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Bible verses for Father's Day

The best-known father in the Bible is the one in Luke 15, and the detail that makes him worth reading is usually left out: he starts running while his son is still too far away to have said anything. Below are sixteen passages quoted in full in both translations, with how long each takes to read aloud — for a card, a service, or a day that is more complicated than the shops allow for.

16 passages · World English Bible & King James · public domain

Before you choose one

Father's Day is not uncomplicated for everyone reading this, and a verse picked in a hurry can land badly. Worth holding in mind:

  • Someone reading this has lost their father. Psalm 103:13 and Isaiah 64:8 both work when the relationship was good and the person is gone. Our verses for grief page is the better starting point if that is the week you are having.
  • Someone reading this did not have one. Psalm 68:5 — “a father of the fatherless” — is the passage written for that, and it is addressed to the person without, not to the person giving the card.
  • Not every father was good at it. Exodus 20:12 says honour, which is not the same instruction as feel warmly towards. Ephesians 6:4 and Colossians 3:21 are addressed to fathers rather than about them, and both are warnings. Scripture is less sentimental about this than the day is.
  • For a card, short is better. Colossians 3:21 is four seconds. Proverbs 20:7 is five. Nobody has ever wished a card verse were longer.

Everything quoted here is public domain — the World English Bible and the King James — so you can print any of it on a card, an order of service or a church newsletter without a licence, a fee, or an email to a permissions department.

  1. “He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.Luke 15:20 · World English Bible

    The father sees him, and runs. Thirteen seconds. Read it carefully: the son has not spoken yet. He is still “a great way off”. Whatever the father is responding to, it is not the apology, because the apology has not happened. See below — this is the passage worth the time.

    King James

    And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

  2. He said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them. Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and travelled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living. When he had spent all of it, there arose a severe famine in that country, and he began to be in need. He went and joined himself to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He wanted to fill his belly with the pods that the pigs ate, but no one gave him any. But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough to spare, and I’m dying with hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’ “He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf, kill it, and let’s eat and celebrate; for this, my son, was dead and is alive again. He was lost and is found.’ Then they began to celebrate.Luke 15:11-24 · World English Bible

    The whole first half, two minutes and two seconds. Longer than most services will want, but it is the reading that actually rewards being heard in full, because the shape of it is the point.

    King James

    And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

  3. You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.Ephesians 6:4 · World English Bible

    “Don't provoke your children to wrath.” Eight seconds. One of only two instructions in the New Testament addressed directly to fathers, and it is a restraint rather than an encouragement.

    King James

    And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

  4. Fathers, don’t provoke your children, so that they won’t be discouraged.Colossians 3:21 · World English Bible

    “Fathers, don't provoke your children, so that they won't be discouraged.” Four seconds, the shortest here, and the only one that gives the reason. The risk named is not rebellion. It is a child who gives up.

    King James

    Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

  5. Like a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him.Psalms 103:13 · World English Bible

    “Like a father has compassion on his children.” Seven seconds. The comparison runs the direction people rarely notice — the father is the familiar thing being used to explain God, not the other way round.

    King James

    Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

  6. Or who is there amongst you who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!Matthew 7:9-11 · World English Bible

    Bread and stones, fish and snakes. Twenty-six seconds. It concedes the point about human fathers before it makes its argument: “if you then, being evil”. Not a flattering aside, and it is deliberate.

    King James

    Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

  7. Listen, sons, to a father’s instruction. Pay attention and know understanding; for I give you sound learning. Don’t forsake my law. For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother. He taught me, and said to me: “Let your heart retain my words. Keep my commandments, and live.Proverbs 4:1-4 · World English Bible

    “Listen, sons, to a father's instruction.” Twenty-three seconds. A father passing on what his own father told him, which makes it two generations deep rather than one.

    King James

    Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law. For I was my father’s son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother. He taught me also, and said unto me, Let thine heart retain my words: keep my commandments, and live.

  8. My son, don’t despise the LORD’s discipline, neither be weary of his correction; for whom the LORD loves, he corrects, even as a father reproves the son in whom he delights.Proverbs 3:11-12 · World English Bible

    Twelve seconds. Discipline as evidence of attention rather than displeasure. Worth reading whole before using it, because it is easily quoted to excuse things it is not excusing.

    King James

    My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.

  9. If it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose today whom you will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell; but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”Joshua 24:15 · World English Bible

    “As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Twenty seconds. The line on a thousand doorplates. In context it is a challenge thrown to everyone else in the room, not a statement about domestic arrangements.

    King James

    And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

  10. A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.Psalms 68:5 · World English Bible

    “A father of the fatherless.” Seven seconds. The passage for someone who did not have one, and it is addressed to them rather than about them. Related verses →

    King James

    A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.

  11. A righteous man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him.Proverbs 20:7 · World English Bible

    “A righteous man walks in integrity. Blessed are his children after him.” Five seconds. Short enough for a card, and it is about conduct rather than feeling.

    King James

    The just man walketh in his integrity: his children are blessed after him.

  12. The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him.Proverbs 23:24 · World English Bible

    Six seconds. Plain, and unusual in Proverbs for describing a father's pleasure rather than his instructions.

    King James

    The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: and he that begetteth a wise child shall have joy of him.

  13. See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God! For this cause the world doesn’t know us, because it didn’t know him.1 John 3:1 · World English Bible

    “See how great a love the Father has given to us.” Thirteen seconds. About God as father rather than about anyone's dad, which for some readers is the point.

    King James

    Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

  14. Behold, children are a heritage of the LORD. The fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth. Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won’t be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.Psalms 127:3-5 · World English Bible

    Children as a heritage, and as arrows. Twenty-two seconds. Frequently read at baby dedications; the arrows image is about sending them somewhere, not keeping them.

    King James

    Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

  15. The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate and wept. As he went, he said, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! I wish I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!”2 Samuel 18:33 · World English Bible

    David, hearing that Absalom is dead. Seventeen seconds. The most devastating thing any father says in Scripture, and he is saying it about a son who had tried to take his throne. Not a card verse. See below. Related verses →

    King James

    And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!

  16. But now, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay and you our potter. We all are the work of your hand.Isaiah 64:8 · World English Bible

    “You are our Father. We are the clay and you our potter.” Nine seconds. Good at a graveside, and good for anyone who finds the word father easier to use of God than of a person.

    King James

    But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

He is already running

Almost every retelling of this parable has the same shape: the son comes home, makes his speech, and the father forgives him. That is not the order the text puts them in.

“He arose and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran, fell on his neck, and kissed him.Luke 15:20 · World English Bible

The son is still “a great way off”. He has not said a word. The father is not weighing an apology, because there isn't one yet — he is responding to a figure on a road. Everything that happens next happens after the running has already started.

It is a small thing to notice and it changes what the passage is doing. The forgiveness is not the reward for a good enough apology. It arrives first, at a distance, on sight.

The speech he rehearsed is not the speech he gives

On the road home the son works out what he is going to say. He gets three lines ready:

I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.”’Luke 15:18-19 · World English Bible

Then he arrives, and in both translations quoted on this page, this is what comes out:

The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’Luke 15:21 · World English Bible

Two lines, not three. The offer to be taken on as a hired servant — the part where he proposes his own terms — is not there. And the father does not answer him at all; the next thing that happens is an instruction to the staff about a robe.

An honest caveat, because this one is contested. Manuscripts differ here. Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Vaticanus and Codex Bezae all include the hired-servant line in verse 21, while P75 — the earliest witness to this passage — along with the Byzantine tradition, the Vulgate and most of the early versions leave it out. The World English Bible and the King James both follow the shorter reading, which is why it reads as an interruption here. The standard textual commentary judges the longer version more likely to be a copyist repeating verse 19 than an original line that was lost, but it is a judgement rather than a certainty. If you read verse 21 aloud from a modern translation it may well contain the extra clause. We are not going to settle it, and you should know it is there.

The parable does not end with the son it is named after

It does not begin with him either:

He said, “A certain man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of your property.’ So he divided his livelihood between them.Luke 15:11-12 · World English Bible

Two sons, named as such in the first sentence. The younger one's story finishes at verse 24 with a party. Then there are eight more verses, and they are about the older brother, who has been in the field the whole time and does not want to come in. The last words of the whole parable are the father's, spoken to him:

“He said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But it was appropriate to celebrate and be glad, for this, your brother, was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found.’”Luke 15:31-32 · World English Bible

And that is the end. We are never told whether the older son goes in. The story simply stops with the father standing outside, mid-appeal, to the child who never left. Read that way, the usual title names the one character the parable does not end with — which is why it is also known as the parable of the father with two sons, and why Helmut Thielicke published his sermons on it as The Waiting Father.

Both instructions to fathers are restraints

The New Testament addresses fathers directly twice. Neither is encouragement:

You fathers, don’t provoke your children to wrath, but nurture them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.Ephesians 6:4 · World English Bible
Fathers, don’t provoke your children, so that they won’t be discouraged.Colossians 3:21 · World English Bible

The Colossians version is the one that repays attention, because it gives the reason. The danger it names is not a child who rebels. It is a child who becomes discouraged — who stops trying. That is a specific and rather modern-sounding thing to worry about, and it is the only outcome either verse bothers to spell out.

If today is a hard one

A lot of people read a page like this in the week around Father's Day for reasons that have nothing to do with buying a card. Scripture is less relentlessly cheerful about fathers than the day is, and that is useful.

The hardest passage here is David, told that his son is dead. Absalom had raised an army against him and tried to take his throne. None of that is in the sentence:

The king was much moved, and went up to the room over the gate and wept. As he went, he said, “My son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom! I wish I had died instead of you, Absalom, my son, my son!”2 Samuel 18:33 · World English Bible

No lesson is attached to it. Nobody in the chapter tells him it was for the best. It is simply a father saying the same name over and over, and Scripture lets him.

For anyone who did not have a father, or whose father is the reason the day is hard, the passage written for that is short:

A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation.Psalms 68:5 · World English Bible

It is addressed to the person without, not offered as consolation by somebody who has one. Our verses for grief and verses for loneliness pages are chosen on the same principle.

The Old Testament's last sentence is about fathers and children

In the Christian ordering of the books, this is the final verse before the gospels begin:

He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”Malachi 4:6 · World English Bible

Fathers and children, turned back towards one another. It is worth knowing that the Hebrew Bible does not run in this order — it ends with Chronicles, and numbers this verse Malachi 3:24 — so this is a feature of one arrangement of the books rather than a fact about the text itself. The Jamieson, Fausset and Brown commentary also notes the synagogue practice of reading the previous verse again after the last one, so that the passage does not finish on the word curse.

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Questions

What is the best Bible verse for Father's Day?

Psalm 103:13 and Proverbs 20:7 are the two most usable on a card, at seven and five seconds. If you want the passage with the most in it, Luke 15:20 is the one — the father starts running while his son is still too far away to have said anything. All sixteen are quoted in full on this page.

What is a short Bible verse about fathers?

Colossians 3:21 at about four seconds, then Proverbs 20:7 at five and Proverbs 23:24 at six. Every passage on this page has its read-aloud time next to it, so you can match the verse to the space you have.

Does the Bible say anything to fathers directly?

Twice, and both are warnings rather than encouragement. Ephesians 6:4 says not to provoke your children to wrath, and Colossians 3:21 repeats it with a reason attached — so that they will not become discouraged. Both are quoted in full above.

What is a Bible verse for someone whose father has died, or who never had one?

Psalm 68:5 calls God “a father of the fatherless” and is addressed to the person without one rather than about them. For bereavement, 2 Samuel 18:33 is David grieving his son and makes no attempt to find a lesson in it. Our verses for grief page covers this more fully.

Can we print these verses on a card or in a church newsletter?

Yes, with no permission needed. The World English Bible and the King James Version are both public domain, so you can reproduce them on a card, an order of service or a newsletter without a licence or a fee. Modern translations such as the NIV and ESV are copyrighted and limit how much you may reprint.

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