Push From God

Bible verses for a graduation

Jeremiah 29:11 is the one that ends up on the card. It is also, as one of the most quoted and most misunderstood verses in the Bible, worth understanding before you write it out. Below are fourteen more, quoted in full in both translations, with how long each takes to read and a note on who it was actually addressed to.

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

These are card verses, not lectern readings

Graduation passages do a different job from funeral or wedding ones. Nobody stands at a lectern and reads for ninety seconds. These go in a card, a programme, a speech, or a frame — and every passage on this page comes in under twenty seconds aloud, which is not a coincidence. The long ones never get chosen.

  • Write down why you picked it. A verse on its own is decoration. One line saying what it made you think of about this particular person is the part they keep.
  • Match it to the actual situation. Someone graduating into a job they wanted and someone graduating into nothing are having very different weeks. Half the passages below assume the second one, which is more useful than it sounds.
  • If they did not grow up with any of this, choose one that asks nothing of the reader. Micah 6:8 and Ecclesiastes 3:1 make no demand and no claim about what they believe.

Everything quoted here is public domain — the World English Bible and the King James — so you can print it in a programme, a card or an order of ceremony without a licence, a fee or a permissions email.

  1. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you,” says the LORD, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.Jeremiah 29:11 · World English Bible

    The graduation verse. Eleven seconds. Written to people in exile who had just been told they were staying for seventy years — see below. That does not disqualify it; it makes it a sturdier promise than the card version. Related verses →

    King James

    For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

  2. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.Philippians 4:13 · World English Bible

    Four seconds, and the second most-given. Paul wrote it about having learned to cope with plenty and with nothing, which is a more useful thing to hand a graduate than a slogan about achievement. More on this passage →

    King James

    I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

  3. Let no man despise your youth; but be an example to those who believe, in word, in your way of life, in love, in spirit, in faith, and in purity.1 Timothy 4:12 · World English Bible

    “Let no man despise your youth.” Twelve seconds. Written by Paul to a young leader whose age was being held against him — which is very close to what the next two years will actually feel like. See below.

    King James

    Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

  4. Haven’t I commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”Joshua 1:9 · World English Bible

    “Be strong and courageous.” Ten seconds. Spoken to someone taking over a job from a much more famous predecessor, which lands for anyone starting where somebody else finished. Related verses →

    King James

    Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

  5. Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.Proverbs 3:5-6 · World English Bible

    “Don't lean on your own understanding.” Eleven seconds. Reads as reassurance and is closer to a warning: it is addressed to clever people who have just been certified as clever. Related verses →

    King James

    Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

  6. but those who wait for the LORD will renew their strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run, and not be weary. They will walk, and not faint.Isaiah 40:31 · World English Bible

    Wings like eagles. Thirteen seconds. Note the verb is wait — the promise is attached to waiting, not to striving, which is the opposite of most graduation speeches. Related verses →

    King James

    But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

  7. When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.1 Corinthians 13:11 · World English Bible

    “When I became a man, I put away childish things.” Thirteen seconds. Almost nobody chooses it for a graduation and it may be the aptest passage in the Bible for one. See below.

    King James

    When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.

  8. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.James 1:5 · World English Bible

    “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask.” Eleven seconds. Straightforward, and unusual in that it assumes the reader does not have it all worked out.

    King James

    If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

  9. He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?Micah 6:8 · World English Bible

    Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly. Twelve seconds. The whole of ethics in one sentence, and it asks nothing of the reader's beliefs — which makes it the safest choice for a mixed room or a secular ceremony.

    King James

    He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

  10. Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.Romans 12:2 · World English Bible

    “Don't be conformed to this world.” Twelve seconds. Pointed for someone about to spend a decade being told how to be.

    King James

    And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

  11. For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.2 Timothy 1:7 · World English Bible

    Not a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control. Six seconds. Short enough for a card and specific enough to mean something. Related verses →

    King James

    For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

  12. “Don’t remember the former things, and don’t consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs out now. Don’t you know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.Isaiah 43:18-19 · World English Bible

    “Behold, I will do a new thing.” Sixteen seconds. The standard choice for a beginning, and it is worth noticing it is addressed to people whose old thing had gone badly wrong. Related verses →

    King James

    Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

  13. I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go. I will counsel you with my eye on you.Psalms 32:8 · World English Bible

    “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go.” Nine seconds. Quiet, and good for someone who does not yet know what they are doing next.

    King James

    I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye.

  14. Commit your deeds to the LORD, and your plans shall succeed.Proverbs 16:3 · World English Bible

    “Commit your deeds to the LORD, and your plans shall succeed.” Four seconds — the shortest here. Often shortened further on cards, which strips the condition off the front of it. Related verses →

    King James

    Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.

  15. For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven:Ecclesiastes 3:1 · World English Bible

    “For everything there is a season.” Six seconds. Used at almost every kind of ceremony because it makes no doctrinal demand and everybody already knows it. Related verses →

    King James

    To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

What Jeremiah 29:11 was written to

It is on the mugs, the bookmarks and roughly half the cards handed over with a copy of Oh, the Places You'll Go. It is a real promise and it is worth knowing who received it.

Jeremiah is writing to Judeans deported to Babylon. They have lost a war, a city and a temple, and prophets in the camp are telling them it will be over shortly. Jeremiah says it will not. The verse immediately before the famous one is specific about the timetable:

For the LORD says, “After seventy years are accomplished for Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you, in causing you to return to this place.Jeremiah 29:10 · World English Bible

Seventy years. Most of the people first reading it would not live to see it. As BibleProject puts it, this was “a challenging message for a collective community facing devastating suffering” rather than a personal guarantee of success.

And a few verses earlier he tells them what to do in the meantime, which is the part that actually belongs on a graduation card:

“Build houses and dwell in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. Take wives and father sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there, and don’t be diminished. Seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.”Jeremiah 29:5-7 · World English Bible

Build where you have ended up, not where you meant to be. For someone leaving university into a job market that was not in the brochure, that is a far better verse than the one about plans — and it is sitting six lines above it. We wrote about this at more length in Jeremiah 29:11 in context.

The one written for exactly this moment

“Let no man despise your youth.”

1 Timothy 4:12 is a letter to a young man leading people older than himself, whose age was being used as a reason not to take him seriously. That is not an analogy for the first job after graduating; it is a description of it.

Notice that the answer it gives is not demand respect. It is a list of things to be consistent about — speech, conduct, love, faith — on the assumption that the argument gets won slowly and by evidence. That is unfashionable advice and it happens to be correct.

The one nobody puts on a card

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child. Now that I have become a man, I have put away childish things.”

1 Corinthians 13:11 sits in the middle of the love chapter, and it almost never gets chosen for a graduation, which is odd. It is the only passage on this page that says out loud what the day is actually about: something is ending, and the ending is the point.

It is also gentler than it sounds. It does not say the childish things were bad. It says they were appropriate then and are not now, which is a kinder account of growing up than most of the advice a graduate is about to receive.

“Commit” means roll

Commit your deeds to the LORD, and your plans shall succeed.Proverbs 16:3 · World English Bible

The verb both translations render commit is galal (1556), and its plain meaning is to roll. Brown-Driver-Briggs gives “roll, roll away”, and the literal uses are physical: the stone rolled off the mouth of the well in Genesis 29, and the reproach of Egypt rolled away at Joshua 5:9, which is why the place is called Gilgal. So the instruction pictures a load you cannot carry, rolled onto someone who can. The same verb opens Psalm 37:5:

Commit your way to the LORD. Trust also in him, and he will do this:Psalms 37:5 · World English Bible

There is a second thing on this page worth seeing. The word the modern rendering gives as plans and the King James as thoughts, machashavah (4284), is the same word as the thoughts of Jeremiah 29:11 at the top of the page — so the two most-given graduation verses share it. And the second half of Proverbs 16:3 is gentler in Hebrew than on most cards: the King James has thy thoughts shall be established, and the verb under both translations is kun (3559), to be made firm or set in place. Rolled onto God first, and steadied after. It does not promise that every plan comes off.

Choosing one that fits the person

  • They have a job and a plan. Micah 6:8 or Proverbs 3:5-6 — both aimed squarely at people who are about to be very sure of themselves.
  • They have neither. Psalm 32:8, Isaiah 40:31, or Jeremiah 29:5-7 rather than 29:11. All three assume the road is unclear and none of them pretends otherwise.
  • Mixed or secular ceremony. Ecclesiastes 3:1 and Micah 6:8 make no claim on anyone listening.
  • You want it to be about them, not about you. 1 Timothy 4:12, and then write underneath it the specific thing you have watched them be good at.

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Questions

What is the most popular Bible verse for graduation?

Jeremiah 29:11 — “I know the thoughts that I think towards you... thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.” It is quoted in full at the top of this page. It was written to Judeans exiled in Babylon who had just been told the exile would last seventy years, which is explained above.

What is a good short Bible verse for a graduation card?

Proverbs 16:3 and Philippians 4:13 are both about four seconds read aloud and fit on a card without crowding it. 2 Timothy 1:7 is six seconds and more specific. Every passage on this page is under twenty seconds, with the time given next to it.

Is there a Bible verse for graduating without a job lined up?

Psalm 32:8 and Isaiah 40:31 both assume the way ahead is unclear rather than settled. Jeremiah 29:5-7 — build houses, plant gardens, seek the peace of the city — is more useful here than the more famous verse five lines below it.

Can we print these in a graduation programme?

Yes, with no permission needed. The World English Bible and the King James Version are both public domain, so they can be reproduced in a programme or a card without a licence or a fee. Modern translations such as the NIV and ESV are copyrighted and have their own limits on how much you may reprint.

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