Bible verses about
Bible Verses About Rest
There is a particular exhaustion that does not lift when you sit down. The body stops and the mind carries on doing the accounts.
Scripture takes rest more seriously than most of us do. It is written into the week as a command, given as an invitation, and used as a picture of the whole thing God is doing. What it is almost never is a reward for having finished.
Twelve passages below, quoted in full in both translations. The recurring surprise is how much of the resting is described as something done to you rather than something you achieve.
12 verses for when you need them
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28 ESVCome unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28 KJVThe invitation is addressed to people already carrying something, not to people who have put it down. Come is the only verb asked of you; the giving is his.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Matthew 11:29-30 ESVTake my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11:29-30 KJVA yoke is still work — this is not an offer of idleness. What changes is what you are harnessed to and who is pulling beside you, which is why the next word is learn rather than relax.
Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates.
Exodus 20:9-10 ESVSix days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:
Exodus 20:9-10 KJVThe half of the sabbath commandment most people skip is the first: six days shall you labour. The week is being defined at both ends, and the stopping is commanded in the middle of unfinished work, not after it.
He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters.
Psalm 23:2 ESVHe maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
Psalm 23:2 KJVMaketh me to lie down — the verb is causative, and that is the honest part. Sheep do not lie down while they are anxious, so the shepherd has to make the conditions before the rest is possible.
And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.
Genesis 2:2-3 ESVAnd on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
Genesis 2:2-3 KJVThe pattern is set before any of the rules. God rests having finished, and blesses the day itself — so rest is written into the shape of the world rather than added later as a concession to tiredness.
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:9-10 ESVThere remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:9-10 KJVRest here is a place you enter rather than an hour you take. The comparison is to God ceasing from his works, which makes this the largest thing the word is asked to carry in Scripture.
It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep.
Psalm 127:2 ESVIt is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
Psalm 127:2 KJVAimed squarely at the early riser who stays up late. The verse does not say the work is wrong; it says the anxiety added to it is wasted, and it ends with sleep described as a gift rather than a lapse.
And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.
Mark 6:31 ESVAnd he said unto them, Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while: for there were many coming and going, and they had no leisure so much as to eat.
Mark 6:31 KJVJesus tells his own people to come away and rest, and the reason given is that there were so many coming and going they had no leisure to eat. Withdrawal here is a response to demand, not a reward for meeting it.
Thus says the LORD: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
Jeremiah 6:16 ESVThus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
Jeremiah 6:16 KJVAsk for the old paths, and you shall find rest. The rest is the outcome of a decision about which way to walk — and the verse ends with the people saying they will not walk in it, which is the part usually left out.
For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling,
Isaiah 30:15 ESVFor thus saith the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.
Isaiah 30:15 KJVIn returning and rest shall ye be saved. Then the same sentence records the refusal: and ye would not. It is the rare verse that names the remedy and the rejection in one breath.
For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation.
Psalm 62:1 ESVTruly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.
Psalm 62:1 KJVWaiteth, or is silent. The soul is doing something here, and the something is stopping — which is harder than it sounds and is why the psalm has to say it twice before the chapter is out.
And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Exodus 33:14 ESVAnd he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
Exodus 33:14 KJVMy presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Said to Moses in the middle of a journey, not at the end of one, so the rest promised travels rather than waiting at the destination.
Three different things get called rest here and it helps to keep them apart.
There is rest as a command — Exodus, one day in seven, written into the same list as do not murder. There is rest as an invitation — Matthew 11, offered to people already carrying something. And there is rest as a place, the thing Hebrews calls entering his rest, which is bigger than a nap and further off than tomorrow.
What almost none of it is: a reward for finishing. The command lands in the middle of unfinished work, and the invitation is addressed to the people who are still carrying the load.
If you are the sort of woman who rests only once everything is done, Exodus 20:9-10 is the uncomfortable one. It does not say rest when you are finished. It says six days, and then stop.
Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version, which is in the public domain. Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.