Bible Verses About Sadness show something many readers do not expect: Scripture never pretends that the faithful are always cheerful. Its pages are full of people who wept, lay awake, questioned God, and felt the weight of loss. Instead of hiding that pain, the Bible records it, names it, and brings it into the presence of God.
This page gathers eighteen passages from the King James Version and explains what they mean in context. You will meet Hannah at the tabernacle, David in the Psalms, Jeremiah among ruins, and Jesus in Gethsemane. Together these Bible verses about sadness teach how sorrow and faith can live in the same heart.
If you are looking for daily, practical help while you feel low, our companion page of Bible verses for sadness in hard seasons is written for that purpose. Here the focus is understanding what God’s Word actually says.
Every verse below is quoted word for word from the King James Version, with the reference under each passage.
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 speaks to his own downcast soul and answers it with hope. Few Bible verses about sadness show so plainly that sorrow and faith can share one prayer.
How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?
Psalms 13:1-2 (KJV)
David asks “how long” four times in two verses. God kept this honest complaint in Scripture, and like many Bible verses about sadness it shows that questions are not the opposite of trust.
And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.
1 Samuel 1:10 (KJV)
Hannah prays in bitterness of soul over her childlessness. Her prayer is among the most personal Bible verses about sadness in the Old Testament.
The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
Psalms 34:18 (KJV)
God is described as near to the brokenhearted, not distant from them. This is one of the Bible verses about sadness most often read at funerals and hospital bedsides.
Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
Psalms 56:8 (KJV)
David pictures God keeping his tears in a bottle and recording them in a book. It is one of the tenderest Bible verses about sadness, because no sorrow of the believer is forgotten.
To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 (KJV)
The Preacher lists weeping and mourning among the seasons God allows under heaven. Bible verses about sadness like this one teach that sorrow has a proper time and is not a failure of faith.
Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
Ecclesiastes 7:3 (KJV)
This proverb says sorrow can make the heart better. Grief can deepen wisdom in a way that constant laughter never does.
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)
Written amid the ruins of Jerusalem, these lines find mercy that is new every morning. Hope arrives in the middle of lament, not after it has ended.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Isaiah 53:3 (KJV)
The Servant is called a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Christians read this as a portrait of Jesus, who knows sadness from the inside.
And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
Matthew 26:37-38 (KJV)
In Gethsemane Jesus tells His friends that His soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Among Bible verses about sadness, this may be the most surprising.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.
John 11:33-35 (KJV)
Jesus weeps at the tomb of Lazarus even though He is about to raise him. His tears show that grief over death is fitting, not faithless.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 5:4 (KJV)
Jesus calls those who mourn blessed and promises them comfort. The blessing is not the sorrow itself but the God who meets people in it.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
2 Corinthians 7:10 (KJV)
Paul contrasts godly sorrow, which leads to repentance, with worldly sorrow, which leads to death. Not all Bible verses about sadness point the same way, because not all sadness does.
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Romans 12:15 (KJV)
Believers are told to weep with those who weep. The church is meant to share sorrow, not to hurry people out of it.
But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.
1 Thessalonians 4:13 (KJV)
Paul does not forbid grief; he forbids grief without hope. Christians mourn, but they mourn in light of the resurrection.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.
John 16:20-22 (KJV)
Jesus compares His disciples’ sorrow to labor pains that give way to joy. The sadness is real, and so is the joy that follows.
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. This verse joins cosmic power with tender, personal care.
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 Bible’s closing vision promises that God will wipe away all tears. These Bible verses about sadness end where Scripture ends, with sorrow undone.
Anyone who studies Bible verses about sadness in English will notice several words for this experience: sorrow, grief, heaviness, mourning, and a heart that is “cast down.” Behind them stand a range of Hebrew and Greek terms. In the New Testament the common Greek word for sorrow is lupe, the word Paul uses when he writes about godly and worldly sorrow. The Old Testament has a richer vocabulary, from words for groaning and weeping to phrases like “bitterness of soul.”
The variety matters. Bible verses about sadness are not all describing the same thing. Some speak of grief after death, some of guilt over sin, some of loneliness, disappointment, or exile. You can explore the original terms with the free Blue Letter Bible interlinear for 2 Corinthians 7, which links each KJV word to its Greek root.
Roughly a third of the Psalms are laments, prayers in which a person or the nation pours out distress to God. They follow a recognizable pattern: an address to God, a complaint, a request, an expression of trust, and often a vow of praise. Psalm 13 moves through all of these in just six verses.
What makes these Bible verses about sadness so valuable is their honesty. The psalmists accuse, question, and plead. Psalm 88 even ends in darkness with no turn toward praise. Yet every lament is still addressed to God, which is itself an act of faith that keeps talking to God when feelings say otherwise.
Psalms 42 and 43 are a striking example. Three times the writer repeats the refrain, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” He does not deny his sorrow. He argues with it, reminding himself of who God is. You can read both psalms together on Bible Gateway’s KJV text of Psalms 42 and 43 to see how the refrain ties them into one prayer.
The Bible’s heroes are not portrayed as people untouched by grief. Many of the most important Bible verses about sadness come from their stories:
In these Bible verses about sadness, notice how God responds. Elijah receives food, sleep, and a gentle voice before any correction. Hannah receives an answer. Job receives God’s presence. Scripture treats their sorrow with patience rather than scolding.
Isaiah 53 describes a Servant who is “despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” The New Testament applies this chapter to Jesus, and the Gospels confirm the description. He wept at Lazarus’s tomb, He wept over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), and in Gethsemane He said His soul was “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death.”
For Christians, this changes how Bible verses about sadness are read. God is not merely sympathetic from a distance. In Christ He entered human grief. Hebrews 4:15 says we have a high priest who can be “touched with the feeling of our infirmities.” The one who prays for the sorrowful has felt sorrow Himself, which is why the Gospels can be read as a deep source of comfort from a God who understands.
The tears at Lazarus’s tomb are especially instructive. Jesus knew He would raise His friend within minutes, yet He still wept. Knowing the ending did not cancel the grief of the moment. That pattern appears again and again in Bible verses about sadness throughout Scripture.
Paul makes an important distinction in 2 Corinthians 7:10. Godly sorrow “worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of,” while the sorrow of the world “worketh death.” Both are real sadness, but they lead in opposite directions.
Godly sorrow is grief over sin that turns a person back toward God. Peter’s bitter weeping after his denial is an example; it led to restoration by the Sea of Galilee. Worldly sorrow is regret that turns inward and has no hope of forgiveness. Many readers see Judas as a sad contrast, though Scripture says little about his inner state.
This distinction keeps Bible verses about sadness from being lumped together. Not every sorrow is caused by sin, and not every sorrow calls for repentance. Grief over a loss, for example, is not something to confess. But when sadness comes from wrongdoing, the Bible points to the grace that answers real guilt rather than endless self-punishment.
In 1 Thessalonians 4:13 Paul writes to believers who had lost loved ones. He does not tell them to stop grieving. He tells them not to sorrow “even as others which have no hope.” The difference is not whether Christians grieve but how. This is one of the key Bible verses about sadness for anyone who has lost someone they love.
The reason he gives is the resurrection. Because Jesus died and rose again, those who have died in Him will be raised. This is why many Bible verses about sadness in the New Testament sit right beside promises about the future. Jesus’ words in John 16 compare sorrow to childbirth: the pain is real, but it gives way to joy that “no man taketh from you.”
Christian traditions express this hope in different ways, from funeral liturgies to prayers for the departed, but they share the conviction that death does not have the final word. That conviction is the ground of biblical hope that looks beyond the grave.
A common misunderstanding is that sadness shows weak faith. Some quote “rejoice in the Lord always” (Philippians 4:4) as if it forbids tears. But the same Paul wrote that he had “great heaviness and continual sorrow” in his heart for his people (Romans 9:2). Joy and sorrow were not opposites in his experience.
Another misunderstanding treats Nehemiah 8:10, “the joy of the LORD is your strength,” as a command to stop feeling low. In context, the people were weeping after hearing the law read, and Nehemiah was urging them to celebrate a holy feast day. It was a specific occasion, not a rule that believers must never mourn.
Read carefully, Bible verses about sadness give permission to feel. Ecclesiastes says there is “a time to weep.” Jesus blesses those who mourn. Scripture corrects despair, bitterness, and hopelessness, but it never treats honest grief as sin.
Sadness enters the story early. After the fall, Genesis 3 speaks of sorrow in childbearing and in labor. Genesis 6:6 even says the LORD was “grieved” in His heart over human wickedness. From the start, sorrow is linked with a broken world, and God Himself is not indifferent to it.
The Old Testament then records many Bible verses about sadness in exile and loss, above all in the book of Lamentations, which mourns the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. Britannica’s overview of the book of Lamentations explains its acrostic structure, in which grief is arranged line by line through the Hebrew alphabet.
The New Testament brings the theme to its center in Christ, who bears sorrow on the cross, and its end in Revelation 21, where God wipes away every tear. Traced this way, Bible verses about sadness form a single storyline: sorrow enters with sin, God enters sorrow in Christ, and sorrow finally ends in the new creation.
The Bible rarely pictures a sad believer alone. Romans 12:15 calls the church to “weep with them that weep.” Galatians 6:2 tells Christians to bear one another’s burdens. Job’s friends did best in the first seven days, when they simply sat with him in silence (Job 2:13).
This communal side of Bible verses about sadness is easy to miss. Sorrow is meant to be carried by a people, not managed privately. The early church shared meals and possessions and prayed together, and James 5 tells the sick to call for the elders. Scripture assumes that grief is met by love shown through presence and care. Hebrews 3:13 calls believers to exhort one another daily, a theme gathered in our Bible passages on encouraging one another.
Prayer is a large part of this shared life. Paul asked churches to pray for him when he was burdened, and he prayed for them in return. The pattern of praying with and for the grieving is traced further in our collection of Scriptures that teach how to pray.
Some Bible verses about sadness describe true despair, such as Elijah under the juniper tree, and Scripture does not rush past them. God’s first response to Elijah was physical: sleep, food, and water. Many Christians see in that story a reminder that the body and mind matter to God.
Ordinary sadness sometimes becomes something heavier and longer lasting. Persistent low mood, loss of interest, sleep changes, or hopeless thoughts may be signs of depression, which the National Institute of Mental Health’s page on depression describes in detail. Seeking a doctor or counselor is not a lack of faith. Bible verses about sadness can bring real comfort, but they are not a substitute for care.
If you or someone you love is in crisis in the United States, you can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at any hour. Reaching out is a wise and courageous step.
The last word on sorrow in the Bible is not a coping strategy but a promise. Revelation 21:4 says God “shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying.” Isaiah 25:8 had already spoken of the Lord God wiping away tears from all faces.
This promise shapes how Christians read every other passage on grief. Present sorrow is real, but it is temporary. Psalm 30:5 captures the pattern: “weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” The night may be long, yet it has an end. Holding on to that promise requires the kind of trust in God’s faithful character that runs through the whole Bible.
In that sense, Bible verses about sadness always lean forward. They name the pain of the present while pointing toward the healing God has promised, both now in part and one day in full.
Bible verses about sadness do not ask anyone to pretend. They give words to grief, show God drawing near to the brokenhearted, and reveal a Savior who wept. They separate sorrow that heals from sorrow that destroys, and they point to a day when every tear will be wiped away.
As you keep studying Bible verses about sadness, you may find it helpful to explore Scriptures on the peace of God and passages on strength for weary days. May the God of all comfort meet you in whatever sorrow you carry.
Luke 22:61 has one of the quietest and hardest sentences in the Gospels. The rooster crowed, “And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter.” Peter had just sworn three times that he had never known the man. Then he walked out into the dark and, the next verse says, wept bitterly. Nothing in the text suggests he was crying for show. This was a grown fisherman, loud and confident a few hours earlier, undone by the sound of a bird.
What makes this sadness different from some others is that it was tied to a specific failure. Shame and grief sat together in him for three days. Yet the story does not end in the courtyard. In John 21 Jesus makes breakfast on the shore, a charcoal fire much like the one Peter stood beside when he denied him, and asks him three times whether he loves him. Each question gives him a chance to say the opposite of what he said before.
If your low mood has regret in it, this scene is worth sitting with. Regret that is honest does not need to be argued away or buried. Peter was not told to feel better. He was handed a job, “Feed my sheep,” and a restored place beside the others. Sorrow over what we did wrong can be one of the places where Christ meets us most personally.
On the afternoon of the first Easter, two followers of Jesus were walking home to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. A stranger joined them and asked what they were discussing. Luke 24:17 says they “stood still, looking sad.” I find that detail wonderfully true. Grief often makes people stop in the middle of a road as if their legs forgot what to do.
They told him everything: the arrest, the cross, the hope they had held that he was the one to redeem Israel, and the odd reports from the women that morning. They did not know they were talking to the risen Jesus. He did not wave away their sadness. He let them say it all, and then he began with Moses and the Prophets and explained what had been written about himself. It was not a quick fix. It was a slow walk, a conversation, and later a meal where they finally knew him in the breaking of bread.
Their own words afterward are telling. They asked each other whether their hearts had not burned within them while he talked on the road. Sadness had not disappeared during the walk, but something warm had started underneath it before they could name it. For those who are walking through a heavy week, that can be a realistic expectation: not instant relief, but company, honest talk and a Scripture read slowly enough to be heard.
John 20 places Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb while it is still early and dark. She did not have the confidence the other disciples would later show. All she knew was that the body of the one who had freed her from seven demons was gone, and she believed someone had carried it away. She stayed after Peter and John went home. The text says she stood outside the sepulchre weeping.
Look at the questions put to her. Two angels ask, “Woman, why weepest thou?” and then Jesus himself asks the same, adding whom she is looking for. She does not recognize him until he says her name, “Mary.” One word, spoken the way only he spoke it, turns her around. The first person to meet the risen Lord in the Gospel of John was a woman crying in a garden, and she was given the first message to carry to the rest.
There is gentle practical wisdom here. When we grieve, we often look in the wrong direction, toward what is missing or what we think should have been. The passage does not shame her for that. It simply shows that tears do not disqualify anyone from being found. If today is a weeping day, you are not further from him because of it. Be patient, keep showing up in the quiet places, and listen for the moment your own name is spoken.
Jeremiah preached for about forty years to people who rarely listened. He watched Jerusalem slide toward the Babylonian siege, and his own heart broke over it. In Jeremiah 9:1 he wishes that his head were waters and his eyes a fountain of tears, so that he could weep day and night for the slain of his people. That is not the voice of a man holding it all together. It is a pastor who loves a community that is going under.
The same book has some of his lowest private moments. In chapter 20 he curses the day he was born and complains that he was made a laughingstock. He felt that preaching for God had cost him every friendship. And yet he kept speaking. That mixture of heaviness and stubborn faithfulness may be the most honest picture of long-term sadness in the Old Testament.
Later, in what scholars call the Book of Consolation, the same prophet records a promise of a different day: “for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow” (Jeremiah 31:13). It was spoken to exiles who had every reason to doubt it. If you are in a long season rather than a short one, Jeremiah is good company. He shows that you can keep serving, keep praying and keep feeling the weight all at once, and that God is not offended by the combination. If the weight has lasted for weeks and affects sleep or eating, please also talk with a doctor or counselor.
Keep exploring with these related pages: Bible Verses For Sadness, Bible Verses About Faith, Bible Verses About Hope, Bible Verses About Love and Bible Verses About Strength.
For deeper study, Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools are all free to use.
Many readers turn first to Psalm 34:18, which says the LORD is near to the brokenhearted, and Psalm 147:3, which says He heals them. Matthew 5:4 and Revelation 21:4 are also widely loved. Among Bible verses about sadness, these stand out because they speak of God’s presence now and His promise for the future.
Yes. The Gospels say Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:35) and over Jerusalem (Luke 19:41). In Gethsemane He told His disciples His soul was “exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matthew 26:38). Isaiah 53:3 calls Him a man of sorrows. These are some of the most moving Bible verses about sadness in all of Scripture.
No. Scripture records the sorrow of faithful people without condemning it, and Jesus Himself grieved. Bible verses about sadness do warn against sorrow that turns to bitterness or despair, and Paul distinguishes godly sorrow from worldly sorrow, but grief itself is part of living in a fallen world.
Godly sorrow, described in 2 Corinthians 7:10, is grief over sin that leads a person to repent and return to God. It ends in restoration and peace. Worldly sorrow is regret without hope that turns inward and leads toward death.
Lamentations is devoted almost entirely to grief over the destruction of Jerusalem. Job explores suffering and loss at length, and many of the Psalms are laments. Together these books hold many of the deepest Bible verses about sadness.
