These Bible verses about God’s healing follow one of Scripture’s steadiest threads: the LORD who made the body also cares about its wounds. From the bitter waters of Marah to the tree of life in Revelation, the Bible presents healing as something God does, promises and finally completes. It touches bodies, hearts, relationships, nations and the whole creation.
This page is a study, not a formula. We will look at key passages in context, meet people who were healed and some who were not, unpack Hebrew and Greek words, and face honest questions. If you want practical, situational help, the companion page of Bible verses for God’s healing in daily life is written for that.
Below, the twenty Bible verses about God’s healing are arranged roughly in biblical order, so you can watch the theme grow from the Law and the Prophets into the ministry of Jesus and the hope of the new creation.
Every verse below is quoted word for word from the King James Version, with the reference under each passage.
And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the Lord that healeth thee.
Exodus 15:26 (KJV)
God names himself “the LORD that healeth thee” right after Marah, so the first of the Bible verses about God’s healing is a self-revelation, not a technique. Healing is tied to listening and covenant faithfulness.
See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no God with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand.
Deuteronomy 32:39 (KJV)
Moses’ song insists that no rival God wounds or heals; the LORD alone holds life and death. It sounds stern, yet it means no sickness lies outside his reach.
Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the Lord.
2 Kings 20:5 (KJV)
God answers King Hezekiah’s tears with a promise of recovery, and the next verse adds fifteen years. Among Bible verses about God’s healing, this one shows the LORD personally hearing a sick man’s prayer.
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:14 (KJV)
Spoken after the dedication of Solomon’s temple, this promise concerns healing a land after judgment. Biblical healing can be national and communal, not only individual.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;
Psalms 103:2-4 (KJV)
David lists healing beside forgiveness and redemption as benefits of the LORD. Few Bible verses about God’s healing picture the whole person, soul and body, so clearly.
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Psalms 147:3 (KJV)
The God who counts the stars also binds up broken hearts. Here the Bible verses about God’s healing treat emotional wounds as real injuries.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
Isaiah 53:4-5 (KJV)
The Suffering Servant carries griefs and sorrows, and by his stripes we are healed. This is the theological center of many Bible verses about God’s healing, linking healing to substitution.
Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.
Jeremiah 17:14 (KJV)
Jeremiah prays that if God heals him he will truly be healed. The prophet trusts the Healer more than any human remedy or ally.
For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.
Jeremiah 30:17 (KJV)
Addressed to exiled Israel, mocked as an outcast, this promise restores health and heals wounds. God’s healing here reverses rejection.
Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
Hosea 6:1 (KJV)
Israel’s call to return admits that God has torn and smitten, yet trusts him to heal and bind up. Repentance and restoration belong together.
But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.
Malachi 4:2 (KJV)
The Old Testament closes with the Sun of righteousness rising with healing in his wings. Many Christians have read this as a pointer to the coming Messiah.
When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick: That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
Matthew 8:16-17 (KJV)
Matthew says Jesus’ healings fulfilled Isaiah 53:4. The Bible verses about God’s healing in the Prophets become visible in Galilee.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
Luke 4:18 (KJV)
In the Nazareth synagogue Jesus reads Isaiah 61 and claims it for himself. His mission includes healing the brokenhearted and setting at liberty the bruised.
And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
Mark 5:34 (KJV)
After twelve years of bleeding and isolation, a woman is called “Daughter” and made whole. Jesus restores her standing as well as her body.
And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
Acts 3:16 (KJV)
Peter credits the lame man’s healing to faith in the name of Jesus, not to the apostles’ own power. God’s healing continues through the risen Christ.
Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
James 5:14-16 (KJV)
James tells the sick to call the elders for prayer and anointing, and links confession with healing. It is one of the clearest Bible verses about God’s healing for church life.
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
1 Peter 2:24 (KJV)
Peter applies Isaiah’s words to sin: Christ bore our sins so we might live unto righteousness. The deepest healing is reconciliation with God.
And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2 Corinthians 12:9 (KJV)
Paul asked three times for his thorn to be removed and received sufficient grace instead. God’s healing does not always look like removal.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Revelation 21:4 (KJV)
God himself wipes away every tear, and death, sorrow and pain pass away. All the Bible verses about God’s healing lead toward this moment.
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Revelation 22:2 (KJV)
The tree of life bears leaves for the healing of the nations. Scripture ends where Eden began, with healing built into the city of God.
The first time Scripture uses healing language for God, it comes as a name. In Exodus 15, Israel has just crossed the Red Sea, yet within three days the people find only bitter water at Marah. God shows Moses a tree, the water turns sweet, and then the LORD says, “I am the LORD that healeth thee.” Many readers know this title as Jehovah Rapha.
That setting matters. The promise is not detached from story. God has just rescued his people, provided water and called them to hear his voice. Healing appears inside a relationship of trust and obedience. That is why the Bible verses about God’s healing so often speak about who God is before they speak about what he does. Healing flows from his character.
The promise is covenant language, addressed to a nation, and it introduces a God who wants his people whole rather than broken. Later passages keep returning to this foundation.
The main Hebrew verb is rapha, which you can study in the Blue Letter Bible lexicon entry for rapha. It means to heal, repair or make whole. The same word describes a physician, Elijah repairing the altar in 1 Kings 18:30, and Elisha healing the waters of Jericho in 2 Kings 2:21. The picture is mending something damaged.
In the New Testament, three Greek words carry most of the load:
That last word deserves a pause. The Greek lexicon entry for sozo shows it is the ordinary New Testament word for salvation. When Jesus heals the woman with the bleeding, Mark uses a word that hints at something bigger than a cured body. Bible verses about God’s healing keep blurring the line between physical recovery and spiritual rescue, because God cares about both.
The Old Testament does not limit healing to physical illness. Psalm 147:3 speaks of broken hearts. Jeremiah 30:17 speaks of an exiled nation called an outcast. 2 Chronicles 7:14 speaks of a land ruined by drought, locusts and pestilence. God heals at every scale.
This wide view guards against a thin reading of these passages. A person can be healthy in body and still carry deep wounds of shame, grief or guilt. For inner wounds, see our collection of Scripture on emotional healing; for the body specifically, read the page on Bible verses about physical healing.
The prophets also tie national healing to repentance. Hosea 6:1 and 2 Chronicles 7:14 both call the people to turn back, humble themselves and seek God’s face. In these Bible verses about God’s healing, the wound is estrangement, and the cure is return.
Several narratives put flesh on these teachings. Each shows a different side of how God heals:
Two details stand out. First, God’s healing reaches outsiders like Naaman, a point Jesus himself raises in Luke 4:27. Second, the Hezekiah account includes a remedy: Isaiah has a lump of figs laid on the boil. Scripture does not set God’s power against ordinary means. Read together, these stories show that God may work directly or through practical care.
No passage shapes Christian thinking on this theme more than Isaiah 53. The Servant is despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities. Then comes the line the New Testament quotes and echoes: “with his stripes we are healed.” It stands at the heart of the Bible verses about God’s healing.
How should we read it? Matthew 8:17 applies Isaiah 53:4 to Jesus’ healing of physical illness. First Peter 2:24 applies the passage to forgiveness of sin. Both apostles are right, and together they show that the Bible verses about God’s healing point to the cross as the root of every restoration. Christ’s suffering deals with sin, and sin’s defeat is the ground for the final undoing of sickness and death.
Christians differ on how much physical healing the atonement guarantees now. Many Pentecostal and charismatic believers teach that it may be received by faith today. Many other Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox Christians hold that its full bodily benefit awaits the resurrection. Both positions take Isaiah seriously.
When the Gospels summarize Jesus’ ministry, healing sits right beside preaching. Matthew 4:23 says he went about teaching, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness. His healings were signs that God’s kingdom had arrived, the very thing Isaiah and Malachi anticipated.
His methods varied. He touched a leper (Mark 1:41), spoke a word from a distance for a centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:13), used clay and a pool for a blind man (John 9:6-7), and healed a paralyzed man lowered through a roof after first forgiving his sins (Mark 2:5-12). No single technique appears in the Gospel accounts. What stays constant is compassion and authority.
The Bible verses about God’s healing in the Gospels also show that Jesus restored people socially. The woman in Mark 5 had been ceremonially unclean for twelve years; he called her Daughter in public. Cleansed lepers were sent to the priest so they could rejoin the community. To see more of these accounts gathered together, visit our page of verses about Jesus healing the sick.
The book of Acts shows the healing ministry continuing after the resurrection. Peter tells the lame man at the temple gate, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6), then insists that the power came through faith in Jesus’ name, not apostolic holiness.
James 5 brings healing into ordinary congregational life. The sick call the elders; the elders pray and anoint with oil; confession and forgiveness go hand in hand with recovery. Traditions apply this differently: Catholic and Orthodox churches practice the anointing of the sick as a sacrament, while many Protestant churches practice it as a simple prayer ministry.
Faith matters in these passages, yet the Bible verses about God’s healing never make faith a price tag. Jesus healed people who showed great faith and people who showed none, such as the man at Bethesda in John 5. For more on that relationship, see Bible verses about healing and faith and our study of prayer for healing in Scripture.
Any faithful study must face the hard cases. Paul, who saw many healed, left his coworker Trophimus at Miletum sick (2 Timothy 4:20). He told Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach and his often infirmities (1 Timothy 5:23). Epaphroditus was sick nigh unto death before God had mercy on him (Philippians 2:27). The Scriptures do not hide these cases.
Paul’s own thorn in the flesh is the clearest example. He prayed three times for it to leave. God answered, “My grace is sufficient for thee,” and the thorn stayed. Scholars debate what the thorn was, but the lesson is plain: unanswered requests for healing are not proof of weak faith or divine indifference.
The Scriptures therefore hold two truths together. God can and does heal, sometimes dramatically. God also sometimes carries people through weakness rather than out of it, displaying his strength there. Holding both protects sufferers from despair and from blame. Our page on healing and strength in Scripture explores this tension further.
Several mistaken ideas cling to this subject. Setting them beside Scripture helps:
Reading these passages in context keeps us from turning promises into formulas. If you face illness now, keep praying and keep your medical care; the Bible sees no conflict between the two. The Britannica overview of faith healing offers helpful historical background on how different movements have handled these questions.
Scripture’s last chapters complete what Exodus began. In Revelation 21, God dwells with his people and wipes away every tear. In Revelation 22, a river flows from the throne, and the tree of life yields leaves for the healing of the nations.
This ending reframes every earlier healing. Lazarus was raised, yet he died again. Every person Jesus healed eventually grew old. Their healings were previews, signs pointing to a resurrection body that cannot decay. That is why the Bible verses about God’s healing are finally verses of hope, not only verses of relief. For a wider view of that hope, read our verses on hope and healing.
From Marah to the river of life, the Bible verses about God’s healing tell one story: the LORD who made us refuses to leave us broken. He heals bodies, binds hearts, restores nations and, through Christ’s wounds, reconciles sinners to himself. Some healing comes now; the rest is certain and coming.
As you keep studying, let these passages shape how you see God more than how you measure outcomes. For companion reading, explore our Bible verses about comfort and Scripture on God’s grace, both close neighbors to the Bible verses about God’s healing.
Scripture never sets prayer against ordinary medicine. When Hezekiah lay sick with a boil, Isaiah told the servants to take a lump of figs and lay it on the sore, and the king recovered (Isaiah 38:21). In the parable Jesus told, the Samaritan who stopped for the beaten traveler poured oil and wine on the wounds and bandaged them before he lifted the man onto his own animal (Luke 10:34). Neither detail is treated as a lack of faith. They are simply what a caring person does with what is on hand.
The New Testament even gives us a doctor by name. Paul calls his traveling companion “Luke, the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14), and Luke wrote two books of Scripture without ever giving up his trade. Jesus once said, “They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick” (Mark 2:17), and he said it as a comparison, not a criticism of doctors. Paul advised Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach and his frequent illnesses (1 Timothy 5:23), which is practical advice rather than a miracle. Reading about God’s healing alongside these verses guards against a painful mistake, the idea that a person who sees a specialist or takes medication is somehow doubting the Lord. Many believers pray at the bedside and take the prescription in the same afternoon, and nothing in the Bible asks them to choose.
Not every injury shows on an X-ray. Some people carry a wound from a harsh home, a betrayal, a failure they replay at night. The psalms speak to that kind of hurt without hurry. “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit” (Psalm 34:18). The word nigh means near, and the nearness is the point. God is not described as standing across the room waiting for the pain to subside. He is described as close to the person while it is still raw.
That gentle truth belongs among the Bible verses about God’s healing, though it asks for patience. Emotional recovery rarely follows a straight line, and Scripture doesn’t pretend otherwise. Elijah, exhausted and afraid under a broom tree, was first given sleep, a loaf baked on hot stones and a jar of water by an angel before any word of instruction came (1 Kings 19:5-8). Rest and food came before the mission. If your heart feels bruised, you can pray the psalm, but you can also talk with a pastor or a licensed counselor, and tell your doctor if the heaviness lasts for weeks. Seeking skilled help is not a detour around trust. It may be one of the ways the nearness the psalmist describes actually arrives, through a patient listener who has the training to sit with you.
Luke tells of ten men with leprosy who stood at a distance and called out to Jesus for mercy. He sent them to the priests, and as they went, they were made clean. Nine kept walking. One, a Samaritan, “when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God” (Luke 17:15). He fell at Jesus’ feet, and Jesus asked a pair of quiet questions: “Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?” (Luke 17:17). It is easy to judge the nine, yet most of us would admit we have been among them. We pray hard in the hospital corridor and forget to say thanks once we are home with a clean report.
Look at what the one man received beyond the cure. Jesus told him, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole” (Luke 17:19). The ten were cleansed; this man was made whole. The word suggests something larger than skin, a person restored in standing and in gladness, and a foreigner at that, in a group where he would normally have been looked down upon. Gratitude, in this scene, is not good manners tacked onto a miracle. It completes the gift. After an illness or an operation, a simple practice can help: write down who helped you, from the nurse who stayed late to the neighbor who watered your plants, and thank God and them by name.
Healing in the Bible is not only a matter for the one who is ill. In the picture of judgment Jesus paints in Matthew 25, the righteous are told, “I was sick, and ye visited me” (Matthew 25:36). Nothing in the list requires a gift for medicine or a powerful prayer. It asks for presence, the kind of visit where you bring soup, sit down, and let the other person talk about the test results or not talk at all. Anyone who has spent a long evening in a waiting room knows how large that is. A friend arriving with a thermos of coffee can change the whole shape of the night.
Paul puts it in a sentence worth keeping near the phone: “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). A few honest cautions help us do that well. Don’t offer explanations for why someone is suffering, since Job’s friends did that, and God rebuked them for it (Job 42:7). Don’t promise outcomes you cannot control. Ask what they need this week, and then do the plain thing, the ride to treatment, the dishes, the phone call at an awkward hour. Long illnesses wear down caregivers too, so if you are the one doing the carrying, let someone carry you for an afternoon. God’s care for the sick often arrives wearing a neighbor’s coat.
David, who lived through enemies and illness and his own failures, looked back on one dark season and wrote simply, “O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me” (Psalm 30:2). There is no formula in that sentence. He cried, and he was healed, and he was glad to say so in public. If you are sitting beside a bed tonight, or lying in one, you don’t need more words than that. Short prayers are still prayers, and the Lord who listened to David listens in the middle of the night to people who cannot find a sentence. So read the Bible verses about God’s healing on this page slowly, and pray them as you go.
Here is one you may borrow. Lord, you know the name of the person I am praying for and you know every detail of what is wrong. I ask you for healing, and I ask for wisdom for the doctors and nurses. Give strength to the people who are tired, and give peace to the ones who are afraid. If recovery comes slowly, keep us from despair. If it does not come as we hope, hold us close and do not let go. Thank you that your mercy has not run out. Amen. Pray it again tomorrow, and the day after, and when you cannot pray it, let someone else say it for you.
Readers interested in this topic often continue with Bible Verses For God's Healing, Bible Verses About God As Healer, Bible Verses For Knowing God, Bible Verses For God As Protector and Bible Verses About Healing and Faith.
To study these verses in more depth, try Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools.
Many readers point to Exodus 15:26, where God calls himself the LORD that healeth thee, because it roots healing in God’s own name. Others give that place to Isaiah 53:5, since it connects healing with the Servant’s suffering. Both are central to the Bible verses about God’s healing, one revealing who heals and the other revealing how.
Not in this life. Scripture shows God healing many, but it also shows faithful people like Paul, Timothy and Trophimus living with illness. The complete promise is fulfilled at the resurrection, when pain and death pass away (Revelation 21:4). Until then, believers pray boldly and trust God’s wisdom.
No. The figs laid on Hezekiah’s boil, Paul’s advice about wine for Timothy’s stomach and Luke’s work as a physician all show that ordinary care fits within faith. Most traditions read the Bible verses about God’s healing as fully compatible with doctors and medicine. Keep following professional medical advice while you pray.
The phrase comes from Isaiah 53:5. Matthew applies the passage to Jesus healing physical sickness, and Peter applies it to forgiveness of sin. Together they teach that Christ’s suffering is the foundation for all healing, spiritual now and complete in the resurrection. Christians differ on how much bodily healing the atonement secures today.
This page focuses on teaching and context. For more collections, see our main page of Bible verses about healing, the study of spiritual healing in Scripture, and the page on forgiveness and healing.
