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47 Bible verses about caring for animals
Think about the Old Testament, how animal sacrifices were the norm. But even then, there are so many verses showing God pushing back against those sacrifices and calling for animal care. It really makes you think.
Proverbs 12:1010, for instance, says, "The righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel." That's powerful. God's word includes advocating for animals. It's right there in the Bible.
If you really dig into the prophets, you'll find tons of verses urging care for animals. Hosea 8:1313 puts it plainly: "They offer sacrifices of animals and eat the meat, but the Lord is not pleased with them. Now he will remember their wickedness and punish their sins." It's a good reminder that true worship goes beyond rituals and involves how we treat all of God's creation.
God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good.
See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?
To every animal of the earth, and to every bird of the sky, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food;” and it was so.
God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind;” and it was so.
God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them.
God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them. God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
A righteous man respects the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand. Noah began to be a farmer, and planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and got drunk. He was uncovered within his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it on both their shoulders, went in backwards, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were backwards, and they didn’t see their father’s nakedness. Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his youngest son had done to him. He said, “Canaan is cursed. He will be a servant of servants to his brothers.” He said, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth. Let him dwell in the tents of Shem. Let Canaan be his servant.” Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. All the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and then he died. Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As I gave you the green herb, I have given everything to you.
The LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don’t leave him. You shall surely help him with it.
The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. Dust will be the serpent’s food. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the LORD.
the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the chamois.
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
Know well the state of your flocks, and pay attention to your herds, for riches are not forever, nor does the crown endure to all generations. The hay is removed, and the new growth appears, the grasses of the hills are gathered in. The lambs are for your clothing, and the goats are the price of a field. There will be plenty of goats’ milk for your food, for your family’s food, and for the nourishment of your servant girls.
Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgements are like a great deep. LORD, you preserve man and animal.
Of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ship, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.
“Six days you shall do your work, and on the seventh day you shall rest, that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant, and the alien may be refreshed.
You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray and hide yourself from them. You shall surely bring them again to your brother. You shall not plough with an ox and a donkey together. You shall not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. You shall make yourselves fringes on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself. If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, hates her, accuses her of shameful things, gives her a bad name, and says, “I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn’t find in her the tokens of virginity;” then the young lady’s father and mother shall take and bring the tokens of the young lady’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. The young lady’s father shall tell the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her. Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, ‘I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;’ and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity.” They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him. They shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver, and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days. If your brother isn’t near to you, or if you don’t know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother comes looking for it, and you shall restore it to him. But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady, then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from amongst you. If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel. If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbour’s wife. So you shall remove the evil from amongst you. But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die; but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises against his neighbour and kills him, even so is this matter; for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was no one to save her. If a man finds a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, grabs her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady’s father fifty shekels of silver. She shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days. So you shall do with his donkey. So you shall do with his garment. So you shall do with every lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost and you have found. You may not hide yourself. A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt. You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him to lift them up again.
For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals, for all is vanity. a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again.
If you come across a bird’s nest on the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young. You shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.
If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don’t leave him. You shall surely help him with it.
The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them. The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play near a cobra’s hole, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.
“Aren’t two sparrows sold for an assarion coin? Not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.
He answered them, “Which of you, if your son or an ox fell into a well, wouldn’t immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?”
“Aren’t five sparrows sold for two assaria coins ? Not one of them is forgotten by God. But the very hairs of your head are all counted. Therefore don’t be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.
For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God.
Shouldn’t I be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many animals?”
LORD, how many are your works! In wisdom, you have made them all. The earth is full of your riches. There is the sea, great and wide, in which are innumerable living things, both small and large animals.
The LORD’s angel said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out as an adversary, because your way is perverse before me. The donkey saw me, and turned away before me these three times. Unless she had turned away from me, surely now I would have killed you, and saved her alive.”
So then, as we have opportunity, let’s do what is good towards all men, and especially towards those who are of the household of the faith.
that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
“Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns? Can you hold the wild ox in the furrow with his harness? Or will he till the valleys after you? Will you trust him, because his strength is great? Or will you leave to him your labour? Will you confide in him, that he will bring home your seed, and gather the grain of your threshing floor? “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly, but are they the feathers and plumage of love? For she leaves her eggs on the earth, warms them in the dust, and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild animal may trample them. She deals harshly with her young ones, as if they were not hers. Though her labour is in vain, she is without fear, because God has deprived her of wisdom, neither has he imparted to her understanding. When she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider. “Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane? Can you count the months that they fulfil? Or do you know the time when they give birth? Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome. He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men. He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword. The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin. He eats up the ground with fierceness and rage, neither does he stand still at the sound of the trumpet. As often as the trumpet sounds he snorts, ‘Aha!’ He smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting. “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings towards the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high? On the cliff he dwells and makes his home, on the point of the cliff and the stronghold. From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off. They bow themselves. They bear their young. They end their labour pains. His young ones also suck up blood. Where the slain are, there he is.” Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again.
You make him ruler over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet: All sheep and cattle, yes, and the animals of the field, the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.