteronomy 31:6 (KJV)
Moses spoke these words to all Israel shortly before his death, grounding their courage in God’s presence rather than in their own strength. Many later Bible verses about encouragement echo this promise.
Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.
Joshua 1:9 (KJV)
God repeats the charge to Joshua personally. As in other Bible verses about encouragement given to leaders, the command to be strong rests on the promise that He goes wherever Joshua goes.
And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
1 Samuel 30:6 (KJV)
With his own men turning against him at Ziklag, David found strength in the LORD before he found a plan. It is one of the few Bible verses about encouragement that describes a person encouraging himself.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Isaiah 41:10 (KJV)
Few Bible verses about encouragement gather so many assurances into one breath: presence, relationship, strength, help and upholding.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.
Isaiah 40:31 (KJV)
The chapter opens with “Comfort ye” and closes here, where renewed strength belongs to those who wait on the LORD rather than to those who never tire.
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
Psalms 42:11 (KJV)
The psalmist talks back to his own sorrow, and this refrain shows that biblical encouragement can sit side by side with honest grief.
Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.
Psalms 27:14 (KJV)
David links waiting and courage, suggesting that patience itself is a strength God supplies. Among the Bible verses about encouragement, it is one of the clearest calls to wait with hope.
It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23 (KJV)
In these Bible verses about encouragement, written amid the ruins of Jerusalem, the writer finds fresh mercy in the middle of loss rather than only after it.
These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
John 16:33 (KJV)
Jesus does not deny trouble; He names it plainly and then grounds good cheer in His own victory over the world.
And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus,
Acts 4:36 (KJV)
Joses, a Levite from Cyprus, was surnamed Barnabas, “the son of consolation,” a name that his later acts of encouragement in Acts bear out.
For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Romans 15:4 (KJV)
Paul teaches that the Old Testament was written to give believers patience, comfort and hope, which explains why so many Bible verses about encouragement come from its pages.
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Romans 15:13 (KJV)
Here God fills believers with joy and peace so that they overflow with hope through the Holy Ghost; hope is a gift, not a mood believers must manufacture on their own.
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (KJV)
God is called the God of all comfort, and the comfort He gives is meant to flow outward to others in their trouble.
For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
2 Corinthians 4:16-17 (KJV)
Paul admits the outward man is wearing down, yet he weighs present affliction against an eternal weight of glory.
Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 (KJV)
Writing to a young church under pressure, Paul makes mutual encouragement an ongoing task for every member, not only for leaders.
But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Hebrews 3:13 (KJV)
This is one of the Bible verses about encouragement that treats daily exhortation as protection against the slow hardening that sin produces.
And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.
Hebrews 10:24-25 (KJV)
Meeting together is tied to stirring one another toward love and good works, especially as the day of Christ draws nearer.
Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:
Philippians 1:6 (KJV)
Paul’s confidence rests on God finishing what He started, which may be the deepest root of all the Bible verses about encouragement.
In everyday English, encouragement often means a pep talk. Scripture uses a richer vocabulary. In the Old Testament the key Hebrew verb is chazaq, which means to be strong, to take hold, or to make firm. When God tells Moses to “charge Joshua, and encourage him, and strengthen him” in Deuteronomy 3:28, the idea is fastening someone’s grip so they can carry a heavy task.
In the New Testament the main Greek word is parakaleo, literally “to call alongside.” You can study its uses in the Blue Letter Bible lexicon entry for parakaleo. The King James translators rendered it in several ways: beseech, exhort, comfort and desire. That range matters when reading Bible verses about encouragement, because the same word can mean a gentle word of consolation or a firm call to keep going.
| KJV word | Underlying idea | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Encourage / strengthen | Make firm, take hold (Hebrew chazaq) | Deuteronomy 3:28; 1 Samuel 30:6 |
| Comfort | Console, call alongside (Greek paraklesis) | 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 |
| Exhort | Urge forward, appeal (Greek parakaleo) | Hebrews 3:13 |
| Be of good cheer | Take courage (Greek tharseo) | John 16:33 |
So when you read the Bible verses about encouragement in the KJV, look beyond the single word “encourage.” Many of the strongest passages use “comfort,” “exhort” or “good courage” instead, and all of them point to the same reality: God, and God’s people, standing beside someone who is weak.
The first sustained picture of encouragement in Scripture is a handover of leadership. Moses would not enter the promised land, and Joshua had to lead a nation into battle against fortified cities. God’s instruction to Moses was not to hide the danger but to strengthen the man who would face it.
Deuteronomy 31 records Moses speaking first to all Israel and then to Joshua “in the sight of all Israel,” using nearly the same words each time. After Moses died, God Himself repeated the charge in Joshua 1, three times telling Joshua to be strong and courageous (Joshua 1:6, 7, 9). These early passages share one pattern: the command to be brave is always anchored in the promise of God’s presence.
That pattern is worth noticing because it corrects a common misreading. The text never says, “Be strong because you are capable.” It says, in effect, “Be strong because I am with you.” The courage belongs to Joshua, but its source lies outside him. For a closer look at that theme, the collection of Bible verses about strength from God follows it through the rest of Scripture.
First Samuel gives two memorable scenes. In 1 Samuel 23:16, while David was hiding from Saul in the wilderness, Jonathan “went to David into the wood, and strengthened his hand in God.” Jonathan did not bring an army or a solution. He brought his presence and pointed his friend back to the Lord’s promise.
Later, at Ziklag, David had no Jonathan. His town had been burned, his family captured, and his own men spoke of stoning him. The text simply says that “David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.” Among all the passages, this one reminds readers that encouragement is not only something we receive from others; it can also be a deliberate turning of the heart toward God when no one else is there.
Both scenes belong together. Scripture honors the friend who shows up, and it also honors the person who, finding themselves alone, remembers who God is. Neither replaces the other, and David’s life shows he needed both at different times.
Isaiah 40 marks a turning point in that book. After many chapters of warning, the voice changes: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.” You can read the whole chapter in the KJV text of Isaiah 40 on Bible Hub to see how the message builds from tender comfort to a vision of God’s greatness.
The words in Isaiah 40 and 41 were addressed to people facing loss of home, temple and national identity. Their encouragement does not come from better circumstances but from a bigger view of God. The one who “fainteth not, neither is weary” is the one who “giveth power to the faint.”
Isaiah 41:10 then speaks directly to fear. Notice the verbs: I am with thee, I am thy God, I will strengthen, I will help, I will uphold. Every clause places God as the actor. Readers who want more of this prophetic hope can explore the Bible verses about hope in the prophets and Psalms.
One of the most surprising features of the Bible verses about encouragement is how honest they are about pain. The question “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” appears three times across Psalms 42 and 43 (42:5, 42:11, 43:5). The writer does not pretend to be fine. He speaks to his own heart, remembers God’s past faithfulness, and chooses to hope while still hurting.
Lamentations goes even further. It was written after Jerusalem fell, and most of the book is grief. Yet in the middle of chapter 3 comes the confession that the Lord’s mercies “are new every morning.” The encouragement is found inside the lament, not after the tears have dried.
This teaches something important. Biblical encouragement does not require denying sorrow. The Bible verses about encouragement in the Psalms give permission to say, “I am cast down,” and then add, “Hope thou in God.” Many readers find that the Bible verses about comfort in grief carry this same honest tone.
In the Gospels, the phrase “be of good cheer” is almost always on the lips of Jesus. He said it to a paralyzed man before healing him (Matthew 9:2), to the disciples as He walked on the water (Matthew 14:27), and to the eleven on the night before His death (John 16:33).
In each case the encouragement is tied to who Jesus is. “It is I; be not afraid.” “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” “I have overcome the world.” These sayings do not promise that the storm will stop at once or that trouble will vanish. In John 16:33 Jesus says plainly, “In the world ye shall have tribulation.”
The good cheer He offers rests on His victory, not on the absence of difficulty. That is why the same disciples who heard those words could later face prison and still speak with boldness. The full context of John 16 on Bible Gateway shows how Jesus prepared His friends for sorrow that would turn into joy.
On the same night, Jesus promised “another Comforter” who would abide with the disciples forever (John 14:16). The Greek word is parakletos, from the same root as the verb for encouragement. The Holy Spirit is, quite literally, the one called alongside.
This shapes how Christians understand the encouragement found in the letters. When Paul prays in Romans 15:13 that believers would “abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost,” he assumes that hope is not self-generated. Christian traditions describe the Spirit’s work in different ways, but they broadly agree that true encouragement is a work of God within the believer, not just positive thinking.
Paul also links the Spirit to the peace that Scripture describes and to joy in believing. Across the New Testament, these passages closely connect being encouraged with being filled with the Spirit.
If the Bible has a patron of encouragement, it is Barnabas. Acts 4:36 explains that the apostles gave a man named Joses this nickname, which Luke interprets as “the son of consolation.” Britannica’s article on Saint Barnabas summarizes his role as an early missionary and companion of Paul.
His actions match his name. When the church in Jerusalem was afraid of the newly converted Saul, Barnabas “took him, and brought him to the apostles” (Acts 9:27). When he visited Antioch and saw the grace of God, he “was glad, and exhorted them all” to cleave to the Lord (Acts 11:23). Later he gave John Mark a second chance after Paul refused, and Mark eventually proved “profitable” to Paul too (2 Timothy 4:11).
The story of Barnabas turns abstract encouragement into a living portrait: noticing grace in others, vouching for people who are doubted, and not giving up on those who have failed.
The New Testament letters treat encouragement as something every believer does. In 1 Thessalonians 5:11 Paul tells a young church to “comfort yourselves together, and edify one another.” The writer of Hebrews, whose author is not named, urges readers to “exhort one another daily” (Hebrews 3:13) and ties this to regularly meeting together (Hebrews 10:24-25).
These letters suggest that it is not a special gift for a few outgoing people. It is part of ordinary Christian life, as normal as prayer and as necessary as bread. Hebrews even presents encouragement as a guard against being “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Paul also shows that encouragement flows from what we have received. In 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 he says God comforts us “that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble.” Those who want to see how this connects with love in action can read the Bible verses about love for one another, while the Bible verses about grace explain the gift that makes such comfort possible.
Some readers treat the Bible verses about encouragement as guarantees that life will soon improve. Scripture is more careful. Paul, who wrote many of them, was beaten, shipwrecked and imprisoned. In 2 Corinthians 4:16-17 he admits his outward man is perishing, yet calls his affliction “light” only when set beside eternal glory.
Another misunderstanding is that encouragement means saying something cheerful. Job’s friends spoke at length, and Job answered, “miserable comforters are ye all” (Job 16:2). These passages show that silence, presence and truth told gently often do more than quick answers.
A harder question: what if encouragement does not come? Elijah, after his great victory, lay under a juniper tree and asked to die (1 Kings 19). God’s first response was sleep, food and the words “the journey is too great for thee.” That care for the body is a reminder that deep discouragement may need practical help. Anyone who feels hopeless or unsafe can reach trained listeners through the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, and talking with a doctor or counselor is a wise and faithful step.
Seen together, the Bible verses about encouragement trace a clear line. In the Old Testament, God strengthens individual leaders and speaks comfort to a nation. In the Gospels, Jesus Himself becomes the encourager, speaking good cheer in person. After Pentecost, the Spirit indwells believers and the whole church is called to encourage one another.
Romans 15:4 ties it together: the older Scriptures were “written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Reading these passages across both Testaments shows that the same God who told Joshua to be strong still stands beside His people. The theme also touches on Bible verses about faith and Bible verses about trusting God, since encouragement grows where people learn to rely on Him.
Some readers like to copy short passages onto notes for friends; the page of Bible verses about encouragement cards gathers ideas for that, and encouragement card verses for friends offers more wording options.
Elijah had just won the greatest victory of his career on Mount Carmel, and within days he was running for his life from Jezebel. He left his servant behind, walked a day into the wilderness, sat under a broom tree and asked to die. “It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers” (1 Kings 19:4). Look at what God sends first. No sermon, no rebuke. An angel touches him and says, “Arise and eat,” and there is a cake baked on the coals and a jar of water.
He eats, sleeps, eats again, and only then does the long conversation at Horeb begin. Some of the best Bible verses about encouragement are really care for the body in disguise. Bread and rest come before instruction. That is worth remembering if you are trying to lift a friend who has gone quiet; sometimes the kind thing is a meal left on the porch, not a verse card. And if the heaviness lingers for weeks and sleep and appetite will not return, talking to a doctor or counselor is a sensible step, and nothing in this story discourages it. Elijah was also given a companion, Elisha, before the chapter ended. He was not left to carry the work alone.
When Nehemiah reached Jerusalem, the walls had lain in rubble for generations. He rode out at night to inspect the broken stones before telling anyone his plan. Then he told the people how the good hand of God had been on him, and their reply is one of the shortest, warmest lines in the Old Testament: “Let us rise up and build. So they strengthened their hands for this good work” (Nehemiah 2:18).
The encouragement did not end with that first morning. Sanballat and Tobiah mocked, then threatened, and the workers ended up building with a tool in one hand and a weapon in the other (Nehemiah 4:17). Nehemiah’s own prayer in the middle of it was brief and blunt: “Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands” (Nehemiah 6:9). He asked for the very thing the people had given each other. Strength for hands, the part of you that actually does the work. The wall was finished in fifty and two days (Nehemiah 6:15). Real encouragement tends to look like that, steady and practical and repeated, with ordinary people standing on their own stretch of wall beside somebody else’s.
Anyone who has sat in a hospital corridor at two in the morning knows that waiting is its own kind of hard work. David closes Psalm 27 with a line that sounds simple and is not: “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD” (Psalm 27:14). He says wait twice. He seems to know the first command may bounce right off a worn-out listener.
Notice that courage here is promised as something God does to the heart, not something you produce by trying harder. The psalm opens with confidence and moves through real enemies and a fear of being abandoned, so the writer is not speaking from a safe distance. Among the Bible verses about encouragement, this one is for the long middle of a hard season, when nothing has resolved and everybody else has stopped asking how you are. Try reading it aloud, one clause per breath, the way you might read to someone who is drifting off. Then tell one person where you are in the wait. Courage is easier to borrow when someone else knows you are standing there.
Joshua 1:9, Isaiah 41:10, Isaiah 40:31, John 16:33 and Philippians 1:6 are among the most widely quoted Bible verses about encouragement. Deuteronomy 31:6 and Romans 15:13 are also frequently shared. Each one grounds courage in God’s presence or faithfulness rather than in human effort.
Not very often. The KJV uses “encourage” only about ten times, and all of them are in the Old Testament. The idea appears far more often under words like “comfort,” “exhort,” “strengthen,” “consolation” and “be of good cheer.” That is why many Bible verses about encouragement do not contain the word itself.
Barnabas is the clearest example, since his very name means “son of consolation.” Jonathan, who strengthened David’s hand in God, is another. Above all, Christians see Jesus and the Holy Spirit as the ultimate encouragers, and the Bible verses about encouragement point back to them.
No. Moses, Elijah, David, Jeremiah and Paul all felt deep discouragement at times. The Psalms give words for it, and God met these people with care rather than scolding. Scripture treats discouragement as a real human experience that God answers with presence, provision and hope, as many Bible verses about encouragement show.
Many of them come from prayers or lead into prayer. Psalms 27 and 42 are prayers, and Paul’s words in Romans 15:13 are a prayer for his readers. Bringing discouragement to God honestly is itself a biblical act, as the Bible verses about prayer make clear.
The Bible verses about encouragement do not offer a shortcut around hardship. They offer something steadier: a God who goes with His people, a Savior who has overcome the world, a Spirit who comes alongside, and a community called to lift one another up. From Moses charging Joshua to Paul writing to struggling churches, the message stays the same. Be strong and of a good courage, because you are not alone. May these passages give you both understanding and hope as you return to them.
Keep exploring with these related pages: Bible Verses For Encouragement, Bible Verses About Encouragement Cards, Bible Verses For Encouragement Cards, Bible Verses About Faith and Bible Verses About Hope.
For deeper study, Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools are all free to use.
In everyday English, encouragement often means a pep talk. Scripture uses a richer vocabulary. In the Old Testament the key Hebrew verb is chazaq, which means to be strong, to take hold, or to make firm.
This page brings together 57 King James Version references about encouragement, drawn from 27 different books of the Bible.
Yes, the verses referenced on this page, including Deuteronomy 3:28, are quoted according to the King James Version (KJV), and are suitable for daily reading, memorization, or devotional use.
Beyond the references highlighted on this page, encouragement appears throughout Scripture in books such as Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel, 2 Corinthians, Hebrews, John; this collection focuses on some of the clearest examples.
These encouragement verses are drawn from books including Deuteronomy, 1 Samuel, 2 Corinthians, Hebrews, John, among others.
