Bible Verses About Bad Things That Happen to Good People

“Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.”

“Commit your way to the LORD; trust in Him, and He will do it.”

“Why, O LORD, do You stand far off? Why do You hide in times of trouble? In pride the wicked pursue the needy; let them be caught in the schemes they devise. For the wicked man boasts in the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD. In his pride the wicked man does not seek Him; in all his schemes there is no God. He is secure in his ways at all times; Your lofty judgments are far from him; he sneers at all his foes. He says to himself, “I will not be moved; from age to age I am free of distress.” His mouth is full of cursing, deceit, and violence; trouble and malice are under his tongue. He lies in wait near the villages; in ambush he slays the innocent; his eyes watch in stealth for the helpless. He lies in wait like a lion in a thicket; he lurks to seize the oppressed; he catches the lowly in his net. They are crushed and beaten down; the helpless fall prey to his strength. He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.” Arise, O LORD! Lift up Your hand, O God! Do not forget the helpless. Why has the wicked man renounced God? He says to himself, “You will never call me to account.” But You have regarded trouble and grief; You see to repay it by Your hand. The victim entrusts himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless. Break the arm of the wicked and evildoer; call him to account for his wickedness until none is left to be found. The LORD is King forever and ever; the nations perish from His land. You have heard, O LORD, the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their hearts. You will incline Your ear, to vindicate the fatherless and oppressed, that the men of the earth may strike terror no more.”

“For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. How long, O LORD? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me? How long must I wrestle in my soul, with sorrow in my heart each day? How long will my enemy dominate me? Consider me and respond, O LORD my God. Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death, lest my enemy say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes rejoice when I fall. But I have trusted in Your loving devotion; my heart will rejoice in Your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, for He has been good to me.”

“Why do you call Me good?” Jesus replied. “No one is good except God alone.”

“Man, who is born of woman, is short of days and full of trouble.”

“A Psalm of Asaph. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no struggle in their death; their bodies are well-fed. They are free of the burdens others carry; they are not afflicted like other men. Therefore pride is their necklace; a garment of violence covers them. From their prosperity proceeds iniquity; the imaginations of their hearts run wild. They mock and speak with malice; with arrogance they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongues strut across the earth. So their people return to this place and drink up waters in abundance. The wicked say, “How can God know? Does the Most High have knowledge?” Behold, these are the wicked — always carefree as they increase their wealth. Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure; in innocence I have washed my hands. For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning. If I had said, “I will speak this way,” then I would have betrayed Your children. When I tried to understand all this, it was troublesome in my sight until I entered God’s sanctuary; then I discerned their end. Surely You set them on slick ground; You cast them down into ruin. How suddenly they are laid waste, completely swept away by terrors! Like one waking from a dream, so You, O Lord, awaken and despise their form. When my heart was grieved and I was pierced within, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before You. Yet I am always with You; You hold my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and later receive me in glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And on earth I desire no one besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. Those far from You will surely perish; You destroy all who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, it is good to draw near to God. I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may proclaim all Your works.”

“I saw something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; neither is the bread to the wise, nor the wealth to the intelligent, nor the favor to the skillful. For time and chance happen to all.”

“Now we see but a dim reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”

“Who is like the wise man? Who knows the interpretation of a matter? A man’s wisdom brightens his face, and the sternness of his face is changed. Keep the king’s command, I say, because of your oath before God. Do not hasten to leave his presence, and do not persist in a bad cause, for he will do whatever he pleases. For the king’s word is supreme, and who can say to him, “What are you doing?” Whoever keeps his command will come to no harm, and a wise heart knows the right time and procedure. For there is a right time and procedure to every purpose, though a man’s misery weighs heavily upon him. Since no one knows what will happen, who can tell him what is to come? As no man has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has authority over his day of death. As no one can be discharged in wartime, so wickedness will not release those who practice it. All this I have seen, applying my mind to every deed that is done under the sun; there is a time when one man lords it over another to his own detriment. Then too, I saw the burial of the wicked who used to go in and out of the holy place, and they were praised in the city where they had done so. This too is futile. When the sentence for a crime is not speedily executed, the hearts of men become fully set on doing evil. Although a sinner does evil a hundred times and still lives long, yet I also know that it will go well with those who fear God, who are reverent in His presence. Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow. There is a futility that is done on the earth: There are righteous men who get what the actions of the wicked deserve, and there are wicked men who get what the actions of the righteous deserve. I say that this too is futile. So I commended the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be merry. For this joy will accompany him in his labor during the days of his life that God gives him under the sun. When I applied my mind to know wisdom and to observe the task that one performs on the earth — though his eyes do not see sleep in the day or even in the night — I saw every work of God, and that a man is unable to comprehend the work that is done under the sun. Despite his efforts to search it out, he cannot find its meaning; even if the wise man claims to know, he is unable to comprehend.”

“But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled; my steps had nearly slipped. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”

“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the LORD.”

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until the present time.”

“We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. In Him we have placed our hope that He will yet again deliver us, as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the favor shown us in answer to their prayers.”

“If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

“Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.”

“To this He replied, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered this way? No, I tell you. But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

“For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep.”

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.”

“Consider, then, the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the message of the kingdom but does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he remains for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The seed sown among the thorns is the one who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But the seed sown on good soil is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and produces a crop — a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.”

“It is the same for all: There is a common fate for the righteous and the wicked, for the good and the bad, for the clean and the unclean, for the one who sacrifices and the one who does not. As it is for the good, so it is for the sinner; as it is for the one who makes a vow, so it is for the one who refuses to take a vow.”

“Rather, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

“The good man brings good things out of his good store of treasure, and the evil man brings evil things out of his evil store of treasure.”

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, or set foot on the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the Law of the LORD, and on His law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does. Not so the wicked! For they are like chaff driven off by the wind. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD guards the path of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.”

“My brothers, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you.”

“There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil.”

“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master!’

“This is the message that was revealed to Isaiah son of Amoz concerning Judah and Jerusalem: In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. And many peoples will come and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk in His paths.” For the law will go forth from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. Then He will judge between the nations and arbitrate for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will no longer take up the sword against nation, nor train anymore for war. Come, O house of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the LORD. For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east; they are soothsayers like the Philistines; they strike hands with the children of foreigners. Their land is full of silver and gold, with no limit to their treasures; their land is full of horses, with no limit to their chariots. Their land is full of idols; they bow down to the work of their hands, to what their fingers have made. So mankind is brought low, and man is humbled — do not forgive them! Go into the rocks and hide in the dust from the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty. The proud look of man will be humbled, and the loftiness of men brought low; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. For the Day of the LORD of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted— it will be humbled— against all the cedars of Lebanon, lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, against all the tall mountains, against all the high hills, against every high tower, against every fortified wall, against every ship of Tarshish, and against every stately vessel. So the pride of man will be brought low, and the loftiness of men will be humbled; the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, and the idols will vanish completely. Men will flee to caves in the rocks and holes in the ground, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth. In that day men will cast away to the moles and bats their idols of silver and gold — the idols they made to worship. They will flee to caverns in the rocks and crevices in the cliffs, away from the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of His majesty, when He rises to shake the earth. Put no more trust in man, who has only the breath in his nostrils. Of what account is he?”

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD.”

“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him. I will still defend my ways to His face.”

“So the LORD blessed Job’s latter days more than his first. He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. He named his first daughter Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch. No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance among their brothers.”

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, to proclaim the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.”

“Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.”

“We know that we are of God, and that the whole world is under the power of the evil one.”

“But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.”

“But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have told you.”

“But I consider my life of no value to me, if only I may finish my course and complete the ministry I have received from the Lord Jesus — the ministry of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

“I will be glad and rejoice in Your loving devotion, for You have seen my affliction; You have known the anguish of my soul.”

“And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

“For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”

“The steps of a man are ordered by the LORD who takes delight in his journey.”

“For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory that is far beyond comparison.”

“Therefore, since Christ suffered in His body, arm yourselves with the same resolve, because anyone who has suffered in his body is done with sin. Consequently, he does not live out his remaining time on earth for human passions, but for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry. Because of this, they consider it strange of you not to plunge with them into the same flood of reckless indiscretion, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. That is why the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged as men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit. The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear-minded and sober, so that you can pray. Above all, love one another deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without complaining. As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another. If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God. If anyone serves, he should serve with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you share in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed at the revelation of His glory. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. Indeed, none of you should suffer as a murderer or thief or wrongdoer, or even as a meddler. But if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but glorify God that you bear that name. For it is time for judgment to begin with the family of God; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who disobey the gospel of God? And, “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should entrust their souls to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.”

“How is it to your credit if you are beaten for doing wrong and you endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.”

“Now this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.”

“Therefore listen to me, O men of understanding. Far be it from God to do wrong, and from the Almighty to act unjustly.”

“For there is hope for a tree: If it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its tender shoots will not fail.”

“A song of ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber. Behold, the Protector of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is the shade on your right hand. The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will guard you from all evil; He will preserve your soul. The LORD will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.”

“Run for cover, O sons of Benjamin; flee from Jerusalem! Sound the ram’s horn in Tekoa; send up a signal over Beth-haccherem, for disaster looms from the north, even great destruction. Though she is beautiful and delicate, I will destroy the Daughter of Zion. Shepherds and their flocks will come against her; they will pitch their tents all around her, each tending his own portion: ‘Prepare for battle against her; rise up, let us attack at noon. Woe to us, for the daylight is fading; the evening shadows grow long. Rise up, let us attack by night and destroy her fortresses!’” For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Cut down the trees and raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem. This city must be punished; there is nothing but oppression in her midst. As a well gushes its water, so she pours out her evil. Violence and destruction resound in her; sickness and wounds are ever before Me. Be forewarned, O Jerusalem, or I will turn away from you; I will make you a desolation, a land without inhabitant.” This is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as a vine. Pass your hand once more like a grape gatherer over the branches.” To whom can I give this warning? Who will listen to me? Look, their ears are closed, so they cannot hear. See, the word of the LORD has become offensive to them; they find no pleasure in it. But I am full of the LORD’s wrath; I am tired of holding it back. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the young men gathered together. For both husband and wife will be captured, the old and the very old alike. Their houses will be turned over to others, their fields and wives as well, for I will stretch out My hand against the inhabitants of the land,” declares the LORD. “For from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all. Are they ashamed of the abomination they have committed? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they will collapse,” says the LORD. This is what the LORD says: “Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: ‘Where is the good way?’ Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it!’ I appointed watchmen over you and said, ‘Listen for the sound of the ram’s horn.’ But they answered, ‘We will not listen!’ Therefore hear, O nations, and learn, O congregations, what will happen to them. Hear, O earth! I am bringing disaster on this people, the fruit of their own schemes, because they have paid no attention to My word and have rejected My instruction. What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please Me.” Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I will lay stumbling blocks before this people; fathers and sons alike will be staggered; friends and neighbors will perish.” This is what the LORD says: “Behold, an army is coming from the land of the north; a great nation is stirred up from the ends of the earth. They grasp the bow and spear; they are cruel and merciless. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, lined up like men in formation against you, O Daughter of Zion.” We have heard the report; our hands hang limp. Anguish has gripped us, pain like that of a woman in labor. Do not go out to the fields; do not walk the road. For the enemy has a sword; terror is on every side. O daughter of my people, dress yourselves in sackcloth and roll in ashes. Mourn with bitter wailing, as you would for an only son, for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us. “I have appointed you to examine My people like ore, so you may know and try their ways. All are hardened rebels, walking around as slanderers. They are bronze and iron; all of them are corrupt. The bellows blow fiercely, blasting away the lead with fire. The refining proceeds in vain, for the wicked are not purged. They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”