These Bible verses for envy are for the days when someone else’s success, home or happiness stings more than it should. They turn the eyes from comparison toward contentment, reminding us that God is our portion and every good gift comes from him. Keep them close when envy rises, and let them teach your heart to rejoice with others.
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Hebrews 13:5 (KJV)
Be content with what you have, because God has promised never to leave or forsake you.
Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Philippians 4:11-13 (KJV)
Paul says he learned contentment in plenty and in want, finding strength in Christ for every circumstance.
But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
1 Timothy 6:6-8 (KJV)
Godliness with contentment is great gain, since we brought nothing into the world and can carry nothing out.
Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
Psalms 37:3-4 (KJV)
Trusting the Lord and delighting in him turns the heart away from comparison and toward him.
Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
Psalms 73:25-26 (KJV)
Asaph finds his cure for envy in realising that God himself is his strength and portion forever.
Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
Romans 12:15 (KJV)
Rejoicing with those who rejoice is a practical way to answer envy with love.
Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.
John 21:21-22 (KJV)
When Peter asks about John’s future, Jesus replies, what is that to thee? follow thou me.
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
Luke 12:15 (KJV)
Jesus warns against covetousness, reminding us that life is not measured by the abundance of possessions.
But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
Galatians 6:4 (KJV)
Paul encourages each person to test their own work rather than measure themselves against someone else.
For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves: but they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise.
2 Corinthians 10:12 (KJV)
Comparing ourselves with others, Paul notes, is not wise.
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
Philippians 2:3-4 (KJV)
Counting others better than ourselves and caring for their interests leaves little room for envy.
A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but envy the rottenness of the bones.
Proverbs 14:30 (KJV)
A sound heart is life to the body, a reminder that letting go of envy is good for us too.
The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
Psalms 16:5-6 (KJV)
David rejoices that the Lord is his portion and that his lines have fallen in pleasant places.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
James 1:17 (KJV)
Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father, so the blessings others enjoy are his gifts too.
Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
Matthew 6:31-33 (KJV)
Jesus calls us to stop anxious striving and seek God’s kingdom first, trusting him to provide.
And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.
1 Corinthians 12:26 (KJV)
In the body of Christ, when one member is honoured, all the members share the joy.
Envy often starts with a quick comparison: a post, a promotion, a friend’s good news. A helpful first step is to notice that moment and answer it with Scripture. Jesus’ words to Peter in John 21:22, what is that to thee? follow thou me, are a gentle way to bring your attention back to your own walk with God instead of someone else’s story.
Gratitude is another practical tool. Read Psalm 16:5-6 and then write down a few specific ways God has been good to you this week. Hebrews 13:5 and Philippians 4:11-13 remind us that contentment is learned over time, often through ordinary daily choices. You might also limit the things that feed constant comparison, such as time spent scrolling.
Finally, turn envy into blessing. Romans 12:15 asks us to rejoice with those who rejoice. When you feel envy toward a particular person, pray for them by name and thank God for the good he has given them. It may feel awkward at first, but praying this way steadily reshapes the heart and makes room for real joy in the gifts God gives to others.
Watching Leah bear son after son while she remained childless, Rachel envied her sister, and said unto Jacob, give me children, or else I die (Genesis 30:1). Among these Bible Verses For Envy, her story shows how envy can grow from a genuinely painful longing rather than shallow greed, which makes it no less corrosive to a marriage or a heart over time.
Jacob’s frustrated response, am I in God’s stead, exposed how envy often demands from people what only God can actually give. These Bible Verses For Envy take Rachel’s pain seriously while still noting that her envy, however understandable, could not shorten her wait or soften the tension it created at home.
When wise men came asking where the King of the Jews had been born, Herod was troubled, and secretly plotted to destroy the child, eventually ordering the deaths of the young boys in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:3-16). His envy of a throne he already occupied led to horrifying cruelty against people who threatened nothing but his own insecurity.
These Bible Verses For Envy include Herod’s story as an extreme but instructive warning. Envy over position or power, left completely unchecked, can drive a person to justify almost anything in the name of protecting what already actually belongs to them.
Absalom rose early and stood by the gate, quietly telling each visitor that if he were judge, they would surely receive justice, so he stole the hearts of the men of Israel away from his own father David (2 Samuel 15:2-6). His envy for the throne worked patiently, through flattery, rather than through any sudden or dramatic outburst.
These Bible Verses For Envy note how his envy disguised itself as concern for justice, a pattern envy often follows when it wants to look noble rather than petty or self-serving to the people watching.
Lord, I keep noticing what other people have and quietly wishing it were mine instead of thanking You for what You have already given me. These Bible Verses For Envy remind me that Rachel’s envy and Herod’s envy both grew from a refusal to trust Your timing and Your provision.
Help me trade comparison for gratitude today, even in the small, ordinary moments where envy likes to creep in unnoticed. Let these verses about envy retrain my heart toward contentment rather than quiet resentment of someone else’s blessing. Amen.
Confronting envy honestly usually works better than pretending it does not exist. These Bible Verses For Envy suggest a few practical, repeatable steps.
These steps rarely erase envy overnight, but consistent practice weakens its hold considerably over the following weeks and months.
These Bible Verses For Envy work well read slowly across a full week, one passage each morning before the day begins in earnest.
By the end of the week, envy often feels less automatic and easier to notice the moment it appears.
A few honest questions, paired with these Bible Verses For Envy, can help locate exactly what a season of envy is actually about underneath the surface.
Writing honest answers, rather than only turning the questions over in your mind, often reveals more than another verse read quickly in passing.
James traces conflict directly back to internal desire, writing, ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain, then adding, ye have not, because ye ask not (James 4:1-2). Envy, in his analysis, often substitutes comparison for the simple, direct act of asking God.
These Bible Verses For Envy take this diagnosis seriously: much of what envy chases could instead be brought honestly to God in prayer, rather than resented quietly in someone else’s hands where it currently happens to rest.
Paul told the Corinthian church that their envying and strife proved they were yet carnal, and walked as mere men rather than as people transformed by the Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:3). Envy, in his view, marked a lack of spiritual growth rather than a harmless personality trait.
These Bible Verses For Envy treat this diagnosis as an invitation rather than an insult. Recognizing envy as immaturity, rather than an unavoidable fact of life, opens the door to genuine growth through the Spirit’s ongoing work in an honest heart.
Someone caught in a long cycle of envy usually needs patient companionship more than repeated correction about their attitude. Sharing one of these Bible Verses For Envy gently, alongside genuine interest in their own unmet longing, tends to open more honest conversation than pointing out the envy directly.
Jacob’s honest question to Rachel, am I in God’s stead, models redirecting envy toward its true source without dismissing the real pain underneath it. Offering that same gentle redirection to a struggling friend often helps more than simple correction ever could.
Absalom’s envy dressed itself up as concern for justice, a pattern that still shows up today whenever criticism of someone successful conveniently lines up with resentment of their success. Genuine concern and envy can look remarkably similar from the outside, especially when the envious party genuinely believes their own complaint.
These Bible Verses For Envy call for honest self-examination whenever criticism of someone else’s position or blessing arises, checking whether the concern would exist at all if envy were not quietly present underneath it.
Rachel’s envy affected her marriage, Herod’s affected an entire region’s children, and Absalom’s affected a nation’s stability for years. Envy that begins in one small, private area of life rarely stays confined there; it tends to spread into decisions, relationships, and eventually actions that affect far more people than the envious person alone.
These Bible Verses For Envy suggest addressing envy early and specifically, before it has the chance to reshape decisions in areas that seem, at first, completely unrelated to the original comparison.
Genuine contentment rarely comes from simply trying harder not to envy; it grows from trusting that God’s timing and provision are genuinely trustworthy, even when someone else’s portion currently looks larger, easier, or more secure by comparison.
These Bible Verses For Envy point repeatedly toward trust as the real antidote, not gritted-teeth suppression of an uncomfortable feeling. Rachel eventually did bear children in God’s timing, a reminder that waiting, however painful, is not the same thing as being forgotten or overlooked.
Envy rarely disappears in a single decisive moment; it usually loosens its grip gradually, through repeated choices to trust God rather than compare, and through consistent gratitude practiced even on ordinary days when nothing particularly good has happened yet.
These Bible Verses For Envy close with that same steady invitation extended to Rachel, to Herod, and to every reader since: bring the comparison honestly to God today, and trust that contentment, even if it takes years to fully settle, remains genuinely possible with His continued help.
Saul’s habit of watching David’s every move, looking for reasons to justify his growing envy, eventually consumed years that could have been spent governing well instead (1 Samuel 18:9, 29). Envy has a way of narrowing focus until the envied person occupies far more attention than they actually deserve.
These Bible Verses For Envy suggest a practical test: if thoughts about someone else’s success occupy an outsized share of daily attention, envy has likely already taken root and deserves honest, prayerful examination rather than continued watching.
In Numbers 11 the Spirit rests on seventy elders, and two of them, Eldad and Medad, begin to prophesy in the camp instead of at the tent. A young man runs to tell Moses. Joshua, who has served Moses since boyhood, says what many loyal people have felt: My lord Moses, forbid them. His reaction looks like loyalty. Look closer and it is protectiveness mixed with a bruised sense of rank.
Moses laughs it off in the gentlest way. Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the Lord’s people were prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them! (Numbers 11:29). Here is a leader who has every reason to guard his position and wants the opposite. He is not threatened by gifts landing on other people. He wishes there were more of them.
Most of us meet a smaller version of this at work or at church. Someone you did not train, did not approve, and did not expect begins to do well at the thing you thought was yours. Before you step in to correct them, ask whose reputation you are really defending. Moses asked that question without hurry, and the camp stayed whole because he did.
Philippians 1 was written from chains, and Paul admits that some people were preaching Christ out of envy and strife, thinking to add affliction to his bonds (Philippians 1:15-17). Picture it. He sits under guard while other teachers use the open door he helped build, and they are doing it partly to sting him. Anyone would be tempted to answer sharply.
His response is startling. What then? notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice (Philippians 1:18). He does not pretend the motives were pure. He simply refuses to let another person’s envy become his own. He keeps his eyes on what is happening to the message, not on who gets the credit.
This scene helps in two directions. If you are on the receiving end of someone’s resentment, you can see a way to stay steady without a counterattack. And if you suspect that your own heart is quietly keeping score in some ministry or workplace, the passage shows what it looks like to set the scoreboard down. Both take a daily choice rather than a single grand decision.
Luke 10:38-42 is an ordinary domestic scene. Jesus visits a house in Bethany. Martha is carrying the whole meal, plates, bread, a crowded room, while her sister Mary sits listening. Martha’s words to Jesus are telling: Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. The complaint is aimed at Mary, but she hands it to Jesus.
Notice what he says. Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful (Luke 10:41-42). He names the real trouble, which is distraction and a heart pulled in many directions, not Mary’s choice. He is also kind. He says her name twice, the way you would speak to someone you love who is worn thin.
Envy sometimes grows from tiredness. When you carry heavy loads and watch someone else seem to float, resentment looks reasonable. The passage does not tell Martha to stop serving. It invites her to sit down first. If your own comparison comes from exhaustion, the fix may begin with rest and a hard conversation about the load, not a sterner lecture to yourself.
Acts gives us a living picture of the opposite spirit. Barnabas, whose name means son of consolation, sells a field and lays the money at the apostles’ feet (Acts 4:36-37). Later he goes to Tarsus to find Saul, the former persecutor whom most believers still feared, and brings him to Antioch (Acts 11:25-26). Before long the order of names changes: Paul and his company, rather than Barnabas and Saul.
Think about what that must have cost. Barnabas introduced the man who then eclipsed him. Nothing in the record suggests he sulked. Luke simply calls him a good man, full of the Holy Ghost and of faith (Acts 11:24). People like that are rarer than we admit, and they usually learned the habit slowly.
You can practise this on a small scale this week. When a colleague or friend gets good news, say a warm word before your mind has time to measure it against your own situation. Pray for one specific thing for them. The first few attempts feel stiff. Over months, a pattern of making room for others loosens envy in a way that willpower alone never quite manages.
Not every pang of envy is a small character flaw to be corrected with a verse and a sigh. Sometimes it sits on top of real loss: a long wait for a child, a career that stalled, a marriage that ended while friends’ lives moved on. Scripture does not hurry such people. The psalmists complain, sometimes bitterly, and God keeps their words in the book.
If the ache has lasted months, or if it comes with sleeplessness, a heavy sadness or thoughts that frighten you, talk with a doctor, a counsellor or a pastor you trust, and do not carry it alone. Prayer and Scripture sit alongside that help, not in place of it. Ask someone to sit with you while you read a passage aloud, and tell them honestly which part of it you cannot yet believe. That honesty is a better starting point than a forced smile.
Then be patient with the pace. Habits of comparison took years to form, and they ease the same way, one small turning at a time, with plenty of days that feel like a step back.
Nearby topics worth a look: Bible Verses About New Beginnings, Bible Verses For Dating, Bible Verses For Forgiving Yourself, Bible Verses About Healing the Sick, Bible Verses About Healing and Strength, Bible Verses About Peace in the Storm, Bible Verses For Family Unity, Bible Verses For Peace and Fear, Bible Verses About Relationships and Love, Bible Verses About Obedience and Bible Verses For God's Faithfulness.
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Envy often starts with a quick comparison: a post, a promotion, a friend's good news. A helpful first step is to notice that moment and answer it with Scripture.
This page brings together 15 King James Version references about envy, drawn from 13 different books of the Bible.
Beyond the references highlighted on this page, envy appears throughout Scripture in books such as John, Psalm, Hebrews, Philippians, Romans; this collection focuses on some of the clearest examples.
These envy verses are drawn from books including John, Psalm, Hebrews, Philippians, Romans, among others.
Yes. The verses about envy gathered here include passages from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, such as Psalm 16:5 and John 21:22.
