These Bible Verses For Sadness are for the days when your heart feels heavy and words for prayer are hard to find. Scripture does not scold sorrow; it gives you psalms that cry out honestly and promises that God stays near. Read them slowly, pray one back to him, and let his comfort meet you where you are.
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)
Asking his own soul why it is cast down, the psalmist turns honest sadness toward hope in God, a pattern for prayer on heavy days.
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 near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit, so sadness never pushes him away.
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Matthew 5:4 (KJV)
Jesus calls those who mourn blessed because comfort is promised to them, giving sorrow an ending.
For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.
Psalms 30:5 (KJV)
Weeping may stay for a night, but joy comes in the morning, a reminder that sad seasons do pass.
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 16:22 (KJV)
Speaking to grieving disciples, Jesus promises their sorrow will become a joy that no one can take from them.
He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.
Psalms 147:3 (KJV)
Here the Lord is pictured as a gentle healer who binds up broken hearts and their wounds.
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? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.
Psalms 13:1-6 (KJV)
David moves from asking how long God will hide his face to trusting in his mercy, showing that sad prayers can end in song.
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Isaiah 41:10 (KJV)
When you feel low and weak, God tells you not to fear, promising to strengthen, help and uphold you.
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:28-30 (KJV)
Jesus invites everyone weary and heavy laden to come to him and find rest for their souls.
Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.
1 Peter 5:7 (KJV)
You may cast every care on God because he truly cares for you.
Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.
Psalms 55:22 (KJV)
Hand your burden to the Lord, and he promises to sustain you under its weight.
Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit. Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.
Psalms 143:7-8 (KJV)
A prayer for when the spirit fails, asking to hear God’s lovingkindness in the morning.
Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the Lord is your strength.
Nehemiah 8:10 (KJV)
Told to stop weeping, the people learn that the joy of the Lord is their strength.
They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Psalms 126:5-6 (KJV)
Those who sow in tears will reap in joy, a picture of sorrow giving way to gladness.
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
Romans 15:13 (KJV)
Paul prays that the God of hope will fill believers with joy and peace as they trust him.
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)
One day God will wipe away every tear, and sorrow and crying will be gone for good.
Sadness often makes prayer feel difficult, so start small. Choose one verse, such as Psalms 34:18, and read it aloud in the morning and again before bed. Turning a verse into your own words, like ‘Lord, you are near to me today’, helps it move from the page into your heart. Psalms such as Psalm 42 and Psalm 13 give you permission to tell God exactly how you feel before you speak of hope.
Writing a verse on a card for your pocket or on your phone keeps it within reach during hard moments. Some people keep a simple notebook, recording a verse, what they felt that day, and one small thing they are thankful for. Over the weeks, those pages often show how God carried them through days that once felt endless.
You do not have to carry sadness alone. Share a verse with a trusted friend, a pastor, or your church and let them pray with you, as Galatians 6:2 encourages believers to bear one another’s burdens. If sadness lingers for weeks or begins to affect your sleep, work, or appetite, please reach out to a doctor or counselor as well; seeking help is a wise and faithful step.
Psalm 30:5 is worth reading during a genuinely sad night, as an honest acknowledgment paired with hope for morning.
Bible Verses About Stress and Bible Verses About Gratitude pick up threads that run through these verses.
The verses on this page come from the King James Version; the complete text is freely available at Blue Letter Bible.
Bible Verses About Peace and Bible Verses For Gratitude and Thankfulness explore related themes.
This subject overlaps with Bible Verses For Strength and Courage and with Bible Verses For Prayer in Difficult Times.
If you want to keep reading, Bible Verses For Growing in Faith and Bible Verses For Loving Your Enemies sit close to this topic.
Two nearby collections worth opening next are Bible Verses For Grief and Bible Verses About Grief.
To see how other translations render these lines, look them up on Bible Gateway.
For word studies and cross-references, Bible Hub is a helpful next step.
Return to this verse as often as sadness returns, and allow yourself to feel it honestly rather than rushing past it.
These verses were never meant to sit on a page as decoration \u2014 they’re meant to shape how you actually respond the next time you’re trying to function normally while carrying something that isn’t light.
You don’t need polished or formal language for it \u2014 an honest, plainly worded sentence is enough, something as simple as telling God directly for permission to feel it without rushing past it.
When Jesus arrived four days after Lazarus had died, He found Mary weeping and the mourners around her weeping too, and Scripture records simply that Jesus groaned in the spirit and was troubled, then wept openly Himself. He knew He was about to raise Lazarus from the dead only minutes later, yet He still wept at the tomb alongside the grieving family. Bible verses for sadness include this short, famous verse, proof that sorrow was not something Jesus considered beneath Him even when He already knew the outcome.
The crowd around Him noticed and said, behold how he loved him, reading His tears correctly as love rather than despair. These bible verses for sadness show that weeping with people in their grief is itself a legitimate, godly response, not a failure of faith or hope.
After his own son Absalom was killed while leading a rebellion against him, David was deeply moved and went up to a chamber over the gate to weep, crying out, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God I had died for thee. His grief was so overwhelming that his victorious army had to be told to enter the city quietly, as though they had been defeated, out of respect for the king’s visible sorrow. Bible verses for sadness include this raw, repeated cry from a father mourning a son who had also been his enemy.
David’s advisor Joab eventually had to confront him, warning that his continued public grief was demoralizing the very soldiers who had just risked their lives for him. These bible verses for sadness show that grief can be so consuming it needs to be balanced with the responsibilities still waiting outside the room.
Rachel died in hard labor on the way to Bethlehem, and with her last breath she named her newborn son Ben-oni, meaning son of my sorrow, before Jacob later renamed him Benjamin. Her death came after years of longing for children and watching her sister Leah have many sons first, making this final moment especially heavy with unresolved longing. Bible verses for sadness include this raw naming, a mother’s last recorded words shaping her son’s identity around her own grief rather than around hope.
Jacob buried her on the way to Bethlehem and set up a pillar there, a grief so significant it is mentioned specifically even generations later in the story of Israel. This kind of sorrow can be significant enough to be remembered and honored for a very long time afterward.
After seven days of silent mourning with his friends, Job finally spoke, and his first words were a curse on the day he was born, wishing that day had never existed at all. He asked why he had not died at birth, or why light had ever been given to someone so miserable, wishing for death more than for hidden treasure. Bible verses for sadness include this extended, unfiltered lament, showing that even the most patient man in Scripture had moments of wishing he had never been born.
God never rebuked Job for this outburst; the rebuke, when it came many chapters later, addressed entirely different questions. These bible verses for sadness show that even the deepest, darkest words spoken honestly to God are treated with patience rather than immediate correction.
Lord, like Jesus weeping at that tomb, David crying out for his son, Rachel naming her son sorrow, and Job cursing the day of his birth, I bring You my own sadness today without pretending it is smaller than it actually feels.
Thank You for these bible verses for sadness that show me sorrow is not the opposite of faith. Sit with me the way You sat with Mary and Martha, and give me strength for what still waits outside this room. In Jesus’ name, amen.
These seven passages move between a Savior weeping at a friend’s tomb, a father crying out for his son, a mother’s final words, and an honest lament from the book of Job.
Notice that Jesus wept even knowing a miracle was only minutes away, while David, Rachel, and Job each faced sorrow with no visible resolution ahead of them. These accounts cover both kinds of sorrow, the kind with a quick resolution ahead and the kind that simply has to be carried for a while.
These questions work best sat with slowly, the way Jesus paused fully at the tomb before doing anything else.
Consider answering just one of these four questions honestly today rather than pushing past all of them quickly.
Many people assume bible verses for sadness mean strong faith should prevent deep sorrow, and then feel guilty for crying over something they believe should not affect them this much. Jesus wept at Lazarus’s tomb while fully knowing the resurrection was only moments away, and Job’s honest lament was never rebuked as sinful.
Sadness in Scripture is treated as a normal, even holy, human response rather than a sign of weak trust. These bible verses for sadness describe God’s own Son weeping openly, which settles the question of whether sorrow and faith can exist in the same moment.
Jesus’ sadness at the tomb was brief and led quickly into action, while David’s grief over Absalom lingered long enough that it began to affect the people depending on him for leadership.
If your own sadness has stretched on for a long time, these bible verses for sadness were written about a king who also needed a trusted friend to gently point out when grief was starting to affect more than just himself, which is not a criticism of grief itself but a caring word about balance.
On a sad day, try letting yourself weep fully for a few minutes rather than pushing the feeling down, the way Jesus wept openly in front of a crowd of mourners.
Keep one of these bible verses for sadness somewhere you will read it during the part of the day when sorrow tends to feel heaviest, whether that is early morning, the quiet after everyone else has gone to bed, or a specific anniversary that reliably brings grief back.
Whether your sadness looks more like Jesus weeping briefly at a tomb, David’s long grief over a lost son, or Job’s honest lament, these bible verses for sadness are meant to be returned to on every heavy day, not read only once when things feel lighter.
For more encouragement, see Bible Verses About Sadness and Bible Verses For Grief.
When Naomi came back to Bethlehem after about ten years in Moab, the whole town buzzed. Was this really her? She had left with a husband and two sons and returned with neither, only a daughter-in-law from a foreign country. Ruth 1:20 records what she said: “Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” Naomi means pleasant. Mara means bitter. She was rewriting her own name to match her heart.
Nobody in the story corrects her. There is no neighbor with a tidy answer, and the narrator lets her speech stand. She says she went out full and came home empty, though Ruth was standing right beside her. That is how sadness often talks. It is honest about the loss and blind to what is still in the room.
The rest of the book of Ruth quietly proves her partly wrong without scolding her. A field of barley, a kind landowner named Boaz and finally a grandson placed in her arms shift the story. The women say he will be a restorer of her life. I would not turn this into a promise that every loss gets repaid. Some do not. But if you are speaking about yourself in the harshest terms today, Naomi shows it is permitted to say it aloud, and that people who stay beside you may be carrying more of the answer than you can see.
Nehemiah worked as cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes, a post that meant daily proximity to power and a constant need to look pleasant. Then a relative arrived from Judah with news that the walls of Jerusalem lay broken and the survivors were in trouble. Nehemiah 1:4 says he sat down and wept, mourned for days, fasted and prayed. Months later he was serving wine when the king noticed something was off.
In Nehemiah 2:1 he writes that he had never been sad in the king’s presence before, and that the king said, “Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? this is nothing else but sorrow of heart.” Nehemiah admits he was very afraid. Showing grief in front of a Persian monarch could cost a man his head. Yet that exposed moment became the opening for his request, and the king sent him home with letters and timber.
Two things stand out. His sadness was tied to something bigger than his own comfort, and it did not stay a private mood. It pushed him to pray first and then to act. Not every sorrow turns into a building project, and it should not have to. But when a heavy heart keeps returning to a particular need, it can be worth asking God whether it is also an assignment. Sometimes the ache is the first part of the calling.
Isaiah told King Hezekiah in plain words to set his house in order because he was going to die. Second Kings 20 and Isaiah 38 tell what happened next. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall, prayed, and wept sore. A king in his prime, with an unfinished reign and no heir yet, had just been told to prepare to leave everything behind.
His prayer is short and a little raw. He reminds God that he had walked before him in truth and with a whole heart. Before Isaiah had left the middle court, God sent him back with a message: “I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee” (2 Kings 20:5). Notice that tears are named alongside the prayer. They were treated as part of what Hezekiah brought, not something to be tidied up first.
We should be careful with this story. It records one king’s healing, and it does not promise that every person who weeps and prays will be given the answer he got. Still, it shows how God regards crying. He sees it. He remembers it. If you are sad over a health scare, a hospital hallway or a diagnosis, pray with the honesty Hezekiah used, and lean on the doctors and people around you as well. The God who counted his tears is not disturbed by yours.
Paul gave the Corinthians a list of the hardships that came with serving Christ: beatings, sleepless nights, hunger, dishonor. Then he summed up the experience in a few phrases that sound like riddles. In 2 Corinthians 6:10 he says they were “as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.” He did not pretend to be cheerful. He said sorrowful first.
The little word “yet” does a lot of work. It lets two true things sit in the same sentence without one canceling the other. Many people feel pressure, from church or from themselves, to pick a side: either you trust God and are glad, or you are sad and therefore faithless. Paul refuses that choice. His joy was not the absence of heaviness, and his heaviness did not erase his confidence.
In Philippians 2:27 he even writes about a friend, Epaphroditus, who had been so ill that he nearly died, and says God had mercy on him and on Paul, “lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow.” The great apostle admits that another loss on top of what he already carried would have been too much. Take permission from that. If you are sad and also thankful for some small mercy today, you are not contradicting yourself. You are living in the same tension Paul described, and he was a man who knew what he was talking about.
Other collections you may find useful: Bible Verses About Sadness, Bible Verses About Faith, Bible Verses About Hope, Bible Verses About Love and Bible Verses About Strength.
To study these verses in more depth, try Bible Gateway, Bible Hub and Bible Study Tools.
Sadness often makes prayer feel difficult, so start small. Choose one verse, such as Psalms 34:18, and read it aloud in the morning and again before bed.
This page brings together 10 King James Version references about sadness, drawn from 8 different books of the Bible.
Yes. The verses about sadness gathered here include passages from both the Old Testament and the New Testament, such as Psalms 34:18 and Galatians 6:2.
Psalms 34:18 is one of the verses about sadness referenced in this collection, alongside Galatians 6:2.
Yes, the verses referenced on this page, including Psalms 34:18, are quoted according to the King James Version (KJV), and are suitable for daily reading, memorization, or devotional use.
