What Does the Bible Say About Counsel?

Proverbs 12:15 ESV / 51 helpful votes

The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to advice.

Proverbs 11:14 ESV / 34 helpful votes

Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.

1 Kings 12:6-19 ESV / 27 helpful votes

Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. ...

Proverbs 16:1-33 ESV / 23 helpful votes

The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the Lord, and your plans will be established. The Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished. ...

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV / 17 helpful votes

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.

Proverbs 19:20 ESV / 13 helpful votes

Listen to advice and accept instruction, that you may gain wisdom in the future.

Psalm 32:8 ESV / 13 helpful votes

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Psalm 119:105 ESV / 12 helpful votes

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 11 helpful votes

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

Jeremiah 23:22 ESV / 10 helpful votes

But if they had stood in my council, then they would have proclaimed my words to my people, and they would have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their deeds.

Romans 14:1 ESV / 9 helpful votes

As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions.

Jeremiah 23:18 ESV / 9 helpful votes

For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord to see and to hear his word, or who has paid attention to his word and listened?

Ezekiel 33:11 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

Proverbs 27:17 ESV / 8 helpful votes

Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.

Proverbs 22:1-29 ESV / 8 helpful votes

A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold. The rich and the poor meet together; the Lord is the Maker of them all. The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it. The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life. Thorns and snares are in the way of the crooked; whoever guards his soul will keep far from them. ...

Psalm 119:1-176 ESV / 8 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! ...

Zechariah 13:9 ESV / 7 helpful votes

And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are my people’; and they will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’”

Psalm 13:2-3 ESV / 7 helpful votes

How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day? How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and answer me, O Lord my God; light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,

Luke 14:12-14 ESV / 6 helpful votes

He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”

Luke 10:10-13 ESV / 6 helpful votes

But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes.

Proverbs 19:1-29 ESV / 6 helpful votes

Better is a poor person who walks in his integrity than one who is crooked in speech and is a fool. Desire without knowledge is not good, and whoever makes haste with his feet misses his way. When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord. Wealth brings many new friends, but a poor man is deserted by his friend. A false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will not escape. ...

John 8:44 ESV / 5 helpful votes

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

Luke 24:44 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ESV / 5 helpful votes

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Psalm 141:3 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth; keep watch over the door of my lips!

John 12:31 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out.

Luke 16:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.

Matthew 19:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Isaiah 40:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.

2 Kings 23:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes

And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes who were in the house of the Lord, where the women wove hangings for the Asherah.

Deuteronomy 23:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“None of the daughters of Israel shall be a cult prostitute, and none of the sons of Israel shall be a cult prostitute.

Leviticus 20:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.

Leviticus 19:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Leviticus 18:19-23 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness while she is in her menstrual uncleanness. And you shall not lie sexually with your neighbor's wife and so make yourself unclean with her. You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. And you shall not lie with any animal and so make yourself unclean with it, neither shall any woman give herself to an animal to lie with it: it is perversion.

Genesis 1:27 ESV / 4 helpful votes

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

1 Corinthians 7:10-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes

To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife.

Matthew 25:41 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Matthew 23:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

Matthew 7:21-23 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

Malachi 2:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes

“For the man who does not love his wife but divorces her, says the Lord, the God of Israel, covers his garment with violence, says the Lord of hosts. So guard yourselves in your spirit, and do not be faithless.”

Ezekiel 28:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes

You were an anointed guardian cherub. I placed you; you were on the holy mountain of God; in the midst of the stones of fire you walked.

Ezekiel 16:49-50 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.

Matthew 7:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you.

Ecclesiastes 12:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

1 Kings 14:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

Genesis 3:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

47 Bible Verses about Counsel

Proverbs 12:15 ESV / 51 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 11:14 ESV / 34 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Kings 12:6-19 ESV / 27 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 16:1-33 ESV / 23 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 3:5-6 ESV / 17 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 19:20 ESV / 13 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 32:8 ESV / 13 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 119:105 ESV / 12 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Timothy 3:16-17 ESV / 11 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jeremiah 23:22 ESV / 10 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 14:1 ESV / 9 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Jeremiah 23:18 ESV / 9 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ezekiel 33:11 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 27:17 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 22:1-29 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 119:1-176 ESV / 8 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Zechariah 13:9 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 13:2-3 ESV / 7 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 14:12-14 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 10:10-13 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 19:1-29 ESV / 6 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 8:44 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 24:44 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 141:3 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 12:31 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 16:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 19:19 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 40:8 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Kings 23:7 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 23:17 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 20:10 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 19:18 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Leviticus 18:19-23 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 1:27 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 7:10-11 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 25:41 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 23:15 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 7:21-23 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Malachi 2:16 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ezekiel 28:14 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ezekiel 16:49-50 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 7:1-2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ecclesiastes 12:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Kings 14:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 3:1 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 2:24 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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