Category
VERSES ABOUT NATURE
Think about this: God created everything. The earth, the sky, the whole world—it all belongs to Him. He made it all, just like Exodus 20:11 says: "For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it." He created it all perfectly, and He deserves all the praise for the amazing things He's done.
You know, we should really stand in awe of God and give Him glory. The time is coming when He will judge the world, so let's worship the One who made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and the springs of water.
When you're out enjoying nature – at the beach, in the mountains, or just looking at a beautiful tree – remember who made it all so beautiful and perfect. Let's give God all the glory He deserves.
Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.”
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth,
Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
When you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden and you would hold back from setting it free, you must help to set it free.
Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your judgments are like the great deep; you save humans and animals alike, O Lord.
But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.Without having any chief or officer or ruler,it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest.
Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten in God's sight.
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety.
And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”
If you come on a bird's nest, in any tree or on the ground, with fledglings or eggs, with the mother sitting on the fledglings or on the eggs, you shall not take the mother with the young.Let the mother go, taking only the young for yourself, in order that it may go well with you and you may live long.
Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest, so that your ox and your donkey may have relief, and your homeborn slave and the resident alien may be refreshed.
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.
for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.
Who provides for the raven its prey, when its young ones cry to God, and wander about for lack of food?
but the seventh year you shall let it rest and lie fallow, so that the poor of your people may eat; and what they leave the wild animals may eat. You shall do the same with your vineyard, and with your olive orchard.
You shall not eat anything that dies of itself; you may give it to aliens residing in your towns for them to eat, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. You shall not boil a kid in its mother's milk.
For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills.I know all the birds of the air, and all that moves in the field is mine.
He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.
You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
But you shall not slaughter, from the herd or the flock, an animal with its young on the same day.
Then he said to them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that has fallen into a well, will you not immediately pull it out on a sabbath day?”
The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,
He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
For it is written in the law of Moses, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.” Is it for oxen that God is concerned?
Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you; your burnt offerings are continually before me.I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds.
For the fate of humans and the fate of animals is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and humans have no advantage over the animals; for all is vanity.
There shall the owl nest and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow; there too the buzzards shall gather, each one with its mate.
He said to them, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep and it falls into a pit on the sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out?How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the sabbath.”
He covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills.
The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
If someone leaves a pit open, or digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it,the owner of the pit shall make restitution, giving money to its owner, but keeping the dead animal.
I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel.
So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
I will fling you into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your channels; you shall fall in the open field, and not be gathered and buried. To the animals of the earth and to the birds of the air I have given you as food.
They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
How precious is your steadfast love, O God! All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the air?’
but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided;
The angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? I have come out as an adversary, because your way is perverse before me.The donkey saw me, and turned away from me these three times. If it had not turned away from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let it live.”
And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose.Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive.
You shall not see your neighbor's donkey or ox fallen on the road and ignore it; you shall help to lift it up.
You shall do the same with your oxen and with your sheep: seven days it shall remain with its mother; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.
He covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills.He gives to the animals their food, and to the young ravens when they cry.
Speak to the people of Israel, saying: From among all the land animals, these are the creatures that you may eat.All winged insects that walk upon all fours are detestable to you.But among the winged insects that walk on all fours you may eat those that have jointed legs above their feet, with which to leap on the ground.Of them you may eat: the locust according to its kind, the bald locust according to its kind, the cricket according to its kind, and the grasshopper according to its kind.But all other winged insects that have four feet are detestable to you.By these you shall become unclean; whoever touches the carcass of any of them shall be unclean until the evening,and whoever carries any part of the carcass of any of them shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening.Every animal that has divided hoofs but is not cleft-footed or does not chew the cud is unclean for you; everyone who touches one of them shall be unclean.All that walk on their paws, among the animals that walk on all fours, are unclean for you; whoever touches the carcass of any of them shall be unclean until the evening,and the one who carries the carcass shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening; they are unclean for you.These are unclean for you among the creatures that swarm upon the earth: the weasel, the mouse, the great lizard according to its kind,Any animal that has divided hoofs and is cleft-footed and chews the cud—such you may eat.
You shall not watch your neighbor's ox or sheep straying away and ignore them; you shall take them back to their owner.
Four things on earth are small, yet they are exceedingly wise:the ants are a people without strength, yet they provide their food in the summer;
Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate;the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings;everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died.He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days.and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth.
you shall set apart to the Lord all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your livestock that are males shall be the Lord's.
But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.
And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you; and just as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything.Only, you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.
“Do you give the horse its might? Do you clothe its neck with mane?Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth,Do you make it leap like the locust? Its majestic snorting is terrible.It paws violently, exults mightily; it goes out to meet the weapons.It laughs at fear, and is not dismayed; it does not turn back from the sword.Upon it rattle the quiver, the flashing spear, and the javelin.With fierceness and rage it swallows the ground; it cannot stand still at the sound of the trumpet.When the trumpet sounds, it says ‘Aha!’ From a distance it smells the battle, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
You shall keep my statutes. You shall not let your animals breed with a different kind; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials.
Three things are stately in their stride; four are stately in their gait:I have not learned wisdom, nor have I knowledge of the holy ones. the lion, which is mightiest among wild animals and does not turn back before any;the strutting rooster, the he-goat, and a king striding before his people.
Who knows whether the human spirit goes upward and the spirit of animals goes downward to the earth?
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the earth of every kind.” And it was so.
For the life of every creature—its blood is its life; therefore I have said to the people of Israel: You shall not eat the blood of any creature, for the life of every creature is its blood; whoever eats it shall be cut off.
Whoever slaughters an ox is like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck; whoever presents a grain offering, like one who offers swine's blood; whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense, like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and in their abominations they take delight;
“But ask the animals, and they will teach you; the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth,and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
“The ostrich's wings flap wildly, though its pinions lack plumage. For it leaves its eggs to the earth, and lets them be warmed on the ground,forgetting that a foot may crush them, and that a wild animal may trample them.It deals cruelly with its young, as if they were not its own; though its labor should be in vain, yet it has no fear;because God has made it forget wisdom, and given it no share in understanding.When it spreads its plumes aloft, it laughs at the horse and its rider.
By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches.
Like cattle that go down into the valley, the spirit of the Lord gave them rest. Thus you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name.