Bible Verses AboutLonging
Bible verses about Longing
Longing, that deep yearning within, is a universal human experience, and the Bible speaks profoundly to this very feeling. Scripture reveals that our deepest longings are often a reflection of our desire for God, for connection, and for purpose. By exploring Bible verses about longing, we gain insight into how to navigate these powerful emotions. We discover that God understands our yearnings, offering comfort, hope, and direction. These verses illuminate the path towards fulfilling our true desires through faith, surrender, and a deeper relationship with the divine, ultimately leading us closer to the ultimate source of satisfaction and peace.
Most Helpful Verses
Begin with these carefully selected verses that address this topic most directly.
My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.
Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
Scripture Passages
And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.
Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar,
And Isaac answered and said unto Esau, Behold, I have made him thy lord, and all his brethren have I given to him for servants; and with corn and wine have I sustained him: and what shall I do now unto thee, my son?
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts.
Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me: Lord, be thou my helper.
But if thou say to me, We trust in the Lord our God: is it not he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and said to Judah and to Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar?
Many times did he deliver them; but they provoked him with their counsel, and were brought low for their iniquity.
Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.
And her two sons; of which the name of the one was Gershom; for he said, I have been an alien in a strange land:
What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou fairest among women? what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?
And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons: Reuben, Jacob’s firstborn.
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
The children of Bazlith, the children of Mehida, the children of Harsha,
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it.
Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.
For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
Hear, O our God; for we are despised: and turn their reproach upon their own head, and give them for a prey in the land of captivity:
Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.
Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.
Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.
My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: I say, more than they that watch for the morning.
And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.
This is my rest for ever: here will I dwell; for I have desired it.
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.
So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord.
And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness.
This is the land that yet remaineth: all the borders of the Philistines, and all Geshuri,
All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.
And Jair died, and was buried in Camon.
And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred.
Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice; Selah.
The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
And the time drew nigh that Israel must die: and he called his son Joseph, and said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh, and deal kindly and truly with me; bury me not, I pray thee, in Egypt:
Then the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.
I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me: I stand up, and thou regardest me not.
And Joseph fell upon his father’s face, and wept upon him, and kissed him.
And there were certain men, who were defiled by the dead body of a man, that they could not keep the passover on that day: and they came before Moses and before Aaron on that day:
Make haste, my beloved, and be thou like to a roe or to a young hart upon the mountains of spices.
O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.
But as an hired servant, and as a sojourner, he shall be with thee, and shall serve thee unto the year of jubile:
In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.
Deliver me from the oppression of man: so will I keep thy precepts.
When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.
Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:
And if it be not redeemed within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city shall be established for ever to him that bought it throughout his generations: it shall not go out in the jubile.
I intreated thy favour with my whole heart: be merciful unto me according to thy word.
And he said, Speak, I pray thee, unto Solomon the king, (for he will not say thee nay,) that he give me Abishag the Shunammite to wife.
The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.
And Moses told these sayings unto all the children of Israel: and the people mourned greatly.
And in the valley, Eshtaol, and Zoreah, and Ashnah,
Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them: and after that his brethren talked with him.
With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
I hate vain thoughts: but thy law do I love.
And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.
We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.
Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?
His left hand should be under my head, and his right hand should embrace me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the heathen, to give thanks unto thy holy name, and to triumph in thy praise.
And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.
Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks upon you: I am the Lord.
And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of musick shall be brought low;
Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar.
And, behold, as thy life was much set by this day in mine eyes, so let my life be much set by in the eyes of the Lord, and let him deliver me out of all tribulation.
And they departed from Rithmah, and pitched at Rimmon–parez.
Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.
And when money failed in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came unto Joseph, and said, Give us bread: for why should we die in thy presence? for the money faileth.
And thou shalt put it before the vail that is by the ark of the testimony, before the mercy seat that is over the testimony, where I will meet with thee.
In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God: he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, even into his ears.
O Lord God of hosts, how long wilt thou be angry against the prayer of thy people?
But thou, O Lord, shalt endure for ever; and thy remembrance unto all generations.
Arise, O Lord, into thy rest; thou, and the ark of thy strength.
And they went from Mithcah, and pitched in Hashmonah.
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
And the people journeyed from Kibroth–hattaavah unto Hazeroth; and abode at Hazeroth.
So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king’s face.
And Absalom answered Joab, Behold, I sent unto thee, saying, Come hither, that I may send thee to the king, to say, Wherefore am I come from Geshur? it had been good for me to have been there still: now therefore let me see the king’s face; and if there be any iniquity in me, let him kill me.
And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me;
Remove from me the way of lying: and grant me thy law graciously.
Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
And Moses went up from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. And the Lord shewed him all the land of Gilead, unto Dan,
And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.
And they removed from Ezion–gaber, and pitched in the wilderness of Zin, which is Kadesh.
Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
Envy thou not the oppressor, and choose none of his ways.
And Saul built an altar unto the Lord: the same was the first altar that he built unto the Lord.
For it is the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
Hearken unto me, ye stouthearted, that are far from righteousness:
Verily thou art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour.
Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
And these are the names of the sons of Ishmael, by their names, according to their generations: the firstborn of Ishmael, Nebajoth; and Kedar, and Adbeel, and Mibsam,
And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.
So will not we go back from thee: quicken us, and we will call upon thy name.
And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.
And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.
My hands also will I lift up unto thy commandments, which I have loved; and I will meditate in thy statutes.
Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit faileth: hide not thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
And thou, my lord, O king, the eyes of all Israel are upon thee, that thou shouldest tell them who shall sit on the throne of my lord the king after him.
And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
And Jacob came out of the field in the evening, and Leah went out to meet him, and said, Thou must come in unto me; for surely I have hired thee with my son’s mandrakes. And he lay with her that night.
The Lord therefore be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and deliver me out of thine hand.
O my God, I trust in thee: let me not be ashamed, let not mine enemies triumph over me.
Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me: for thou art my strength.
And thou saidst unto thy servants, Bring him down unto me, that I may set mine eyes upon him.
Then Jesse made Shammah to pass by. And he said, Neither hath the Lord chosen this.
And he shall wave the sheaf before the Lord, to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the sabbath the priest shall wave it.
And David said to Joab, and to all the people that were with him, Rend your clothes, and gird you with sackcloth, and mourn before Abner. And king David himself followed the bier.
Then we turned, and took our journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red sea, as the Lord spake unto me: and we compassed mount Seir many days.
Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.
And Moses went and returned to Jethro his father in law, and said unto him, Let me go, I pray thee, and return unto my brethren which are in Egypt, and see whether they be yet alive. And Jethro said to Moses, Go in peace.
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
Then came the children of Israel, even the whole congregation, into the desert of Zin in the first month: and the people abode in Kadesh; and Miriam died there, and was buried there.
He shall not make himself unclean for his father, or for his mother, for his brother, or for his sister, when they die: because the consecration of his God is upon his head.
Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?
And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred.
And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
And the separate cities for the children of Ephraim were among the inheritance of the children of Manasseh, all the cities with their villages.
He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan by Jericho.
If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherds’ tents.
And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath–jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.
Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?
And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
And when they went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people;
Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
And the sons of Kohath by their families; Amram, and Izehar, Hebron, and Uzziel.
Then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and give to every man according to his ways, whose heart thou knowest; (for thou, even thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children of men;)
Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet, with other delights, who put on ornaments of gold upon your apparel.
For what hath the wise more than the fool? what hath the poor, that knoweth to walk before the living?
I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.
None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:
For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.
O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:
I prevented the dawning of the morning, and cried: I hoped in thy word.
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
And she said unto him, Give me a blessing: for thou hast given me a south land; give me also springs of water. And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs.
Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.
And Moses went out from Pharaoh, and intreated the Lord.
And the young man deferred not to do the thing, because he had delight in Jacob’s daughter: and he was more honourable than all the house of his father.
Then said the king to Ziba, Behold, thine are all that pertained unto Mephibosheth. And Ziba said, I humbly beseech thee that I may find grace in thy sight, my lord, O king.
When thou art departed from me to day, then thou shalt find two men by Rachel’s sepulchre in the border of Benjamin at Zelzah; and they will say unto thee, The asses which thou wentest to seek are found: and, lo, thy father hath left the care of the asses, and sorroweth for you, saying, What shall I do for my son?
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
And Rachel and Leah answered and said unto him, Is there yet any portion or inheritance for us in our father’s house?
Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
Nevertheless thou shalt not build the house; but thy son that shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house unto my name.
And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days: and his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.
And at the stream of the brooks that goeth down to the dwelling of Ar, and lieth upon the border of Moab.
So it came to pass, when all the men of war were consumed and dead from among the people,
And Samuel died; and all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him, and buried him in his house at Ramah. And David arose, and went down to the wilderness of Paran.
Let not thine heart envy sinners: but be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.
And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake.
And Jacob sod pottage: and Esau came from the field, and he was faint:
Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!
Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O Lord, according to thy lovingkindness.
And they departed from the mountains of Abarim, and pitched in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.
And to them which were in Aroer, and to them which were in Siphmoth, and to them which were in Eshtemoa,
And give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.
Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning; and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even:
I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother: I bowed down heavily, as one that mourneth for his mother.
One kid of the goats for a sin offering:
They run and prepare themselves without my fault: awake to help me, and behold.
So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children.
Let the sinners be consumed out of the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.
Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury; thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out.
I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord; and I will heal him.
Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.
Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
Let thy servant, I pray thee, turn back again, that I may die in mine own city, and be buried by the grave of my father and of my mother. But behold thy servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good unto thee.
Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the Lord be not as sheep which have no shepherd.
Now therefore when I come to thy servant my father, and the lad be not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lad’s life;
My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman’s part: but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the Lord liveth: lie down until the morning.
Of Dan; Ahiezer the son of Ammishaddai.
Yea, all kings shall fall down before him: all nations shall serve him.
For Pharaoh will say of the children of Israel, They are entangled in the land, the wilderness hath shut them in.
One kid of the goats for a sin offering:
And they said one to another, Let us make a captain, and let us return into Egypt.
And Moses went down from the mount unto the people, and sanctified the people; and they washed their clothes.
And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.
For ye are not as yet come to the rest and to the inheritance, which the Lord your God giveth you.
Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years.
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
Reflection
Contemplating Longing
The verses explored reveal that longing, in its many forms, is a deeply human experience acknowledged and addressed throughout the Bible. Whether it’s a yearning for God's presence, a desire for justice, a hope for restoration, or even the ache of unfulfilled earthly desires, Scripture offers comfort, guidance, and perspective. These passages remind us that our longings are not inherently negative; they can be powerful motivators that draw us closer to God, prompting us to seek Him more earnestly and to align our desires with His will. Reflecting on these verses, consider what you truly long for. Are your desires rooted in temporal satisfaction or eternal purpose? Use your longings as an invitation to deepen your relationship with God, trusting that He will either fulfill them according to His perfect plan or transform them into something even more meaningful.
May these verses about longing bring wisdom and guidance to your spiritual journey
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