Bible verses about

Bible Verses About Healing

12 verses · ESV & King James Version

This is a difficult page to write honestly, and you deserve honesty rather than comfort that falls apart on contact.

Scripture is unambiguous that God heals. It is woven through the whole book — a name given at Sinai, a third of Jesus’ recorded ministry, an instruction in James for what a church should actually do when someone is ill. Nobody reading the Bible carefully comes away thinking God is indifferent to bodies.

What Scripture does not do is promise that every person will be healed of every illness on this side of things. Paul asked three times for a physical affliction to be removed and was told no. Timothy was told to take something for his stomach. Trophimus was left behind sick. These are not edited out, and the fact that they were left in is one of the reasons the book is trustworthy.

Holding both of those at once is uncomfortable, and there is no formula that resolves it. What there is: permission to ask boldly, an instruction to involve other people rather than carrying it alone, and a promise about where all of this finally ends.

If you are reading this waiting on results, or sitting with someone who is, the verses below are not an argument. Take one.

12 verses for when you need them

  1. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

    Psalm 147:3 ESV

    He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.

    Psalm 147:3 KJV

    Broken hearts and wounds in the same sentence — the writer does not separate emotional injury from the kind that shows on a scan.

  2. For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, declares the LORD, because they have called you an outcast: ‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’

    Jeremiah 30:17 ESV

    For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

    Jeremiah 30:17 KJV

    Spoken over a nation everyone else had written off. “Restore health” is said to people whose situation looked terminal.

  3. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

    Isaiah 53:5 ESV

    But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

    Isaiah 53:5 KJV

    The line Christians return to most on this subject, and the one most argued over. Whatever your view of what it promises now versus finally, it locates healing in something already done rather than something you must earn.

  4. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

    James 5:14-15 ESV

    Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.

    James 5:14-15 KJV

    Notice the instruction is to *call for other people*. Healing here is not a solo transaction between you and God — you are told to involve your church.

  5. saying, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer.”

    Exodus 15:26 ESV

    And said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.

    Exodus 15:26 KJV

    The name given is Rophe — healer — as a description of who God is, not a service He sometimes provides.

  6. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

    1 Peter 2:24 ESV

    Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

    1 Peter 2:24 KJV

    Peter quotes Isaiah 53 and applies it first to being healed from sin. That is worth sitting with before applying it anywhere else.

  7. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases,

    Psalm 103:2-3 ESV

    Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

    Psalm 103:2-3 KJV

    “Forget not all his benefits” is a memory instruction. On a bad health day, recalling what has already been healed is a deliberate act.

  8. My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart. For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.

    Proverbs 4:20-22 ESV

    My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

    Proverbs 4:20-22 KJV

    Health described as a by-product of attention — of keeping certain words in front of you. Not magic; the ordinary effect of what you dwell on.

  9. Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.

    Jeremiah 17:14 ESV

    Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

    Jeremiah 17:14 KJV

    A short prayer you can pray as it is. Notice it asks God to do the healing rather than asking for the strength to heal yourself.

  10. O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.

    Psalm 30:2 ESV

    O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me.

    Psalm 30:2 KJV

    Past tense. This is a testimony, not a claim about the future — which is often the most honest thing you can hold onto.

  11. And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.

    Matthew 4:23 ESV

    And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

    Matthew 4:23 KJV

    The summary of Jesus' ministry puts teaching, preaching and healing side by side. He never treated bodies as beneath His concern.

  12. Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.

    3 John 1:2 ESV

    Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.

    3 John 1:2 KJV

    A greeting rather than a promise — John wishing his friend physical health as warmly as spiritual health. Sometimes that is exactly what you want someone to pray for you.

Please read this part.

**Nothing on this page is a reason to stop or delay medical treatment.** Luke, who wrote a quarter of the New Testament, was a doctor. Paul told Timothy to take something for his stomach. Scripture has never treated medicine and prayer as competitors, and God has answered a great many prayers for healing through a surgeon, a diagnosis, or the right prescription.

And if what needs healing is your mind rather than your body — if you are depressed, not sleeping, or frightened by your own thoughts — that is illness, not weakness, and it responds to treatment. Telling a doctor is not a failure of faith.

If you are praying for someone else: James says to call for other people and pray together. That instruction is there partly because carrying this alone is not what it was designed for.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version, which is in the public domain. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.