While the Word of God is no laughing matter, I must admit that a few times while reading the Bible I have come across verses that made me chuckle to myself. It is important for us to keep a reverent mindset while reading the Bible, but I have to think that God has a good sense of humor, after all, it was God Himself who created laughter in the first place!
Proverbs 17: 22 tells us that a cheerful heart is good medicine, so, let’s take a look at some verses from the Bible that are sure to leave a giggle in your gut and a grin above your chin.
Finding Humor in the Bible
When reading the Bible, we are often in our quiet time with God, in a Bible study group, at Sunday School, or in church following along with the sermon.
In those times we don’t usually expect to be laughing or to find humor in the Bible, but I think you will agree that some of these scriptures are just downright funny!
The great thing about the word of God is that it is ‘living and active’. The Bible is not just some boring old book, as some would say, but its pages are filled with chunks of wisdom, exciting tales of great battles fought, inspiring stories of heroes of old, the heartwarming, yet humbling, truth that God gave His own Son to save us from our sins, and yes, even funny stories and verses to lighten our days.
Funny Bible Verses
- Song of Solomon 4: 2 NLT – “Your teeth are as white as sheep, recently shorn and freshly washed. Your smile is flawless, each tooth matched with its twin.”
Wow! What a gentleman! Could you imagine your husband giving you this compliment? “Honey, I just wanted to tell you, your teeth are whiter than sheep that just got out of the bath, they all match and none of them are missing.”
- Genesis 25: 29-30 NASB “29 When Jacob had cooked stew, Esau came in from the field and he was weary, 30 and Esau said to Jacob, “Please let me have a swallow of that red stuff there, for I am famished.” Therefore his name was called Edom[I.e. Red].”
Esau just walks up to his brother and says, “Can I have a swallow of that red stuff there?” Then the Bible tells us that from that moment on he was also called red, which just makes this even more humorous.
- Proverbs 11: 22 NASB – “As a ring of gold in a swine’s snout, so is a beautiful woman who lacks taste.”
This one just puts a funny image in the mind! I guess it’s kinda true though?
- Song of Solomon 4: 1 NASB – “How beautiful you are, my darling, How beautiful you are!… Your hair is like a flock of goats that have descended from Mount Gilead.”
I could be wrong, but last I checked, comparing a woman’s hair to a bunch of goats probably isn’t a good idea!
- 2 Kings 2: 23 NLT – “Elisha left Jericho and went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, a group of boys from the town began mocking and making fun of him. “Go away, baldy!” they chanted. “Go away, baldy!”
At first, this one seems funny, but then you read the next verse and are left stunned! The next verse says that Elisha turned around and looked straight at them and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord and then immediately two female bears came out of the woods and ate them all! He showed them just what happens when you make fun of a profit.
- Proverbs 21: 9 CSB – “Better to live on the corner of a roof than to share a house with a nagging wife.”
He has a good point!
- Ezekiel 4: 12 NLT – “Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes. While all of the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel and then eat the bread.”
I’m not sure whether this is funny or gross, but it is in the Bible. God instructed Ezekiel to do this as a symbol of times that would soon come upon Israel. But don’t worry, in verse 15, God lets old ‘Zeke’ use cow dung instead of its human counterparts!
- Mark 14: 51-52 NLT – “50 Then all His disciples deserted him and ran away. 51 One young man following behind was clothed only in a long linen shirt. When the mob tried to grab him, 52 he slipped out of his shirt and ran away naked.”
Just a funny story of a guy following Jesus and the disciples when a mob of angry Jews came after him. He was so scared for his life he didn’t even fight to keep his shirt and ran away!
- Proverbs 27: 15-16 NLT – “15 A quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping on a rainy day. 16 Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind or trying to hold something with greased hands.”
It’s almost as if King Solomon is writing from personal experience here. I don’t think we will have much luck trying to stop the wind!
- Proverbs 27: 14 NASB – “He who blesses his friend with a loud voice early in the morning, It will be reckoned a curse to him.”
If you’ve ever disturbed a non-morning person early in the morning, then you know exactly what he means here!
- Acts 20: 9 NASB – “And there was a young man named Eutychus sitting on the window sill, sinking into a deep sleep; and as Paul kept on talking, he was overcome by sleep and fell down from the third floor and was picked up dead.”
I remember reading this story years ago with my brother. We both shared a good laugh…mostly because we both had struggled to stay awake during sermons before, just like poor Eutychus. Poor guy got sleepy and not only fell asleep, but fell clean out the window and died during the middle of Paul’s teaching! But don’t worry; in the next verse, Paul went down and raised him from the dead.
- Joshua 13: 1 NASB – “Now Joshua was old and advanced in years when the LORD said to him, “You are old and advanced in years…”
God… telling them like it is since…well…since forever.
- Song of Solomon 7: 2 NASB – “Your navel is like a round goblet Which never lacks mixed wine; Your belly is like a heap of wheat Fenced about with lilies.”
I chuckled out loud as I was reading this one. Honey, “your navel is like a round goblet and your belly is like a heap of wheat.”
- Mark 9: 33-34 NLT – “After they arrived at Capernaum and settled in a house, Jesus asked His disciples, ‘What were you discussing out on the road?’ 34 But they didn’t answer, because they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest.”
Caught redhanded, as they say.
- 1 Samuel 6: 4 KJV – “…What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods[hemerhoids], and five golden mice…”
- Proverbs 21: 19 NIV – “Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and nagging wife.”
He’s not wrong. That’s all I can say!
- Exodus 32: 24 NASB – “I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.“
Here, Aaron is trying to tell Moses what happened when he was up on the mountain with God. Surely, he didn’t really think that Moses would actually believe the calf just mysteriously popped out of nowhere!
- Job 10: 10 NKJV – “Did You not pour me out like milk, And curdle me like cheese,”
That’s a new one for me.
- 2 Samuel 10: 4 NKJV – “Therefore Hanun took David’s servants, shaved off half of their beards, cut off their garments in the middle, at their buttocks, and sent them away.”
How funny they must have looked! In that day beards were very important to the men in society; for us it may seem sort of funny, but trust me, for the men it was not funny in the least
- Genesis 22: 20-21 NASB – “Now it came about after these things that it was told to Abraham, saying, ‘Behold, Milcah also has borne children to you brother Nahor: 21 Uz his firstborn and Buz his brother…”
I know there are some interesting names we see in the Bible, but I think these might just take the cake. Look it’s Uz and his brother Buz!
- Zechariah 8: 4 NASB – “…’Old men and old women will again sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each man with his staff in his hand because of old age.'”
Old men and women sitting in the streets of Jerusalem holding canes because they are old. Quite the interesting picture.
- Song of Solomon 2: 5 NKJV – “Sustain me with cakes of raisins, refresh me with apples, For I am lovesick.”
If only being lovesick was only so easy to cure!
- Galatians 6: 11 NKJV – “See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand!”
Seems like Paul was just stating the obvious here. If they were reading his letter, then they could very well have seen his handwriting, right?
- Deuteronomy 14: 21 NKJV – “You shall not eat anything that does of itself; you may give it to the alien who is within your gates, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner…”
Did we just read that right? Give it to the alien? Just to clarify, Paul is not actually talking about an extraterrestrial from outer space, but rather an outsider.
Be Uplifted
This was not written to make fun of or to belittle God’s Word in any form or fashion, but rather to show that the Bible is filled with interesting and exciting things…and yes, even funny things. However, even with the verses that we might find to be humorous, always remember that the Bible is more than just a book, it is the Living Word of God and, as such, should be given respect and honor.
I pray that this will strengthen your desire to make the Word of God a part of your daily life and that you be uplifted and encouraged by the words of Scripture.
