Animals in the Bible: 39 Scriptures & Practical Lessons

Can you imagine our world without animals? Apparently, God couldn’t either, because He filled the earth with them.

Every ecosystem and climate hosts them. People have domesticated many of them. We’re in awe of some, in terror of others, bothered by a host of them, and are still discovering more every year.

It’s crazy how they influence our lives as pets, as pests, as beings we read about, dream about and talk about. As things we pay money and drive places to see, and maybe experience.

The Bible has a lot to say about animals, because they’re such a major part of creation and the lives of people.

Because the scriptures were written by people who lived in one geographical part of the world, those are the animals we read about in these texts.

But we can gain insight and learn from these scriptures no matter where in the world we live, and which animals are our neighbors.

Let’s take a look at 39 Bible verses that mention animals and the lessons we can learn from these scriptures:

Creation and People’s Responsibility Over It

Animals are mentioned in the first chapter of the Bible’s first book.

The Creation Story

1. Genesis 1:20-23—”God said, ‘Let the waters abound with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the sky.’ God created the large sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed, after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind. God saw that it was good. 

“God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.’ There was evening and there was morning, a fifth day.”

2. Genesis 1:24-25—”God said, ‘Let the earth produce living creatures after their kind, livestock, creeping things, and animals of the earth after their kind,’ and it was so. God made the animals of the earth after their kind, and the livestock after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind. God saw that it was good.”

3. Genesis 1:26—”God said, ‘Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ “

4. Genesis 2:19-20—”Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature became its name. The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper comparable to him.”

A Reminder of People’s Responsibility

5. Genesis 9:2-3—”The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand. Every moving thing that lives will be food for you. As I gave you the green herb, I have given everything to you.” (This is the Lord talking to Noah)

6. Psalm 8:6-8—”You [God] make him [man, meaning mankind] ruler over the works of Your hands. You have put all things under his feet:All sheep and cattle, yes, and the animals of the field, the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and whatever passes through the paths of the seas.”

Key Takeaways

God created the animals intentionally, and eventually placed them under the care and authority of His final creation: people.

Animals and people have coexisted for a very long time. When Adam and Eve sinned, the judgment for that sin wasn’t just on them—all of creation has suffered under that curse.

While the Lord have the authority and responsibility first to Adam, He repeated that charge to Noah and his descendants. All of us carry that responsibility.

Historically, people have swung from doing a horrible, cruel job to placing a higher priority on animals than people.

To think about:

• How can we love the Lord well by stewarding the care and authority over the animals well?
• Where should animals be in order of priority for our affections, money and time?

God Cares for the Animals

When God created the animals, He provided care for them in the earth…and part of our authority and care of the earth is care for the animals.

God’s Part

7. Psalm 104:10-14—”He sends springs into the valleys. They run among the mountains. They give drink to every animal of the field. The wild donkeys quench their thirst. The birds of the sky nest by them. They sing among the branches.

“He waters the mountains from His rooms. The earth is filled with the fruit of Your works. He causes the grass to grow for the livestock, and plants for man to cultivate, that he may produce food out of the earth.”

8. Psalm 147:9—”He provides food for the livestock, and for the young ravens when they call.”

9. Matthew 6:26—”See the birds of the sky, that they don’t sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns. Your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you of much more value than they?”

10. Matthew 10:29—”“Aren’t two sparrows sold for an assarion coin [a coin of small value]? Not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will.”

11. Luke 12:6—“Aren’t five sparrows sold for two assaria coins? Not one of them is forgotten by God.”

12. Luke 12:24—”Consider the ravens: they don’t sow, they don’t reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds!”

Our Part

13. Proverbs 12:10—”A righteous man respects the life of his animal, but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.”

14. Jonah 4:11—”Shouldn’t I [God] be concerned for Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred twenty thousand persons who can’t discern between their right hand and their left hand, and also many animals?”

Key Takeaways

God created the ecosystems of the earth to provide for the animals He created.

The Lord illustrates His care for us by drawing our attention to His care for the animals.

Because He takes such good care of them, part of our earthly responsibility is to treat animal life humanely as much as is possible for us. Cruelty has no part in our lives.

To think about:

• In my experience, the more I learn about the amazing natural world, the more I’m grateful that I can trust the Lord’s amazing wisdom and creativity in my own life. How about you?
• Treating animals humanely doesn’t mean they should have higher priority than people.

Practical Care and Wisdom for Animals

If you’ve never read the Bible, it might surprise you that the Lord gives people practical instruction for caring for animals…even the animals of your enemy:

15. Exodus 20:10—”but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates.”

16. Exodus 23:4-5—“If you meet your enemy’s ox or his donkey going astray, you shall surely bring it back to him again. If you see the donkey of him who hates you fallen down under his burden, don’t leave him. You shall surely help him with it.”

17. Leviticus 25:6-7—[This verse is talking about giving the land a Sabbath every seven years] “The Sabbath of the land shall be for food for you; for yourself, for your servant, for your maid, for your hired servant, and for your stranger, who lives as a foreigner with you. For your livestock also, and for the animals that are in your land, shall all its increase be for food.”

18.Deuteronomy 22:6-7—”If you come across a bird’s nest on the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young. You shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself, that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days.”

19. Deuteronomy 25:4—”You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain.”

People, Animals and Analogy

20. Proverbs 14:4—”Where no oxen are, the manger is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox.”

21. Luke 13:15—”Therefore the Lord answered him, ‘You hypocrites! Doesn’t each one of you free his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath and lead him away to water?’ “

[Jesus talking with the Pharisees’ hypocrisy about the Sabbath and their criticizing Him for healing a man.]

22. James 3:7-8—”For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and sea creature is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind; but nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”

Key Takeaways

Some of the laws God gave Moses included very specific provisions for animal welfare.

We can’t have the benefits of the “strength of the ox” without the messes that come with it. That applies to all of life.

To think about:

• Is it true that we spend more time taming/training our new puppy than working on the words that come out of our mouths to other people? Especially the people who share our home with that puppy?
• The Bible is immensely practical!

Lessons We Can Learn from the Animals

Specifically, lessons about how to honor the Lord:

Lessons from Job

23. Job 12:7-10—“But ask the animals now, and they will teach you; the birds of the sky, and they will tell you. Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you. The fish of the sea will declare to you. Who doesn’t know that in all these, Yahweh’s hand has done this, in whose hand is the life of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind?”

24. Job 35:11—”…[God] who teaches us more than the animals of the earth, and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky?”

Several chapters at the end of Job are the Lord reprimanding Job by discussing the animal world. Here are a few segments of that monologue:

25. Job 39:1-4, 19-21, 26-29—”Do you know the time when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears fawns? Can you count the months that they fulfill? Or do you know the time when they give birth? They bow themselves. They bear their young. They end their labor pains. Their young ones become strong. They grow up in the open field. They go out, and don’t return again…

“Have you given the horse might? Have you clothed his neck with a quivering mane? Have you made him to leap as a locust? The glory of his snorting is awesome. He paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength. He goes out to meet the armed men…

“Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south? Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high? On the cliff he dwells and makes his home, on the point of the cliff and the stronghold.From there he spies out the prey. His eyes see it afar off.”

Follow These Animals Examples

26. Proverbs 6:6-8—”Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise; which having no chief, overseer, or ruler, provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.”

(Sluggard is one of those great words that we should bring back into common use, lol!)

27. Proverbs 30:24-28—”There are four things which are little on the earth, but they are exceedingly wise: The ants are not a strong people, yet they provide their food in the summer. The hyraxes are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks. The locusts have no king, yet they advance in ranks. You can catch a lizard with your hands, yet it is in kings’ palaces.”

(A hyrax is a small, furry mammal native to the Middle East and Africa.)

28. Jeremiah 8:7—”Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times. The turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their coming; but my people don’t know Yahweh’s law.”

Key Takeaways

What animals demonstrate by instinct has been created into them by the Lord.

In a similar way, humans have a kind of instinct about Someone beyond our selves. Yet, the Lord gives us moral choice—something He didn’t create in the animals. While animals simply follow their instinct, we can choose to love and follow God or reject Him.

Sometimes the Lord needs to take us down a few pegs, like He did with Job. And Job responded rightly by humbling himself and repenting.

To think about:

• Dogs are popular pets because they’re so good at showing unconditional love. We can learn from that!
• One of the best (and most fun) ways to teach kids responsibility is to have pets in the home.
• The more details we learn about the animal kingdom, the more in awe we are with God’s wisdom and creativity.

Animals are Part of God’s Redemptive Plan

It seems from the Bible that animals are part of the Lord’s eternal plan and not just current residents of this earth. That’s good news!

29. Ecclesiastes 3:19-21—”For that which happens to the sons of men happens to animals. Even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so the other dies. Yes, they have all one breath; and man has no advantage over the animals, for all is vanity. All go to one place. All are from the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knows the spirit of man, whether it goes upward, and the spirit of the animal, whether it goes downward to the earth?”

30. Romans 8:19-22—”For the creation waits with eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to vanity, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of decay into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.”

Animals in the New Heavens and Earth

31. Isaiah 11:6—”The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf, the young lion, and the fattened calf together; and a little child will lead them.”

32. Isaiah 65:25—” ‘The wolf and the lamb will feed together. The lion will eat straw like the ox. Dust will be the serpent’s food. They will not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain,’ says Yahweh.”

33. Hosea 2:18—”In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down safely.”

34. Revelation 5:13—” I heard every created thing which is in heaven, on the earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them, saying, ‘To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion, forever and ever! Amen!’ “

Key Takeaways

Do animals have spirits? Are there animals in heaven now? Like a pet that’s died? I don’t know, but I wonder if they have something like a spirit.

Since they don’t have moral choice, they’re not morally responsible like humans are, but maybe they have some kind of non-moral spirit. We’ll find out one day!

It certainly seems the case that animals will be a big part of the New Earth one day when “every tear is wiped away.” When that day comes, I’ve told my kids, I want a pet tiger!

To think about:

• God obviously loves life in an abundance of shapes, colors and sizes. Isn’t it interesting that He created so much life, yet it’s only with people that He can have a relationship?
• It seems that some of the peace described one day between the animals by Isaiah is available to us now as a fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Animals in Worship & Sacrifice in the Bible

Many people have a very hard time with the practice of animal sacrifice in the Bible. In a large part, that’s because most of us don’t take sin seriously enough and don’t take God’s holiness seriously enough.

These are both very big deals in the Bible. And if they’re important to the Lord, they need to be important to us as Christians.

35. Genesis 8:20—”Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal, and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.”

36. Leviticus 1:2—”Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘When anyone of you offers an offering to Yahweh, you shall offer your offering of the livestock, from the herd and from the flock.’ “

37. Psalm 50:10—”For every animal of the forest is Mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.”

38. Isaiah 1:11, 16—” ‘What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?’ says Yahweh. ‘I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats…Wash yourselves. Make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes.’ “

39. John 1:29—”The next day, he [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’ “

Key Takeaways

It’s clear in the Bible that God is very much against the taking of human life. Animal life, though, had to be taken as a sacrifice to Him to worship and to repent of sin.

Just the fact that He commanded animal sacrifice when we can see that He values animals as part of His creation shows us the seriousness of the sacrificial system.

Because Jesus came as the Lamb of God [John is comparing Him to the Passover lamb killed each year] we’re no longer under the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. Jesus’ blood on the cross was the final sacrifice for those who accept it and turn their lives around to follow Him.

To think about:

• That verse in Psalm 50 both acknowledges God’s sovereign rule and encourages us about His provision. He owns it all!
• When was the last time you really explored the books of the law in the Old Testament and tried to understand what all those sacrifices were about?
• And then we have Isaiah’s prophecy, where God says no more going to Him with the required sacrifices when we’re not turning our hearts to Him. No false worship. What’s the correlation for us today?

Wrapping It Up

Life would be so much less full without our pets, the wildlife, birds flying around—all the creatures great and small.

For now, there’s a lot of conflict between the animals, and between humans and animals. But one day, those who love and follow the Lord will get to experience a future without that conflict.

Something to look forward to, even while we enjoy the animal life around us in the meantime.

All photos by Sharon Brodin

Bible verses from World English Bible, public domain.

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