42 Bible Verses about Peace, Human Destruction Of

There is no peace," says my God, "for the wicked."

And they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top [reaches to] the heavens. And let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth." Then Yahweh came down to see the city and the tower that {humankind} was building. And Yahweh said, "Behold, {they are one people with one language}, and {this is only the beginning of what they will do}. So now nothing that they intend to do will be impossible for them.read more.
Come, let us go down and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand {each other's language}." So Yahweh scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, for there Yahweh confused the language of the whole earth, and there Yahweh scattered them over the face of the whole earth.

Their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts [are] thoughts of iniquity; devastation and destruction [are] in their highways. They do not know [the] way of peace, and there is no justice in their firm paths. They have made their paths crooked for themselves; everyone {who walks} in it knows no peace.

And when he approached [and] saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "If you had known on this day--even you--the things [that make] for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you and your enemies will put up an embankment against you, and will surround you and press you hard from all directions.read more.
And they will raze you to the ground, [you] and your children within you, and will not leave a stone upon a stone within you, {because} you did not recognize the time of your visitation."

Because the household gods speak deceit, and those who practice divination see a lie, and the dreamers of vanity speak in vain. Therefore [the people] wander like sheep; they are afflicted because there is no shepherd.

And Yahweh spoke to Moses, "Go, go down because your people behave corruptly, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt. They have turned aside quickly from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a cast-image bull calf, and they bowed to it, and they sacrificed to it, and they said, 'These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.'" And Yahweh said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and, indeed, they [are] a stiff-necked people.read more.
And now leave me [alone] so that {my anger may blaze} against them, and let me destroy them, and I will make you into a great nation."

But those who want to be rich fall into temptation and a trap and many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge those people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all evil, by which some, [because they] desire [it], have gone astray from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains.

Now [when it] was evening on that day--the first [day] of the week--and the doors had been shut where the disciples were because of fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace to you."

And they returned to Joshua and said to him, "Do not let all the people go up and attack Ai; [only] two or three thousand men should go up because they [are] few. Do not make all the people weary [up] there." So about three thousand from the people went up there, and they fled before the men of Ai. The men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them, and they chased them from the gate up to Shebarim and killed them on the slope. And the hearts of the people melted and became like water.

The fear of a person will lay a snare, but he who trusts in Yahweh will be secure.

But you must not fear, my servant Jacob,' {declares} Yahweh, 'and you must not be dismayed, Israel, for look, I [am] going to save you from far, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return, and he will be at rest, and he will be at ease, and there will be no [one who] makes [him] afraid.

"But [as for] you, my servant Jacob, you must not be afraid, and Israel, you must not be dismayed, for look, I [am] going to save you from far, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return, and he will be quiet, and he will be at ease, and without [one who] makes [him] afraid.

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?,' for the pagans seek after all these [things]. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these [things]. But seek first his kingdom and righteousness, and all these [things] will be added to you.read more.
Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow, because tomorrow will be anxious for itself. {Each day has enough trouble of its own.}

And you, do not consider what you will eat and what you will drink, and do not be anxious. For all the nations of the world seek after these [things], and your Father knows that you need these [things].

As for the ones who remain among you, I will bring fearfulness in their hearts in the land of their enemies; and a sound of a windblown leaf shall pursue them, and they shall flee [like] flight {before} a sword, and they shall fall, but there shall not be a pursuer. And they shall stumble over {one another} as {from before} a sword, but there shall not be a pursuer; and {you shall have no resistance} {before} your enemies. And you shall perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies shall eat you.read more.
And because of their guilt, the ones among you who remain shall decay in the land of their enemies; and also because of the iniquities of their ancestors, they shall decay with them. " 'But when they confess their guilt and the guilt of their ancestors in their infidelity that they displayed against me, and moreover that they went against me in hostility-- I myself also went against them in hostility, and I brought them into the land of their enemies--or [if] then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and then they pay for their guilt, I will remember my covenant [with] Jacob; and I will remember also my covenant [with] Isaac and also my covenant [with] Abraham, and I will remember the land.

To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase {your pain in childbearing}; in pain you shall bear children. And to your husband [shall be] your desire. And he shall rule over you." And to Adam he said, "Because you listened to the voice of your wife and you ate from the tree {from which I forbade you to eat}, the ground [shall be] cursed on your account. In pain you shall eat [from] it all the days of your life. And thorns and thistles shall sprout for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field.read more.
By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until your return to the ground. For from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

However, Yahweh did not turn from the fierceness of his great anger which was kindled against Judah because of all of the provocations [with] which Manasseh had provoked him. Yahweh had said, "Even Judah I will remove from my face, as I have removed Israel; I will reject this city that I have chosen, even Jerusalem and the house [of] which I said, 'My name shall be there'!"

"In those days they will say no longer, '{Parents} have eaten unripe fruit, and [the] teeth of [the] children {are set on edge}.'

"{What do you mean by} quoting this proverb about the land of Israel, {saying}, 'The fathers, they ate unripe fruit, and the teeth of the child became blunt.'

For I hear the rumor of many, "Terror [is] from all around, denounce [him], yes, let us denounce him!" {All my close friends} [are] watchers of my stumbling, [saying], "perhaps he can be persuaded, and we can prevail over him, and we can take our revenge on him."

How desolate the city sits [that] was full of people! She has become like a widow, [once] great among the nations! Like a woman of nobility in the provinces, she has become a forced laborer. She weeps bitterly in the night, her tears [are] on her cheeks; she has no comforter among all her lovers. All her friends have been unfaithful to her; they have become her enemies.

Let not those who [are] wrongfully my enemies rejoice over me. [Nor let] those who hate me without cause wink [the] eye. For they do not speak peace, but against [the] quiet [ones] of [the] land they plan deceitful words.

So Jehu the son of Jehoshaphat the son of Nimshi conspired against Joram. Now Joram was keeping guard in Ramoth-Gilead, he and all of Israel, because of the {threat} of Hazael king of Aram. But Joram the king had returned to heal in Jezreel from the wound which the Arameans had inflicted on him when he fought with Hazael king of Aram. Jehu said, "{If this is what you want}, do not let him go out as a fugitive from the city to go to make it known in Jezreel." Jehu mounted his chariot and went to Jezreel, for Joram [was] lying there, and Ahaziah king of Judah had gone down to visit Joram.read more.
Now the watchman [was] standing on the tower in Jezreel, and he saw the company of Jehu when he came, and he said, "I see a company." Joram said, "Take a horseman and send [him] to meet them." And he said, "Is it peace?" So the rider of the horse went out to meet him, and he said, "Thus the king asks, 'Is it peace?'" Then Jehu said, "{What do you have to do with peace}? Turn after me." Then the watchman reported, saying, "The messenger went up to them, but he did not return." Then he sent out a second horseman, and he came to them and said, "Thus the king asks, 'Is it peace?'" Then Jehu said, "{What do you have to do with peace}? Turn after me." So the sentinel reported, saying, "He went up to them, but he did not return, and the driving [is] like the driving of Jehu the son of Nimshi, for he drives with madness." Then Joram said, "Get ready," so he got his chariot ready. Joram king of Israel went out, and Ahaziah king of Judah, each with his chariot. They went out to meet Jehu, and they found him at the tract of land of Naboth the Jezreelite. When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, "[Is it] peace?" And he said, "What peace [is there] while the prostitutions of your mother Jezebel and her sorceries are numerous?" Joram turned his {chariot} and fled and said to Ahaziah, "It's treason, Ahaziah!" Then Jehu {drew his bow} and shot Joram between his shoulders so that the arrow went out from his heart, and he slumped down in his chariot. He said to Bidkar his third [servant], "Lift [him] out and throw him on the plot of the field of Naboth the Jezreelite, for remember, you and I [were] with the pair [of chariots] behind Ahab his father when Yahweh pronounced this oracle against him: '"Since I saw the blood of Naboth and the blood of his children yesterday," declares Yahweh, "I will requite it for you in this tract of land," declares Yahweh.' So then lift him out and throw him on the tract of land according to the word of Yahweh." When Ahaziah king of Judah saw, he fled the way of Beth-Haggen. Jehu pursued after him and said, "Shoot him also, in the chariot." [They shot him] at the ascent of Gur which [is] in Ibleam, and he fled [to] Megiddo, but he died there. Then his officers carried him to Jerusalem, and they buried him in his tomb with his ancestors in the city of David.

For these [things], I am weeping, {my eyes flow with tears}; because a comforter is far from me, one to restore my life. My sons are desolate because [the] enemy has prevailed.

And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and your daughters, whom Yahweh your God gave to you, {during the siege and during the distress} your enemy inflicts upon you. The most refined and the very sensitive man among you {shall be mean with his brother} and {against his beloved wife} and against the rest of his children that he has left over, {by refraining from giving} to [even] one of them any of the meat of his children that he eats, because [there is] not anything [that is] left over for him {during the siege and distress} that your enemy inflicts upon you.read more.
The most refined and the [most] delicate [woman] among you, who shall not venture to put the sole of her foot on the ground from being [so] delicate and from [such] gentleness, {shall be mean to her beloved husband} and against her son and against her daughter, and [even] concerning her afterbirth {that goes out} from between her feet and [also] concerning her children that she bears, because she eats them for lack of anything in secret {during the siege and during the distress} that your enemy inflicts upon her in your {towns}.

"Moreover, you also know what Joab the son of Zeruiah did to me when he dealt with the two commanders of the armies of Israel, to Abner son of Ner and to Amasa son of Jether, and he murdered them and put the blood of war in [a time of] peace. He put the blood of war on the leather belt that was on his waist and on the sandals which were on his feet. You must act according to your wisdom, but you must not let his gray hair go down to Sheol in peace.

It happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Aram assembled all of his army and marched up and laid siege against Samaria. There was a great famine in Samaria, and behold, a siege [was] against it, until the head of a donkey [went] for eighty shekels of silver, and one fourth of the measure of the dung of doves [went] for five shekels of silver. It happened that the king of Israel [was] crossing over on the wall, and a woman called out to him, saying, "Help, my lord the king!"read more.
He said, "No, let Yahweh help you. {How} can I save you? From the threshing floor or from the wine press?" The king said to her, "{What is the problem}?" Then the woman said, "This woman said to me, 'Give me your son, and let us eat him today, then tomorrow we will eat my son.' So we cooked my son and ate him, and I said to her the next day, 'Give your son that we may eat him.' But she had hidden her son."

So the city came under siege until the eleventh year of the king. In the ninth month, the famine became severe in the city, and there was no food for the people of the land.

Because, yes, because they led my people astray, {saying} 'Peace!' And [there is] not peace. And [when] anyone builds a flimsy wall, look, they coat it [with] whitewash. Say to [those] covering [it] [with] whitewash that it will fall; there will be {a torrent of rain}, and I will give stones of hail; they will fall! And a {windstorm} will burst forth! And look! [When] the wall falls, will it not be said to you, 'Where [is] the whitewash [with] which you covered [it]?'read more.
Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: 'And [so] I will let burst forth a {windstorm} in my rage, and {there will be a torrent of rain} in my anger, and hailstones in [my] rage {for complete destruction}. And I will break down the wall that you covered [with] whitewash, and I will knock it to the ground, and its foundation will be revealed, and it will fall, and you will come to an end in the midst of it, and you will know that I [am] Yahweh! And I will fully vent my rage against the wall and against those covering it [with] whitewash, and I will say to you, "{The wall is no more}, and {the people covering it are no more}, [that is], the prophets of Israel, the ones prophesying concerning Jerusalem and the ones seeing visions of peace, and there is not peace!'" " {declares} the Lord Yahweh.

And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come!" And another horse came out, fiery red, and it was granted to the one seated on it to take peace from the earth, and that they would slaughter one another, and a large sword was given to him. And when he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come!" And I looked, and behold, a black horse, and the one seated on it had a balance scale in his hand.read more.
And I heard [something] like a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius, and do not damage the olive oil and the wine!" And when he opened the fourth seal, I heard a voice from the fourth living creature saying, "Come!" And I looked, and behold, a pale green horse, and the one seated on it {was named} Death, and Hades followed after him. And authority was granted to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill by the sword and by famine and by pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.

Rise up, go up against a nation [which is] at ease, living {securely}," {declares} Yahweh. "[There are] no gates and [there are] no bars for them, they dwell alone. And their camels will become as plunder, and the multitude of their livestock as spoil. And I will scatter to every wind [those who] are trimmed to [the] side, and from {every side} I will bring their disaster," {declares} Yahweh.

"Therefore prophesy, son of man, and you must say to Gog, 'Thus says the Lord Yahweh: "Will you not realize on that day when my people Israel are dwelling {in safety}, and [so] you will come from your place, from [the] remote areas of [the] north, you and many people with you, {horsemen} all of them, a great crowd and a vast army, and you will advance against my people Israel like a cloud {covering} the land; it will be in the last days, and I will bring you against my land, so that the nations know me, {when I show myself holy through you} before their eyes, O Gog!" 'read more.
"Thus says the Lord Yahweh, '[Are] you he of whom I spoke in former days by the hand of my servants the prophets of Israel [who] were prophesying in those days for years [that I would] bring you against them? And [so] then in that day, on the day of the coming of God against the land of Israel,' {declares} the Lord Yahweh, 'my rage will come up in my anger. And in my passion, [in] the fire of my wrath, I spoke [that] {certainly} on that day great earthquake will be on the land of Israel. And the fish of the sea and the birds of the heaven and the animals of the field and all of the creeping things that creep on the earth and all of the humans who [are] on the surface of the earth will shake {at my presence}; and the mountains will be demolished, and the steep mountain sides will fall, and every wall on the earth will fall. And I will call against him in all of my mountains a sword,' {declares} the Lord Yahweh, '[And] [the] sword of each [person] will be against his brother. And I will execute justice with him with a plague and with blood and {torrents of rain}, and hailstones; fire and sulfur I will cause to fall on him and on his troops and on many peoples who [are] with him. And [so] I will exalt myself, and I will show myself holy, and I will make myself known before [the] eyes of many nations, and they will know that I [am] Yahweh.'"

And the {peaceful settlements} are devastated because of {the burning anger of Yahweh}.

And Moses and Aaron went out from Pharaoh, and Moses cried out to Yahweh over the matter of the frogs that he had brought on Pharaoh. And Yahweh did according to the word of Moses, and the frogs died from the houses, from the courtyards, and from the fields. And they piled them [in] countless heaps, and the land stank.

" 'And if through this you do not listen to me and you go against me in hostility, then I will go against you in hostile anger, and also I myself will discipline you seven times for your sins. And you shall eat the flesh of your sons; and the flesh of your daughters you shall eat.read more.
And I will destroy your high places, and I will cut down your incense altars, and I will place your corpses on your idols' corpses; and my inner self shall abhor you. And I will lay your cities [in] ruins, and I will lay waste your sanctuaries; and I shall not smell your [sacrifices'] appeasing fragrance. And I myself will lay waste the land, and your enemies who are living in it shall be appalled over it. And I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword behind you; and your land shall be a desolation, and your cities shall be a ruin. Then the land shall enjoy its Sabbaths all the days of its lying desolate, and you [shall be] in the land of your enemies; then the land shall rest, and it shall enjoy its Sabbaths. All the days of its lying desolate it shall rest [for the time] that it had not rested during your Sabbaths while you were living on it.

Your country [is] desolate, your cities [are] burned [with] fire; [As for] your land, aliens are devouring it in your presence, and [it is] desolate, like devastation [by] foreigners.

You must not listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria: "Make a blessing with me, and come out to me, and each one will eat [from] his vine and [from] his fig tree and drink water from his cistern, until {I come} and take you to a land like your land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, lest Hezekiah mislead you, saying, 'Yahweh will save us!' Did the gods of the nations each save his land from the hand of the king of Assyria?read more.
Where [are] the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where [are] the gods of Sepharvaim? Indeed, [have] they delivered Samaria from my hand? Who [are there] among all the gods of these countries who have saved their land from my hand, that Yahweh should save Jerusalem from my hand?" '"

And when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come!" And another horse came out, fiery red, and it was granted to the one seated on it to take peace from the earth, and that they would slaughter one another, and a large sword was given to him.

And Yahweh saw that the evil of humankind [was] great upon the earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart [was] always only evil. And Yahweh regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and {he was grieved in his heart}. And Yahweh said, "I will destroy humankind whom I created from upon the face of the earth, from humankind, to animals, to creeping things, and to the birds of heaven, for I regret that I have made them."

Look! Yahweh [is] about to lay the earth waste and [is] about to devastate it, and he will twist her surface, and he will scatter her inhabitants. And it shall be as [with] the people, so [with] the priest; as [with] the slave, so [with] his master; as [with] the female slave, so [with] her mistress; as [with] the buyer, so [with] the seller; as [with] the lender, so [with] the borrower; as [with] the creditor, so [with] [the one] to whom he lends. The earth shall be utterly laid waste, and it shall be utterly plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word.read more.
The earth dries up, it withers; [the] world languishes, it withers. The elevated of the people of the earth languish, and the earth is defiled beneath its inhabitants. For they have transgressed laws; they have passed by statutes; they have broken [the] everlasting covenant.

For we know that the whole creation groans together and suffers agony together until now.

And the first blew the trumpet, and there was hail and fire mixed with blood, and it was thrown to the earth, and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up. And the second angel blew the trumpet, and [something] like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea, and a third of the sea became blood, and a third of the creatures in the sea--the ones which had life--died, and a third of the ships were destroyed.read more.
And the third angel blew the trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. And the name of the star was called Wormwood, and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many people died from the waters because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel blew the trumpet, and a third of the sun was struck, and a third of the moon, and a third of the stars, so that a third of them were darkened, and the day did not shine [with respect to] a third of it, and the night likewise. And I looked, and I heard one eagle flying {directly overhead}, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe to those who live on the earth, from the remaining sounds of the trumpets of the three angels who are about to blow the trumpet!"