Animals play an important role throughout the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. Here is an overview of some of the key Bible passages that mention animals:
Genesis 1-2 – God Creates the Animals
In Genesis 1, God creates the animals on the 5th and 6th days of creation. He makes the livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to their kind (Genesis 1:24-25). God sees that his creation of animals is good (Genesis 1:25). In Genesis 2, God brings the animals he formed to the man to see what he would name them. The man gives names to all the livestock, birds, and beasts (Genesis 2:19-20).
Genesis 6-9 – Animals on the Ark
When God destroys the earth with a flood in Genesis 6-9, he commands Noah to build an ark and fill it with animals to preserve life. God instructs Noah to take pairs of every kind of animal, male and female, along with provisions to feed them (Genesis 6:19-21). Genesis 7 lists clean and unclean animals that went into the ark. After the flood, God permits Noah and his family to eat meat, but not blood, because life is in the blood (Genesis 9:1-7).
Exodus – Animal Sacrifices and Labor
In Exodus, animals are used for sacrifices and labor. Instructions are given for what kinds of animals may be sacrificed and how to perform the sacrifices (Exodus 12:5, 29:10-42). Oxens and donkeys are also used for labor and transportation, such as carrying the tablets of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 32:19).
Leviticus – Purity Laws and Sacrifices
Leviticus contains many of the purity laws in the Old Testament, including which animals are clean and unclean (Leviticus 11). Only clean animals may be eaten or sacrificed. There are detailed procedures for animal sacrifices, including sin offerings, guilt offerings, and peace offerings (Leviticus 1-7). Instructions are also given for how to deal with animals with diseases like mildew or skin infections (Leviticus 13-14).
Numbers – Donkeys, Livestock Census, and Meat
In Numbers, donkeys are mentioned frequently as pack animals (Numbers 22:21-33). A census counts the livestock of the Israelites, including sheep, goats, and cattle (Numbers 31:28-47). After complaining about only having manna to eat, God sends vast quantities of quail that the Israelites gather into heaps to eat (Numbers 11:31-32).
Deuteronomy – Kosher Laws, Oxens, and Eating Meat
Deuteronomy 14 reviews which animals may and may not be eaten. Cattle, sheep, goats, deer, and clean birds, fish, and insects are permitted. Unclean animals like pigs, rabbits, eagles, and insects are forbidden (Deuteronomy 14:3-20). Oxen are not to be muzzled when treading out grain (Deuteronomy 25:4). Deuteronomy 12 instructs the Israelites to slaughter their livestock and eat meat in the place God chooses once they enter the Promised Land.
1 Kings – Solomon’s Provisions
1 Kings details the extensive daily provisions from animals to feed King Solomon’s court: 30 cattle, 100 sheep and goats, deer, gazelles, roebucks, and choice fowl (1 Kings 4:22-23). This demonstrates Solomon’s wealth and resources.
Job – God’s Care for Animals
Job describes many animals God created, including the mountain goat, deer, ostrich, horse, hawk, and eagle (Job 39). God provides prey for the lion and food for the raven (Job 38:39-41). This shows God’s sovereignty and care for his creation.
Psalms – God’s Sovereignty Over Animals
The Psalms praise God as sovereign over the animal kingdom. He makes the animals and feeds them (Psalm 104:10-30). God knows when the mountain goats and deer give birth (Psalm 29:9). He sets all the wild animals free and owns the cattle on a thousand hills (Psalm 50:10-11).
Proverbs – Learning From Animals
Proverbs points out traits we can learn from animals, such as ants and badgers being wise and industrious (Proverbs 6:6, 30:24-28). Lions are strong and fearless (Proverbs 30:29-30). The book advises learning from the diligence, organization, and planning of lowly creatures.
Isaiah – Animals in Prophecy
Isaiah contains visions of future peace when predators like wolves, leopards, lions and bears will live in harmony with livestock and children (Isaiah 11:6-9, 65:25). The book also foretells judgment, when Babylon will become a swamp inhabited by desert creatures (Isaiah 13:19-22).
Jeremiah – God’s Power Over Animals
Jeremiah proclaims God’s dominion over animals. He made them, he controls where they live, and he withholds their breath and causes them to perish (Jeremiah 27:5-6, 32:27). Jeremiah calls Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon a lion coming to devour Judah (Jeremiah 4:7).
Ezekiel – Visions of Heavenly Beings and Animals
Ezekiel’s visions include mysterious heavenly beings with the faces of a man, lion, ox and eagle (Ezekiel 1:10). He sees creatures transporting God’s throne (Ezekiel 1:5-25). In a temple vision, carvings of lions, oxen and cherubim adorn the walls (Ezekiel 41:18-20).
Daniel – Lions and Beasts
The book of Daniel features episodes involving animals. Daniel is thrown into a lions’ den as punishment but miraculously survives (Daniel 6). He also has visions of four great beasts representing kingdoms, including a lion with eagle’s wings and a leopard with four heads (Daniel 7).
Jonah – God’s Care for Animals
In Jonah, God shows care for animals in addition to people. After Jonah preaches and the Ninevites repent, God spares the people and animals of the city from destruction (Jonah 3:7-8). When Jonah is angry about this, God explains his compassion extends even to animals (Jonah 4:11).
New Testament – Jesus and Animals
In the Gospels, Jesus communicates lessons using animals like sheep, wolves, dogs, serpents, doves, and hens (Matthew 10:16, 23:27, Luke 13:34). He rides a donkey into Jerusalem (Matthew 21:1-11). He casts demons out of a man into a herd of pigs (Luke 8:26-39). Jesus is called the lamb of God (John 1:29-36).
Revelation – Animals in Prophecy
Revelation is filled with symbolic visions involving animals. Jesus is called the Lion of Judah (Revelation 5:5). Four horsemen ride different colored horses bringing judgment (Revelation 6:1-8). The locusts, frogs and beasts also represent end times judgments. Christ returns on a white horse followed by the armies of heaven (Revelation 19:11-16).
These are some of the key passages involving animals throughout Scripture. From creation to the new creation, animals play an important role in God’s purposes. He cares for them, uses them to teach lessons, and will restore harmony between animals and humans one day.
Key themes in the Bible regarding animals include:
- God created the great variety of animal life.
- God cares for and sustains the animals he made.
- Animals are part of God’s providential plans.
- Both clean and unclean animals exist.
- Animals are used symbolically in prophecy and visions.
- Animals can display wisdom and diligence.
- Peaceful coexistence with animals is God’s ideal.
- Jesus is described as both Lamb and Lion.
As these passages demonstrate throughout Scripture, animals play a significant role in God’s purposes and plans. While at times they may symbolize evil forces needing to be overcome, such as predatory beasts, ultimately God desires peaceful coexistence between humans and animals. He cares for all his creatures, from the smallest to the greatest. The Bible’s message is that animals matter to God.
Some key Bible verses about animals include:
“God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:25)
“Of the clean animals, and of the animals that are not clean, and of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.” (Genesis 7:8-9)
“Every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills.” (Psalm 50:10)
“Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.” (Luke 12:6)
“The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, says the Lord.” (Isaiah 65:25)
“Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes! I hold back the petals from flowing, yet they leave me for another. Cast me upon your beast, and allow me to drink of your wisdom. Guide me to the pasture of enlightenment, where I shall fear no predators of the soul. For you are with me in spirit; your rod and staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 119:12-14, Paraphrase)
“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Matthew 6:26-29)
“Wherefore if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? For after all these things do the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.” (Matthew 6:30-32)
“Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.” (Proverbs 12:10)
“For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer.” (1 Timothy 4:4-5)
“And God said, ‘Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens.’ So God created the great sea creatures and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.” (Genesis 1:20-21)
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.” (Matthew 10:29)
“For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind.” (James 3:7)
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.” (1 Peter 3:18-19)
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” (Job 12:7-10)
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 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 that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:1-3)
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’ And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.'” (Genesis 1:27-29)
“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.'” (Genesis 1:26)
“The lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.” (Psalm 104:21)
“Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?” (Matthew 6:26)
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11:6)
“Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming, but my people know not the rules of the Lord.” (Jeremiah 8:7)
“Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.” (Matthew 10:29)
“For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.” (Psalm 50:10-11)
“Where you will die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” (Ruth 1:17)
“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4)
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
“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.” (John 3:16-17)
“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 3:5-6)
These and many other Bible verses help reveal the importance of animals in God’s creation and His plan of redemption. From the smallest ant to the largest whale, animals matter to God. He takes care of them, uses them in His plans, and will one day bring about perfect harmony between them and mankind through Jesus Christ.