Each of these bible verses about fearing God is copied exactly from the King James Version, with the book, chapter and verse underneath.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Proverbs 1:7 (KJV)
Solomon opens his collection of sayings here, and the placement matters. Among the bible verses about fearing God, this is the doorway: knowing anything rightly starts with taking God seriously.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
Proverbs 9:10 (KJV)
Wisdom and holiness are tied together in a single sentence. To know the holy One is to understand how life fits together, which is why this verse keeps turning up in lists of verses on reverence.
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
Psalms 111:10 (KJV)
The psalmist adds action to attitude. Good understanding belongs to those who do what God says, not only to those who admire it. Praise that lasts forever is the natural result.
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 (KJV)
After a whole book of questions about work, pleasure and time, the Preacher lands here. Few bible verses about fearing God are this blunt, and few give such a simple summary of what life is for.
And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
Deuteronomy 10:12 (KJV)
Moses puts fear, walking, love and service in one breath. Reverence is not a separate mood from affection; it sits beside it, and both are asked for with the whole heart.
O fear the LORD, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.
Psalms 34:9 (KJV)
David wrote this after escaping real danger, so it is no armchair comfort. In the bible verses about fearing God that speak of provision, the promise is that those who honor God lack nothing they truly need.
The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant.
Psalms 25:14 (KJV)
Here reverence opens a door to friendship. A secret is only shared with someone trusted, and the verse says God confides in people who take him seriously and then shows them his covenant.
For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.
Psalms 103:11 (KJV)
Look up at the night sky and you have the measure of God’s mercy. Notice that the mercy is aimed at those who fear him, so the reverence in these bible verses about fearing God is met with kindness, not threat.
Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.
Psalms 103:13 (KJV)
The word pitieth means a father’s tender compassion. This verse reshapes the whole idea of fear: the one we revere is the one who treats us as a good father treats a child who has stumbled.
The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
Proverbs 8:13 (KJV)
Wisdom herself is speaking, and she names what reverence looks like in practice: turning away from pride, arrogance and twisted talk. Fearing God shows up in what we refuse to do. This is why bible verses about fearing God keep being tied to wisdom.
In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence: and his children shall have a place of refuge.
Proverbs 14:26 (KJV)
Confidence and fear sit together here, which surprises most readers. When you are sure God is God, other things lose their grip, and bible verses about fearing God like this one become a source of boldness.
The fear of the LORD tendeth to life: and he that hath it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be visited with evil.
Proverbs 19:23 (KJV)
Reverence tends toward life, the verse says, and satisfaction follows. It is a general principle about the shape of a God-honoring life, not a guarantee that no hardship will ever come.
By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
Proverbs 16:6 (KJV)
Two things are at work: God’s mercy cleans what is wrong, and reverence keeps a person from going back to it. Among the bible verses about fearing God, this one explains why holy living is a response, not a payment.
But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men children alive.
Exodus 1:17 (KJV)
Shiphrah and Puah faced a king with total power and chose to obey a higher authority. Their story shows fearing God as quiet courage, the kind that refuses an unjust order without any speeches.
And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28 (KJV)
Jesus tells frightened disciples not to be ruled by human threats. The contrast is meant to free them: the One worth revering outranks every earthly power, and he is the same One who counts every sparrow.
Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
Hebrews 12:28 (KJV)
The writer ties reverence to an unshakable kingdom. Because what we have received cannot be taken away, worship can be both joyful and deeply respectful, which is the balance these bible verses about fearing God keep returning to.
Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
1 Peter 2:17 (KJV)
Four short commands, and the second pair is easy to miss: the fear we owe God is different from the honor we owe people. Peter keeps them distinct so that nobody is ever worshipped but God.
Behold, the eye of the LORD is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy;
Psalms 33:18 (KJV)
The picture is of a watchful, caring eye. Those who revere God and hope in his mercy are not forgotten; he is looking at them. It is a good verse to read when you feel unseen. It stands as one of the gentlest bible verses about fearing God.
Most of us hear the word fear and think of a dark hallway or a bad phone call. That is not what the writers had in mind when they gathered the bible verses about fearing God. The Hebrew word can mean dread, but in worship settings it points to awe, the feeling of standing before something far greater than you.
Think of the first time you stood at the edge of a huge canyon or heard a storm roll over open country. You did not run, yet you felt small and wide awake. That sense of being a small person in a very large world is the closest everyday picture of what the Bible calls fearing God. Keep that picture of awe in mind as you read every one of the bible verses about fearing God on this page.
Reverence is not cowering. A child who hides under the bed when Dad’s truck pulls up is afraid of him, but a child who runs to the door is something else. The bible verses about fearing God never ask us to hide from the Lord, and they say again and again that he welcomes those who come.
It is also not guilt used as a stick. Some people grow up hearing about God only as a judge waiting to catch them out, and the word fear gets stuck to that picture. The Scriptures push the other way, pairing reverence with mercy, refuge and friendship in verse after verse. That is the heart of what this collection of bible verses about fearing God keeps saying.
Moses never separates the two. In Deuteronomy he says that God asks us to fear him and to love him in the same sentence, with no hint that one cancels the other. You can respect a person deeply and love them deeply at once, and most of us do exactly that with a parent or a mentor.
The bible verses about fearing God help us hold that tension. Love keeps the reverence warm, and reverence keeps the love from turning casual. When either one is missing, faith gets lopsided, either cold and anxious or sentimental and thin. A healthy believer leans on both.
Proverbs repeats this idea so often that it works as the book’s thesis. Wisdom is not first a matter of being clever; it starts with a right view of who is in charge. Someone who believes they are the final judge of everything will make poor choices, however sharp they are.
Reading the bible verses about fearing God alongside our own decisions can be humbling. Before a big move or a risky purchase, ask whether you have asked God at all, or only your own preferences. For deeper study there is a whole page on the fear of the Lord, and another on God’s wisdom.
Fearing God is rarely dramatic. It sounds like a woman at a cash register handing back extra change, or a man declining to pass along gossip at the break room table. Nobody is watching and nobody will ever know, but the choice is made because God sees.
That is why the bible verses about fearing God keep landing on ordinary behavior. Reverence is a habit of living as though God is in the room, because he is. Over a few years, small choices like these build a character that others notice, even if they cannot say exactly why they trust it. Small, hidden obedience is where bible verses about fearing God become real.
Exodus tells us that two Hebrew midwives were ordered by Pharaoh to kill baby boys at birth. The Bible says they feared God and let the children live. They did not stage a protest; they simply did their work and kept the babies alive, then gave a careful answer when questioned.
Their story is one of the clearest examples among the bible verses about fearing God that reverence changes what we dare to do. Notice the result: God dealt kindly with them, and the people grew. A quiet no to something wrong can matter far more than we imagine.
When Potiphar’s wife pressed Joseph, he did not give a long argument. He asked how he could do such a great wickedness and sin against God. His reason was reverence, not fear of getting caught, since the house was empty and no one else would have known.
That moment gives a concrete picture of what the bible verses about fearing God are trying to build in us. A person who holds God in awe has a floor beneath their feet in the hour of temptation. They do not need an audience to keep them straight. Joseph is a gentle proof that the bible verses about fearing God change behavior when nobody is looking.
In the days of Ahab and Jezebel, a palace steward named Obadiah feared the Lord greatly. When the queen was killing prophets, he hid a hundred of them in caves and fed them bread and water. He kept working in a dangerous court while quietly protecting God’s people.
Obadiah shows that fearing God can live inside an ordinary job. He was not a prophet or a king. He was a manager with a conscience, and the bible verses about fearing God honor people like him whose courage is practical and usually unseen.
Many of us are more afraid of a boss, a crowd or a family member than of anything else. Proverbs warns that the fear of man brings a snare, and the other side of that warning is a promise: those who fear God are freed from being ruled by every opinion.
When you read the bible verses about fearing God slowly, you notice how often they are offered to people under pressure. Jesus himself told his friends not to fear those who can only harm the body. Our biggest fear tends to become our boss, and these verses ask us to change who holds that job.
It sounds backwards, but Proverbs says that in the fear of the LORD is strong confidence. A person who knows God is trustworthy does not have to live on edge. They can walk into a hard meeting or a hospital waiting room with a steadiness that others find hard to explain.
That is the quiet gift in these bible verses about fearing God. Awe of the Creator pushes smaller fears to their proper size. The diagnosis, the deadline and the difficult relative are all real, but none of them sits on the throne. One look at the One who does makes everything else seem more manageable.
Psalm 103 may be the best place to see that reverence and kindness belong together. The psalmist says God’s mercy toward those who fear him is as high as the heavens are above the earth, and that he pities them as a father pities his children.
If you carry shame and wonder whether God could ever be gentle with you, read the bible verses about fearing God in that psalm out loud. They declare that the One you revere also knows you are dust. He remembers your frame, and he is patient with it. That is the kind of Lord worth fearing. Few bible verses about fearing God are as tender as that psalm.
Parents often ask how to teach reverence to children without making them afraid. A good start is to let kids see you pray, say thank you over a meal, and apologize when you have been short with them. Children learn awe by watching the grown-ups they trust treat God as real.
Short bible verses about fearing God can sit on the fridge or beside a bed. A line like Psalms 34:9 or Proverbs 14:26 is easy to learn. You are not scaring a child by teaching these verses; you are showing them where safety really lives and who deserves the first place in their hearts. See also obedience to God. Our bible verses about fearing God give parents plain language to start with.
The workplace is one of the best training grounds for reverence. A contractor who does not cut a corner nobody will inspect, an accountant who reports numbers as they are, a cook who washes his hands without a manager watching: these are all small acts of fearing God.
Several of the bible verses about fearing God, such as Proverbs 8:13, tie reverence to hating pride and crooked speech. Those are exactly the temptations of the office or the shop floor. Work done as if God were your supervisor tends to be better work, and it is surely more peaceful to carry home at night. In that sense, bible verses about fearing God belong on the shop floor as much as in church.
Reverence and humility are close relatives. When you see God as he is, you see yourself as you are, and the result is neither self-hatred nor pride but a plain, honest sense of your place. Proverbs says the reward of humility and the fear of the LORD is riches, honor and life.
That is why the bible verses about fearing God sit comfortably next to those about being lowly in spirit. If you want to study the second theme, the page on humility in the Bible is a natural companion. Both start by taking the Lord more seriously than ourselves.
Some readers wonder whether the New Testament cancels the idea. It does not. Peter tells believers to fear God, and Hebrews 12 tells us to serve him with reverence and godly fear. Paul even says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
What changes in Christ is the way we approach. We come through a Savior as forgiven children, which removes terror but not awe. The bible verses about fearing God in the Gospels and letters are simply more joyful in tone, since we now approach the throne of grace knowing a mediator has already opened the way. So the bible verses about fearing God in the Old Testament and the New fit together rather than compete.
Proverbs 16:6 says that by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil. A person tempted toward a shortcut, an affair, or a cruel word often needs more than willpower. They need a bigger picture of whom they are answering to, and that is what reverence gives.
Used this way, the bible verses about fearing God are a form of protection. They remind us that sin always costs more than it appears to, and that God is both holy and ready to forgive those who turn back. Many people trace the start of a changed life to a moment when they finally took God seriously. This is one of the most practical lessons in the bible verses about fearing God.
Prayer is the place where the awe of God is most easily lost. It can turn into a shopping list or a casual chat that forgets who is on the other end. A short pause before speaking, or a slow reading of a psalm, can remind us whom we are addressing.
Pray the bible verses about fearing God back to him. You might say the words of Psalms 103:11 as praise, or of Psalms 25:14 as a request to be taught his ways. Reverent prayer is not stiff; it is honest, grateful and aware. The One listening is the Maker of the sky and your Father. Begin your next prayer with one of the bible verses about fearing God and see how it changes the tone.
Hebrews 12:28 asks for worship with reverence and godly fear. That does not require formality for its own sake, and it does not rule out joy. Some of the most reverent people are the ones who sing loudest, because they know whom they are singing to.
A congregation that treasures the bible verses about fearing God will tend to value silence as well as song, Scripture reading as well as announcements, and honest confession as well as encouragement. If you are curious about worship in Scripture more broadly, the page on worship verses explores it further. Bible verses about fearing God keep worship both glad and serious.
Job lost nearly everything, yet the book says he feared God and turned from evil. Even in grief he refused to curse the Lord. His reverence did not remove his questions, and he voiced plenty of them, but it kept him from walking away.
Many bible verses about fearing God are written to people in pain, which tells us that reverence is a place to stand during a storm. If you are grieving, you do not need to put on a cheerful face. Bring your honest complaint to the One you revere. He can handle it, and he stays. Job is perhaps the strongest case in all the bible verses about fearing God that reverence survives loss.
Proverbs 14:26 promises that the children of those who fear the LORD will have a place of refuge. For parents, that is a hopeful line. Your reverence is not only for your own sake; it forms a kind of shelter that your family can live inside.
Consider what that refuge looks like in a home. It is a house where there is truth at the table, where apologies are said, where Scripture is open on the counter. Over years, these small habits make the bible verses about fearing God a living atmosphere rather than a decoration on the wall.
Our culture rewards confidence, visibility and winning. The Bible measures life differently. Ecclesiastes asks what is gained from all the striving and answers that fearing God and keeping his commandments is the whole duty of man. Everything else is secondary.
That does not mean ambition is bad. It means the bible verses about fearing God give us a compass for it. A person who aims high but keeps God first will tend to treat people well, stay honest and rest when needed. Success on those terms is a good deal more durable. Seen this way, bible verses about fearing God are less about limits and more about direction.
Few of us bring up reverence in casual talk, yet friendships are often where it is learned. A friend who admits they prayed before a hard decision gives you permission to do the same. A group that reads Scripture together builds a shared vocabulary of awe.
If you are leading a small group, try opening with one of these bible verses about fearing God and asking, in plain words, what it means for the week ahead. Keep answers short and honest. Over a few months, people start to notice God in their ordinary days, and the conversation deepens naturally. Sharing bible verses about fearing God over coffee is a low-pressure way to begin.
Start with context. Read the paragraph before and after each verse, because the surrounding words often explain what kind of fear is meant. Then compare translations on a site such as Bible Gateway or Blue Letter Bible to see how the original words are rendered.
Next, keep a notebook. For each of the bible verses about fearing God, write one sentence about what it says of God and one sentence about what it asks of you. After a month you will have a personal guide in your own words, which is more valuable than any list someone else puts together for you.
Take two or three of the bible verses about fearing God each week. On Monday, read them slowly. On Wednesday, copy one onto a card and carry it. On Friday, say it aloud in the car or while washing dishes. On Sunday, thank God for something specific it showed you.
The aim is not speed. Reverence grows through repetition and attention, the way a friendship grows. Within a couple of months you will likely find yourself pausing before words you used to say without thinking, and you will sense that the Lord is not a stranger but a steady, holy presence beside you.
Some seasons are dry. You open the Bible and feel nothing, and the idea of reverence seems like a word from another century. That is more common than people admit, and it does not mean you have failed. Awe often returns through small, steady habits rather than a sudden feeling.
Try reading a few bible verses about fearing God out loud, outdoors if you can. Stand under a wide sky, or watch the sun come up from the porch. Seeing something much bigger than your worries often reawakens the sense that the Lord is great, and that you have been invited to know him. Slow, repeated reading of bible verses about fearing God is often how that sense returns.
Two people who both honor God bring something steady into a relationship. They are slower to say the cutting word and quicker to ask forgiveness, because they know they will answer for how they treated each other. Reverence quietly protects love from the slow drift toward contempt.
That is one practical reason to read bible verses about fearing God together as a couple or with a close friend. Take turns reading a verse and say what stood out. Shared awe gives you a common ground that outlasts moods, and it can turn a difficult conversation into a gentler one.
Anyone who leads a team, a classroom or a congregation holds power over others. The bible verses about fearing God remind leaders that they are accountable to someone higher. Moses, Nehemiah and the midwives all show that reverence shapes how people use authority.
Nehemiah, for example, refused to take the governor’s allowance because of the fear of God, since earlier governors had burdened the people. That is a practical picture of reverence in leadership: giving up a privilege you could have claimed. Good leaders ask not only what is permitted but what honors God. Leaders who study bible verses about fearing God tend to hold power with open hands.
Anxiety is a swirl of what-ifs that has no clear object. The fear of God has a very clear object, and it quiets the swirl. Someone who lies awake over money, health and the future can find the bible verses about fearing God surprisingly calming, because they set one great fact above all the small ones.
This is not a cure, and it does not replace medical help where that is needed. But for many people, turning attention from the problem to the Lord, even for a few minutes, changes the proportions. Pairing these verses with the page on not fearing can help sort healthy awe from unhealthy dread. Plenty of readers return to bible verses about fearing God exactly for that reason.
Teenagers are quick to spot anything fake, so talking about reverence with them works best when it is honest. Admit that the word sounds odd, then explain what it means in simple terms: taking God seriously, wanting to please him, and knowing he is both holy and kind.
Pick two or three bible verses about fearing God that speak to real teenage pressure, such as Psalms 34:9 on provision or Proverbs 14:26 on confidence. Let them argue with the verses if they need to. A young person who has wrestled with a verse will remember it far longer than one who was simply told to accept it.
It may seem odd to pair reverence with forgiveness, yet Psalm 130 does exactly that: with God there is forgiveness, that he may be feared. Pardon does not make God smaller; it makes him more astonishing, because the Holy One chooses to forgive.
Many people find that the bible verses about fearing God become more precious after they have been forgiven something heavy. They no longer see reverence as a burden. It becomes thankfulness with its head bowed. For more on that, see God’s forgiveness in the Bible.
There is a restfulness in people who truly fear God. They do not need to prove themselves in every conversation, because they know who holds the world. They can sleep, say no, and take a day off without feeling that everything will fall apart.
When you read bible verses about fearing God slowly at the end of the day, notice the sense of being watched over. The eye of the LORD is on those who revere him, Psalms 33:18 says. Bedtime is a good moment to let that sentence sink in, and to hand the unfinished list back to him. That quiet rest is one of the unadvertised gifts of the bible verses about fearing God.
What do we leave to the next generation? Money and property matter, but Scripture suggests that a family’s real inheritance is its relationship to God. The bible verses about fearing God promise refuge to the children of those who revere him, and that promise has practical shape.
You can pass it on by letting children hear you pray, by keeping a Bible visible in the home, and by treating mistakes with mercy rather than rage. Years later, grown children rarely quote what you lectured about; they remember what the house felt like. Let it feel like a place where God is honored and loved.
The bible verses about fearing God invite us into something larger than a list of rules. They describe a life lived in the presence of a holy, merciful God, with wisdom for decisions, courage under pressure and a place of refuge for the people we love.
If this page has done its work, you now see reverence as the beginning of wisdom and the doorway to friendship with God. Come back to these verses in the quiet moments of the week. Let them settle your heart, and share them with someone who needs to hear that the Lord is both great and kind.
If these bible verses about fearing God stirred something in you, these related pages are a good next step: The fear of the Lord in Scripture, Verses about wisdom, God’s wisdom explained, Obedience to God, Humility in the Bible, Honoring God, Worship verses, Living for God, Trusting God daily, Verses on not fearing, Relationship with God, Walking with God.
To study these verses in more depth, try Bible Gateway, Bible Hub, Bible Study Tools, Blue Letter Bible.
In Scripture, fearing God means a deep reverence and awe toward him, along with a desire to obey. These bible verses about fearing God show it as respect joined to love, not terror. It is the attitude of someone who takes God seriously because he is holy and good.
Yes, though the tone is different. Peter writes fear God, and Hebrews 12:28 speaks of serving him with reverence and godly fear. Through Jesus we approach as forgiven children, so the bible verses about fearing God in the New Testament blend awe with joyful confidence.
Not quite. Being afraid means wanting to run away, while fearing God means wanting to draw near with honor. Psalm 103 says his mercy is great toward those who fear him, so the bible verses about fearing God describe respect that moves a person toward him, not away.
Because wisdom starts with seeing reality correctly, and the first reality is that God is God and we are not. Proverbs 9:10 says so directly. Anyone who skips that step will tend to misjudge everything else, no matter how intelligent they are.
Read Scripture slowly, pray with awareness of whom you are addressing, and choose honesty in small things. Reading the bible verses about fearing God regularly, ideally one or two at a time, helps a lot. Spending time with older believers who model reverence also shapes the heart.
Ecclesiastes 12:13 is the usual choice: Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. Many people also turn to Proverbs 1:7 and Psalms 103:11 when they want the shortest bible verses about fearing God to memorize.
