92 Bible Verses on the Soul

When the soul is used referred to in Scripture it denotes the inner being and essence of a person and is often used to give insight to one’s innermost emotions and desires. Scripture is clear that things can be damaging or healing to your soul, and warns followers of God to look after their souls especially by way of dwelling on God’s word.

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What Does the Bible Say About the Soul?

Old Testament

Genesis 27:3–4
Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me, and prepare for me delicious food, such as I love, and bring it to me so that I may eat, that my soul may bless you before I die.”

Genesis 35:18
And as her soul was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-oni; but his father called him Benjamin.

Exodus 31:14
You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death. Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people.

Leviticus 17:11
For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood that makes atonement by the life.

Leviticus 26:11–12
I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.

Leviticus 26:15–16
if you spurn my statutes, and if your soul abhors my rules, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant, then I will do this to you: I will visit you with panic, with wasting disease and fever that consume the eyes and make the heart ache. And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.

Deuteronomy 4:9
“Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—”

Deuteronomy 4:29
But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 6:5
You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

Deuteronomy 10:12
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,”

Deuteronomy 30:9b–10
For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Joshua 23:14
“And now I am about to go the way of all the earth, and you know in your hearts and souls, all of you, that not one word has failed of all the good things that the LORD your God promised concerning you. All have come to pass for you; not one of them has failed.”

1 Samuel 1:15
But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD.”

1 Samuel 18:1
As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.

2 Kings 23:3
And the king stood by the pillar and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people joined in the covenant.

Job 3:20
“Why is light given to him who is in misery,
and life to the bitter in soul,”

Psalm 6:3
My soul also is greatly troubled.
But you, O LORD—how long?

Psalm 11:5
The LORD tests the righteous,
but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

Psalm 16:10
For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
or let your holy one see corruption.

Psalm 19:7
The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the LORD is sure,
making wise the simple;

Psalm 23:3
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

Psalm 25:1
To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul.

Psalm 31:7
I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love,
because you have seen my affliction;
you have known the distress of my soul,

Psalm 49:15
But God will ransom my soul from the power of Sheol,
for he will receive me. Selah

Psalm 103:1
Bless the LORD, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!

Psalm 107:9
For he satisfies the longing soul,
and the hungry soul he fills with good things.

Psalm 130:5
I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,
and in his word I hope;

Psalm 139:14
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.

Proverbs 2:10
for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;

Proverbs 11:30
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
and whoever captures souls is wise.

Proverbs 13:4
The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing,
while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied.

Proverbs 16:24
Gracious words are like a honeycomb,
sweetness to the soul and health to the body.

Proverbs 19:8
Whoever gets sense loves his own soul;
he who keeps understanding will discover good.

Proverbs 24:12
If you say, “Behold, we did not know this,”
does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it,
and will he not repay man according to his work?

Ecclesiastes 6:3
If a man fathers a hundred children and lives many years, so that the days of his years are many, but his soul is not satisfied with life’s good things, and he also has no burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

Song of Solomon 1:7
Tell me, you whom my soul loves,
where you pasture your flock,
where you make it lie down at noon;
for why should I be like one who veils herself
beside the flocks of your companions?

Isaiah 1:14
Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.

Isaiah 10:18
The glory of his forest and of his fruitful land
the LORD will destroy, both soul and body,
and it will be as when a sick man wastes away.

Isaiah 26:8
In the path of your judgments,
O LORD, we wait for you;
your name and remembrance
are the desire of our soul.

Isaiah 42:1
Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him;
he will bring forth justice to the nations.

Isaiah 53:10–12
Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.

Isaiah 55:3
Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.

Jeremiah 6:16
Thus says the LORD:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
and find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Jeremiah 12:7
“I have forsaken my house;
I have abandoned my heritage;
I have given the beloved of my soul
into the hands of her enemies.

Jeremiah 31:14
I will feast the soul of the priests with abundance,
and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness,
declares the LORD.”

Jeremiah 31:25
“For I will satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

Jeremiah 38:16
Then King Zedekiah swore secretly to Jeremiah, “As the LORD lives, who made our souls, I will not put you to death or deliver you into the hand of these men who seek your life.”

Lamentations 3:17
my soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;

Ezekiel 18:4
Behold, all souls are mine; the soul of the father as well as the soul of the son is mine: the soul who sins shall die.

Ezekiel 33:9
But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

New Testament

Matthew 10:28
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 11:29
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Matthew 12:18
“Behold, my servant whom I have chosen,
my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.
I will put my Spirit upon him,
and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles.

Matthew 16:26
For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?

Matthew 22:37
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Matthew 26:38
Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”

Luke 1:46–47
And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

Luke 12:16–17a, 19­–21
And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself.. ‘I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

John 12:27
“Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour.

Acts 2:27
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades,
or let your Holy One see corruption.

Acts 2:41
So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls.

Acts 2:43
And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

Acts 14:21–22
When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

2 Corinthians 12:15
I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

2 Corinthians 12:15
I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

Hebrews 6:19–20
We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 10:38–39
“but my righteous one shall live by faith,
and if he shrinks back,
my soul has no pleasure in him.”

But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Hebrews 13:17
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

James 1:21
Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

1 Peter 1:9
obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

1 Peter 1:22
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,

1 Peter 2:11
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

1 Peter 2:25
For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

1 Peter 4:19
Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

2 Peter 2:14
They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children!

Revelation 6:9
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne.

Revelation 20:4
Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.