Bible verses about healing run through almost every part of Scripture, from the bitter waters of Marah to the tree of life in the last chapter of Revelation. They speak of fevers and leprosy, but also of broken hearts and even a broken land. To read them well, it helps to see how the theme grows from the Law and the Prophets into the ministry of Jesus and the life of the early church.
This page is a study guide rather than a prayer list. It gathers eighteen Bible verses about healing, explains key Hebrew and Greek words, walks through the major healing stories, and faces the hard question of why some believers are healed and others are not. If you are looking for passages to pray through during an illness, the companion page of Bible verses for healing in daily life is written for that purpose.
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 reveals Himself here as “the Lord that healeth thee,” which makes this one of the foundational Bible verses about healing. The promise is tied to listening to His voice, not to a technique.
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 God. The psalm places bodily restoration inside a larger picture of mercy.
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Psalms 147:3 (KJV)
The same God who counts the stars binds up wounded hearts. Many Bible verses about healing are emotional as well as physical.
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’s short prayer links being healed with being saved. He trusts that what God heals is truly healed.
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)
Hosea calls Israel to return to the God who disciplined them. Healing here is the restoration of a people who had wandered.
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 Hezekiah’s tears with added years. This is one of the Bible verses about healing that shows God responding to personal 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)
This promise was spoken to Israel at the temple dedication. It shows that repentance and healing can apply to a whole community and its land.
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 his wounds bring healing. Christians read these Bible verses about healing as a portrait of Christ.
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 a picture of healing rising like the dawn. The image points ahead to the coming of the Lord.
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 connects Jesus healing the sick in Capernaum directly to Isaiah 53. The Gospel writer sees prophecy fulfilled in real bodies.
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)
Jesus announces His mission in the Nazareth synagogue. Healing the brokenhearted and giving sight to the blind sit at the center of it.
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)
Jesus calls the woman “Daughter” before sending her away whole. Few Bible verses about healing show such tenderness toward a person society had pushed aside.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
John 9:2-3 (KJV)
Jesus rejects the idea that this man’s blindness was punishment for a particular sin. The verse corrects a common assumption about sickness.
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 instructs the sick to call the elders for prayer and anointing. Confession, prayer and healing are held together in one passage.
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 the cross, with sin and righteousness in view. Among Bible verses about healing, this one ties restoration to forgiveness.
And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 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 12:7-9 (KJV)
Paul asked three times for relief and received grace instead. His story shows that faithful prayer does not always end in removal of the trouble.
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)
The final promise is a world without death, sorrow, crying or pain. Every earthly healing is a preview of this.
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. The Bible verses about healing end where Genesis began, with life restored.
The main Hebrew verb for healing is rapha, which you can study in the Bible Hub entry for Strong’s H7495. It can describe curing a disease, repairing something broken, or making water drinkable. When the prophets speak of God healing Israel, they often mean restoring a broken relationship.
The New Testament uses several Greek words. Therapeuo often describes Jesus treating or curing the sick, iaomai means to heal or make whole, and sozo can mean to save, rescue or heal. The Blue Letter Bible lexicon for sozo shows how the same word is translated “saved” in some verses and “made whole” in others. Reading these passages with these words in mind shows that “made thee whole” can mean more than a body restored.
The first time God names Himself as healer is at Marah, just after the Red Sea crossing. The people found the water bitter, Moses cried out, and God showed him a tree that made the water sweet (Exodus 15:23-25). Right after this, God speaks the words of Exodus 15:26.
The promise is covenant language. Israel is called to listen, obey and keep God’s statutes, and God describes Himself as their healer. Other passages in the Law, such as the bronze serpent in Numbers 21:8-9, continue the theme. The healing passages in the Law are therefore never just about medicine. They are about who God is and how He keeps faith with the people He has saved.
The Psalms give healing a personal voice. Psalm 103 lists it among the “benefits” of God, alongside forgiveness and redemption from destruction. Psalm 147 moves from the stars to the brokenhearted, showing that God’s greatness does not make Him distant. Both psalms suggest that the Bible verses about healing belong to worship, not only to crisis. You can follow these emotional threads further on the page of Bible verses about emotional healing.
The prophets widen the lens. Jeremiah prays “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed,” yet much of his book grieves that Israel’s wound seemed incurable because of its unfaithfulness. Hosea calls the nation to return to the God who “hath torn” and “will heal.” In 2 Chronicles 7:14, healing is promised to a land whose people humble themselves and pray. In these passages, the patient is often a whole people, and the cure begins with repentance.
Two stories in 2 Kings stand out. King Hezekiah was told he would die, turned his face to the wall, and wept. God sent Isaiah back with a new message: “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee.” Isaiah then said, “Take a lump of figs,” and they laid it on the boil (2 Kings 20:7). Divine healing and a practical remedy appear side by side in the same account.
Naaman, a Syrian army commander with leprosy, is the other famous case (2 Kings 5). He expected a dramatic ceremony and was offended when Elisha simply told him to wash in the Jordan seven times. After his servants persuaded him, he obeyed and his flesh was restored “like unto the flesh of a little child.” Both stories appear often in collections of Bible verses about healing because they reveal humility, prayer and grace at work.
Isaiah 53 contains some of the most discussed Bible verses about healing. You can read the whole chapter at Bible Gateway’s KJV text of Isaiah 53. The Servant is despised and rejected, carries the griefs and sorrows of others, and is wounded for their transgressions. “With his stripes we are healed” is the climax of that description.
The New Testament applies this passage in two ways. Matthew 8:17 connects it to Jesus healing the sick during His ministry. First Peter 2:24 applies it to the cross, where Christ “bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” Christians have drawn different conclusions from this. Some traditions teach that physical healing is directly provided in the atonement and may be claimed now. Others read Isaiah 53 mainly as spiritual healing from sin, with bodily healing fully guaranteed only at the resurrection.
Healing fills the Gospels. Jesus announced His mission in Luke 4:18 with words from Isaiah 61, and the accounts that follow show Him touching lepers, restoring sight, raising the dead and freeing the tormented. For a closer look at these miracles, see the collection of Bible verses about healing the sick. Several of the best-known Bible verses about healing come from these accounts, listed below.
| Person healed | Reference | What stands out |
|---|---|---|
| A man with leprosy | Mark 1:40-42 | Jesus touched him and said, “I will; be thou clean.” |
| A paralyzed man | Mark 2:1-12 | Jesus forgave his sins before telling him to walk. |
| A woman bleeding twelve years | Mark 5:25-34 | She touched His garment and was called “Daughter.” |
| Blind Bartimaeus | Mark 10:46-52 | He kept crying out when others told him to be quiet. |
| Ten lepers | Luke 17:11-19 | Only one, a Samaritan, returned to give thanks. |
| A man born blind | John 9:1-7 | Jesus rejected the idea that his blindness was a punishment. |
These miracles were signs as well as mercies. They showed that the kingdom of God had drawn near and that Jesus had authority over sickness, sin and death. These Gospel accounts always point back to who Jesus is.
Among the Bible verses about healing, one phrase returns often: “thy faith hath made thee whole.” Jesus said it to the bleeding woman, to Bartimaeus and to the Samaritan leper. Faith in these stories is not a force a person generates. It is a reaching toward Jesus, sometimes timid, sometimes loud and desperate. The woman in Mark 5 had “suffered many things of many physicians” and only hoped to touch His clothes.
Yet faith is not presented as a formula. Some people were healed through the faith of friends, like the paralyzed man lowered through a roof. Others, such as the man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5, showed little faith beforehand. In Nazareth, Mark 6:5-6 says Jesus “could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk,” and He “marvelled because of their unbelief.” Read together, these passages hold both truths: faith matters, yet it is never a formula. Explore that link further on the page of Bible verses about healing and faith.
After Pentecost, healing continued through the apostles. Peter told a lame man at the temple gate, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee,” and commanded him to walk in the name of Jesus (Acts 3:6). Paul lists “gifts of healing” among the gifts of the Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:9. In these accounts, the apostles never claim the power as their own; it is Christ still at work.
James 5:14-16 gives the clearest instruction for the church. The sick person calls for the elders, who pray and anoint with oil in the name of the Lord. Confession of sins and mutual prayer are part of the same passage. Churches practice this differently. Catholic and Orthodox Christians see it as the basis for a sacrament of anointing, while many Protestant churches practice anointing as a simple act of obedience. On this point, the verses in James call believers to pray together rather than suffer alone. The page on Bible verses about prayer for healing explores this more.
Any honest look at Bible verses about healing must face unanswered prayer. Paul asked three times for his “thorn in the flesh” to be removed. The answer was “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” Scholars have long debated what the thorn was: an illness, an eye problem, or persistent opposition. What is clear is that a mature apostle did not receive the relief he asked for.
Paul’s letters mention others too. He left Trophimus “at Miletum sick” (2 Timothy 4:20). He told Timothy to take a little wine for his “often infirmities” (1 Timothy 5:23). Epaphroditus was “sick nigh unto death,” and Paul credits God’s mercy for his recovery (Philippians 2:27). These stories show that sickness among faithful believers was normal, not a sign of weak faith. The page of Bible verses about healing and strength gathers passages on enduring weakness with God’s help.
Keeping these corrections in mind helps readers approach Bible verses about healing with both hope and honesty. Seeking a doctor and seeking God are not rivals. For conditions that affect the mind, such as depression or anxiety, the National Institute of Mental Health’s help page lists trustworthy starting points alongside the care of a local church.
The story of Scripture does not end with a hospital but with a city. Revelation 21:4 promises that God will wipe away every tear and that there will be “no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.” Revelation 22:2 describes the tree of life whose leaves are “for the healing of the nations.”
This future hope shapes how Christians understand the Bible verses about healing today. Every person Jesus healed or raised eventually died again, including Lazarus. Earthly healings are real gifts, but they are signs of a greater healing still to come through the resurrection. You can find more on this on the page of Bible verses about hope and healing.
Many Christians would begin with Exodus 15:26, Psalm 103:2-4, Isaiah 53:5, Jeremiah 17:14 and James 5:14-16. Together these passages show God as healer, link healing to forgiveness, and give the church clear instruction to pray for the sick. The Gospel accounts of Jesus healing people are also central.
The Bible promises complete healing in the resurrection, as Revelation 21:4 describes. The Bible verses about healing do not promise that every illness will be cured in this life. Paul’s thorn, Trophimus’s sickness and Timothy’s frequent ailments show that faithful believers sometimes remain unwell, while God’s grace stays sufficient for them.
The phrase comes from Isaiah 53:5 and is repeated in 1 Peter 2:24. It means that the suffering of the Servant, whom Christians identify as Jesus, brings healing to others. Peter applies it mainly to sin and righteousness. Traditions differ on how directly these Bible verses about healing apply to physical illness today.
No. Many Bible verses about healing speak of broken hearts (Psalm 147:3), a wayward nation (Hosea 6:1), or a land affected by sin (2 Chronicles 7:14). Scripture treats a person as a whole, so healing can touch the body, the emotions, relationships and a person’s standing with God. See also Bible verses about spiritual healing.
Mainstream Christian teaching says no. Luke was a physician, Isaiah prescribed figs for Hezekiah’s boil, and Paul recommended wine for Timothy’s stomach. Seeking medical care can be an act of wisdom and stewardship. Reading Bible verses about healing and seeing a doctor can go hand in hand.
From Marah to the tree of life, the Bible verses about healing reveal a God who restores what is broken, whether that is a body, a heart, a people or a whole creation. They invite trust without pretending that every prayer is answered the way we hope. For more passages on God’s care, visit the collections of Bible verses about God’s healing and Bible verses about comfort, or read the related study of Bible verses about physical healing.
Open the Old Testament and you find medicine all over it, though not the kind with a pharmacy label. Isaiah describes a battered nation as a body with wounds that have not been closed, bound up or softened with oil (Isaiah 1:6). Jeremiah, grieving over his people, asks a question that still stings: “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?” (Jeremiah 8:22). He assumes there are physicians. His complaint is that the remedy exists and the people will not come to it.
The New Testament keeps the same picture. In the story Jesus told about the traveler beaten on the Jericho road, the Samaritan “bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him” (Luke 10:34). Wine cleaned, oil soothed, a bandage held, and then came the long, unglamorous work of paying for a bed. Nobody in the story thinks this care competes with God. It is simply what mercy looks like with its sleeves rolled up.
Paul sends greetings from “Luke, the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14), and he tells young Timothy to take a little wine for his stomach and his frequent illnesses (1 Timothy 5:23). Jesus himself said that those who are well have no need of a doctor, but the sick do (Luke 5:31). Taken together, these lines give ordinary treatment a respectable place beside prayer.
The disciples see a man who has been blind since birth, and the first thing out of their mouths is a courtroom question: whose fault was this? Was it his sin or his parents? It sounds harsh, but listen to it with the ears of the day. Many people believed suffering was a receipt for wrongdoing, and the disciples were only repeating what they had heard around the village well.
Jesus refuses the frame. “Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:3). He does not hand out a theory of why the man was born blind. He turns the conversation from cause to care, spits on the ground, makes clay, and sends the man to wash in the pool of Siloam. The cure comes, and then the real trouble begins, because neighbors argue and religious leaders interrogate the man and his frightened parents.
Anyone who has sat with a sick friend knows how quickly the old question comes back. Someone whispers that the illness must be a consequence, or that more faith would have prevented it. Job spent thirty-odd chapters under that very accusation. John 9 is a gentle correction for every visitor and every patient: a diagnosis is not a verdict, and a sick person does not need a theory half as much as a companion who stays.
Four men carry a friend who cannot walk to a crowded house in Capernaum. The door is blocked, so they climb up, dig through the roof, and lower him on his mat in front of Jesus. Picture the dust falling on everyone below. Jesus looks up at the faces in the hole, sees their faith, and says something nobody expected: “Son, thy sins be forgiven thee” (Mark 2:5).
The scribes bristle, and Jesus asks which is easier to say, forgiveness or “Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk” (Mark 2:9). Then he tells the man to stand, and he does. Notice what the story keeps together. The man needed his legs, and he needed something deeper, and Jesus would not let anyone pretend those two needs were unrelated, even though he never says every illness traces back to a particular wrong.
Psalm 32 gives the inner side of that scene. David writes, “When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long” (Psalm 32:3). Unspoken guilt and a worn-out body can tangle together. That is not a formula and it is not a rule, but it is a good reason to pause when you pray for someone sick and ask whether any quarrel needs ending, any apology needs making, or any grudge needs setting down.
Scripture gives surprisingly small, concrete instructions for praying with the sick. Keep the visit short enough that the patient is not worn out. Sit rather than stand, since a person lying down already feels small. Read one passage slowly instead of five quickly, and let silence be part of the reading. If the person wants to talk about fear, let them, and resist the urge to repair the mood with a cheerful verse.
It also helps to pray for the whole situation, the nurses, the tired spouse in the corner chair, the bills nobody has opened. Many families find that a plain sentence works better than a speech: Lord, you know this body and this worry, so be near, give wisdom to the doctors, and give us patience for the slow hours. Pray what is true and leave the outcome with God.
One last caution. Never tell someone to stop medication or skip an appointment because you are praying. A believer can pray and keep the follow-up visit on the same afternoon, and those two acts do not argue with each other. If the weight of an illness is crushing, speak with a doctor, a pastor, or a counselor as well, because carrying it alone was never the plan.
Nearby topics worth a look: Bible Verses For Spiritual Healing, Bible Verses For Healing, Bible Verses For Healing and Strength, Bible Verses For Prayer for Healing and Bible Verses For Emotional Healing.
If you want to dig further, Blue Letter Bible, Bible Gateway and Bible Hub are good places to start.
The main Hebrew verb for healing is rapha, which you can study in the Bible Hub entry for Strong's H7495. It can describe curing a disease, repairing something broken, or making water drinkable.
This page brings together 50 King James Version references about healing, drawn from 28 different books of the Bible.
These healing verses are drawn from books including Exodus, Numbers, 2 Chronicles, 2 Kings, Matthew, among others.
Yes. The verses about healing gathered here include passages from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, such as Exodus 15:23 and Matthew 8:17.
Exodus 15:23 is one of the verses about healing referenced in this collection, alongside Exodus 15:26.
