What does the Bible say about household enemy?

Micah 7:6 ESV / 48 helpful votes

For the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.

Matthew 10:36 ESV / 39 helpful votes

And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

Psalm 41:9 ESV / 35 helpful votes

Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted his heel against me.

Romans 12:14 ESV / 28 helpful votes

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.

Psalm 35:1-28 ESV / 26 helpful votes

Of David. Contend, O Lord, with those who contend with me; fight against those who fight against me! Take hold of shield and buckler and rise for my help! Draw the spear and javelin against my pursuers! Say to my soul, “I am your salvation!” Let them be put to shame and dishonor who seek after my life! Let them be turned back and disappointed who devise evil against me! Let them be like chaff before the wind, with the angel of the Lord driving them away! ...

Luke 6:27-36 ESV / 23 helpful votes

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. ...

Exodus 23:22 ESV / 20 helpful votes

“But if you carefully obey his voice and do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.

John 13:18 ESV / 18 helpful votes

I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled, ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’

Matthew 5:44 ESV / 18 helpful votes

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Psalm 23:1-6 ESV / 18 helpful votes

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. ...

Psalm 138:7 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life; you stretch out your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand delivers me.

Psalm 55:12-14 ESV / 17 helpful votes

For it is not an enemy who taunts me— then I could bear it; it is not an adversary who deals insolently with me— then I could hide from him. But it is you, a man, my equal, my companion, my familiar friend. We used to take sweet counsel together; within God's house we walked in the throng.

Leviticus 26:6 ESV / 17 helpful votes

I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid. And I will remove harmful beasts from the land, and the sword shall not go through your land.

Matthew 10:35 ESV / 16 helpful votes

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

2 Timothy 4:14 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will repay him according to his deeds.

John 14:2 ESV / 14 helpful votes

In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

Matthew 10:21 ESV / 14 helpful votes

Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death,

Jeremiah 20:10 ESV / 14 helpful votes

For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! “Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” say all my close friends, watching for my fall. “Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him.”

Deuteronomy 20:1 ESV / 14 helpful votes

“When you go out to war against your enemies, and see horses and chariots and an army larger than your own, you shall not be afraid of them, for the Lord your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

Ephesians 6:11 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

John 3:16-17 ESV / 13 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Matthew 26:48-50 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him.

Jeremiah 12:6 ESV / 13 helpful votes

For even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; they are in full cry after you; do not believe them, though they speak friendly words to you.”

2 Samuel 16:11 ESV / 13 helpful votes

And David said to Abishai and to all his servants, “Behold, my own son seeks my life; how much more now may this Benjaminite! Leave him alone, and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to.

1 John 2:15 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Acts 14:22 ESV / 12 helpful votes

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.

Hebrews 12:14-17 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

1 Timothy 5:8 ESV / 11 helpful votes

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

Romans 7:1-25 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. ...

John 3:16 ESV / 11 helpful votes

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Luke 23:34 ESV / 11 helpful votes

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

Genesis 12:1-3 ESV / 11 helpful votes

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

1 Peter 3:9 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV / 10 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

Matthew 10:16 ESV / 10 helpful votes

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Matthew 5:43 ESV / 10 helpful votes

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

Isaiah 19:2 ESV / 10 helpful votes

And I will stir up Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight, each against another and each against his neighbor, city against city, kingdom against kingdom;

Proverbs 24:17 ESV / 10 helpful votes

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles,

Proverbs 16:7 ESV / 10 helpful votes

When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Colossians 3:1-25 ESV / 9 helpful votes

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. ...

Romans 13:1-7 ESV / 9 helpful votes

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer. Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience. ...

Colossians 2:1-23 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. ...

Philippians 3:13-14 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 12:1-21 ESV / 8 helpful votes

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. ...

Romans 8:28 ESV / 8 helpful votes

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Matthew 10:35-36 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.

Matthew 6:14-15 ESV / 8 helpful votes

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Proverbs 25:21 ESV / 8 helpful votes

If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 ESV / 8 helpful votes

“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

1 John 4:7 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

1 Timothy 2:12 ESV / 7 helpful votes

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet.

Ephesians 4:17-32 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, ...

Romans 12:20 ESV / 7 helpful votes

To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Romans 12:14-21 ESV / 7 helpful votes

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. ...

Matthew 10:34-40 ESV / 7 helpful votes

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ...

Psalm 46:1 ESV / 7 helpful votes

To the choirmaster. Of the Sons of Korah. According to Alamoth. A Song. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 ESV / 6 helpful votes

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.

Exodus 12:14-51 ESV / 6 helpful votes

“This day shall be for you a memorial day, and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations, as a statute forever, you shall keep it as a feast. Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread. On the first day you shall remove leaven out of your houses, for if anyone eats what is leavened, from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel. On the first day you shall hold a holy assembly, and on the seventh day a holy assembly. No work shall be done on those days. But what everyone needs to eat, that alone may be prepared by you. And you shall observe the Feast of Unleavened Bread, for on this very day I brought your hosts out of the land of Egypt. Therefore you shall observe this day, throughout your generations, as a statute forever. In the first month, from the fourteenth day of the month at evening, you shall eat unleavened bread until the twenty-first day of the month at evening. ...

1 Corinthians 7:1-9 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband. The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does. Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. Do not deprive one another, except perhaps by agreement for a limited time, that you may devote yourselves to prayer; but then come together again, so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. ...

John 13:34 ESV / 5 helpful votes

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

Matthew 10:6 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

Jeremiah 12:2 ESV / 5 helpful votes

You plant them, and they take root; they grow and produce fruit; you are near in their mouth and far from their heart.

Proverbs 17:17 ESV / 5 helpful votes

A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

Psalm 144:1 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Of David. Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;

Psalm 137:1-9 ESV / 5 helpful votes

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land? If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget its skill! ...

1 John 3:1 ESV / 4 helpful votes

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

James 5:14 ESV / 4 helpful votes

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.

Romans 8:1-39 ESV / 4 helpful votes

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. ...

Acts 25:23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So on the next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp, and they entered the audience hall with the military tribunes and the prominent men of the city. Then, at the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.

John 10:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.

Psalm 137:9 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones and dashes them against the rock!

1 Corinthians 7:25-40 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Now concerning the betrothed, I have no command from the Lord, but I give my judgment as one who by the Lord's mercy is trustworthy. I think that in view of the present distress it is good for a person to remain as he is. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be free. Are you free from a wife? Do not seek a wife. But if you do marry, you have not sinned, and if a betrothed woman marries, she has not sinned. Yet those who marry will have worldly troubles, and I would spare you that. This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, ...

Romans 1:27 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

Acts 26:1-29 ESV / 3 helpful votes

So Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand and made his defense: “I consider myself fortunate that it is before you, King Agrippa, I am going to make my defense today against all the accusations of the Jews, especially because you are familiar with all the customs and controversies of the Jews. Therefore I beg you to listen to me patiently. “My manner of life from my youth, spent from the beginning among my own nation and in Jerusalem, is known by all the Jews. They have known for a long time, if they are willing to testify, that according to the strictest party of our religion I have lived as a Pharisee. ...

Acts 14:2 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.

Acts 1:8 ESV / 3 helpful votes

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

John 16:26 ESV / 3 helpful votes

In that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;

John 15:13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

John 13:35 ESV / 3 helpful votes

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Matthew 10:34 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Jonah 3:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 16:28 ESV / 3 helpful votes

A dishonest man spreads strife, and a whisperer separates close friends.

Psalm 91:1-16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, ...

Psalm 56:1-13 ESV / 3 helpful votes

To the choirmaster: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. A Miktam of David, when the Philistines seized him in Gath. Be gracious to me, O God, for man tramples on me; all day long an attacker oppresses me; my enemies trample on me all day long, for many attack me proudly. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid. What can flesh do to me? All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me for evil. ...

Psalm 46:5 ESV / 3 helpful votes

God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns.

1 John 5:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.

Titus 2:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

Ephesians 6:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ,

Ephesians 5:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Romans 5:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—

Romans 5:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Acts 20:27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.

Acts 12:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the Passover to bring him out to the people.

John 5:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

Luke 6:27-31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

Mark 1:14 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God,

Matthew 24:1-51 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the close of the age?” And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. ...

Psalm 119:1-176 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes! ...

What does the Bible say about enemies in your household?

Where in the Bible does it say your family can be your worst enemy?

Who is an household enemy?

What does the Bible say about family feuds?