Eulogy Bible Verses: 16 Passages and Where to Use Them

The most-used eulogy Bible verses are Psalm 23:4, Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, John 14:1-3, Revelation 21:4 and 2 Timothy 4:7. Quote one, not four. Two or three lines is enough, and it lands best near the end, just before your last words to them. The sixteen below are grouped by situation.

Someone has probably told you to put something from the Bible in. Maybe your mother always asked for Psalm 23. Maybe nobody has said anything and you simply feel a verse belongs there.

A eulogy Bible verse is a short passage, usually one to three lines, that you quote inside your own words about the person who died. It is not the same as the scripture reading, which is a separate part of the service, usually longer, and read by someone else. If another person is reading a full chapter, your verse can be a single line, and it will be stronger for it.

Every verse below is in the King James Version, because that text is out of copyright and can be reprinted in an order of service without asking permission. The reference is given each time, so if your church uses a different translation you can look up the same passage there.

How to choose a verse in about two minutes

Pick the verse that fits how they died and who they were, not the one that sounds most impressive. Three questions get you there.

Did they have a faith of their own? If they did, use the words they would have used. A woman who said the twenty-third psalm every night of her life should have the twenty-third psalm. If they did not, do not put words in their mouth. Choose something about grief instead, aimed at the room rather than at the person who died.

What does the room need? A sudden death needs steadying. A long illness ending needs release. A ninety-four-year-old who died in her sleep after a full life can take something almost cheerful.

Where will it sit? Something that closes if it is going at the end, something that opens if it is going at the start. The same verse rarely does both.

For a long life that finished well

These are for someone who got their whole share of years. The register can be warmer and less careful than people expect.

2 Timothy 4:7, for a life with something in it

I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.

Eight seconds. The best closing verse for a long life, because it is in the first person and sounds like the person speaking about themselves rather than you speaking about them.

Before: "There is a line my father knew by heart, and I think he would want it said about him, so I am going to say it."

After: "He did. All three." Then stop.

Genesis 25:8, for someone who was simply old

And Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years.

Seven seconds. "Full of years" is the phrase to lean on. It says a long life was a full one without claiming anything about heaven, which makes it usable in a mixed room.

Before: "Ninety-one years. The Bible has a phrase for that."

After: "Full of years. That is exactly what she was."

Psalm 90:12, for a life that taught the rest of us something

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

Six seconds. This one turns towards the living, so it works well if you want to end on what the family should do now rather than on the death itself.

Before: "She was not sentimental about time. She used hers."

After: "That is what she taught us, and we are slow learners, and we are still learning."

For a death that came suddenly

Avoid anything that sounds like a reason. Nobody in the room wants to hear that this was part of a plan. Choose verses that name the shock instead of explaining it.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, for the one everybody knows

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

Ten seconds, and be careful with it. Read too far and it sounds like the death was scheduled, which is the last thing a family needs after a sudden death. Stop at "a time to die."

Before: "None of us thought we would be here this month."

After: "We were not ready for his season to end. We are here anyway, because he was worth it."

Psalm 46:1, for a room that is still in shock

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Five seconds. Short, steady, no imagery to get lost in. Good for the first minute of a eulogy when people are still settling and crying.

Before: "I want to start with seven words, because I need them as much as you do."

After: "A very present help. Not a distant one. Present, in this room, today."

Psalm 34:18, for grief that has not softened yet

The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

Seven seconds. This verse does not try to fix anything, which is why it works four days after a death. It simply says that being broken is not being abandoned.

Before: "I am not going to pretend any of us are managing well."

After: "Nigh. Close by. That is all it promises, and today that is enough."

For someone who was ill for a long time

The family has already been grieving for months or years. These verses speak to the end of suffering, not the end of life, and that distinction is the whole reason they land.

Revelation 21:4, for a long illness ending

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.

Eleven seconds. The most-requested verse at funerals after Psalm 23. For a family that watched someone in pain for two years, the final clause is the one that matters. Read the last six words slowly.

Before: "The last eighteen months were hard, and I am not going to skip over that."

After: "No more pain. My sister and I have wanted that for her for a long time."

Matthew 11:28, for someone who was worn out

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Seven seconds. "Rest" is the word doing the work. Use this for someone who kept going long past the point where anyone would have blamed them for stopping.

Before: "He worked until March. He should not have been working in March."

After: "Rest. He has earned it twice over."

Isaiah 40:31, for someone who was stronger than their body

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.

Ten seconds. Good for a person whose illness took their body but not their character, especially an athlete, a walker, a dancer, anyone whose life had been physical.

Before: "For the last two years she could not get up the stairs at home. Before that she walked everywhere."

After: "Run, and not be weary. I like the thought of her not being tired."

For a room that is struggling to hold itself together

Sometimes the verse is not about the person at all. It is a hand on the shoulder of everyone sitting in front of you.

Psalm 23:4, the one most families ask for

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Eleven seconds. If the whole psalm is being read elsewhere in the service, take only this verse, or you repeat what the minister did ten minutes earlier. Check the order of service. The full six verses take about fifty seconds.

Before: "Mum said this every night. She said it to me when I was small and frightened of the dark, and she said it in the hospital in August."

After: "She was not afraid. I watched her not be afraid."

John 14:1-3, for a family that needs somewhere to put him

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

Fourteen seconds, the longest passage on this list. Worth the time if the family's faith is real, because it answers the question a grieving person is actually asking, which is where he is now.

Before: "My grandmother asked me on Tuesday where he has gone. I did not have an answer of my own, so I brought his."

After: "A place prepared. He liked to know where he was going."

For someone whose faith was the centre of their life

If they were genuinely devout, this is the part of the eulogy where you say so plainly. Do not soften it for the benefit of relatives who did not share it.

John 11:25-26, for a believer

I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

Twelve seconds. The verse a devout person would most likely have chosen for themselves. Say you are reading it because they would have wanted it read, and it stops being your claim and becomes a fact you are reporting.

Before: "Dad believed this. Not in a vague way. He believed it the way he believed the boiler needed servicing every October."

After: "He is not worried. He told me so in June."

Romans 8:38-39, for a love that outlasted everything

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, shall be able to separate us from the love of God.

Thirteen seconds. The long list of things that cannot separate us is the point, so do not trim it. It works as a closing verse because it ends on the word love.

Before: "She had this underlined in three different Bibles. I checked."

After: "Nothing on that list was ever going to be a match for her."

1 Corinthians 15:55, for a defiant note

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

Five seconds. Two questions, no explanation, and the nearest thing in scripture to standing up to what has happened. Use it only if the person had that kind of nerve, or it sounds like bravado.

Before: "He argued with everybody. I would like to end by letting him argue with this."

After: "He would have wanted the last word. He can have it."

For a quiet person, or someone who just looked after people

The hardest eulogies are often for the people who never drew attention to themselves. These two verses are built for exactly that life.

Matthew 25:21, for a lifetime of turning up

Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Four seconds, the shortest on this list, and one of the strongest last lines available to you. It says the ordinary things counted. Say it, pause, sit down.

Before: "Forty-one years at the same school. Nobody made a film about it."

After: Nothing. Let it be the last thing anyone hears.

Micah 6:8, for a decent person

And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Eight seconds. Three plain requirements, all of them about conduct rather than belief, which makes this the most usable verse on the list for a good person who was not especially religious.

Before: "I have been trying to work out what he actually believed, and I do not think he would have told me. I know how he behaved."

After: "Justly, mercy, humbly. He managed all three without ever mentioning it."

Three worked examples: the verse inside the eulogy

A verse on its own is not the hard part. Joining it to your own words is. Here are three complete passages, each showing the verse sitting where it belongs.

A long life, with the verse at the very end

My mother was ninety-three and she was still correcting my grammar in July.

She was born in a house with no bathroom and she died in a hospital bed she had complained about for a fortnight. In between she raised four of us, buried a husband, went back to work at fifty-one, and learned to use a tablet at eighty-eight so she could see her great-grandchildren's faces. She was not a soft woman. She was a reliable one, which I think is rarer.

She was also, quietly, the most religious person in this family. She never talked about it and she never missed a Sunday.

So I want to finish with something she knew by heart. "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

She did. All three. Thank you for coming today.

A sudden death, with the verse near the start

None of us expected to be here this month, and I am going to start with the oldest words I could find, because my own are not much use today.

"To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die."

I do not accept that this was Daniel's time. He was thirty-four. He had a tent in the hall he had not used yet and a wedding to go to in October.

What I will say is that he filled his season right up to the edge. He was the friend who drove four hours to help you move a sofa and then refused a sandwich. He rang his mother every Sunday, and she says he never once had nothing to tell her.

We were not ready for his season to end. We are here anyway, because he was worth the trip.

A quiet man, with the verse in the middle

My father-in-law fixed things. That is the honest summary of him, and he would have been happy with it.

Bicycles, gates, a washing machine three engineers had written off, the wobbly leg on our kitchen table that he mended twelve years ago and which has not wobbled since. He turned up with a toolbox at every house any of his children ever moved into, and he never once asked whether he was needed.

I never knew what he believed. I asked Sheila this week and she said he would not have told me either. But there is a line in Micah that describes him better than anything I could write: "And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

Justly, mercy, humbly. He managed all three without ever mentioning it, which is the humble part, I suppose.

There is a gate at the bottom of their garden that he hung in 1994 and it still shuts properly. I checked on Thursday. I think I wanted to find something of his that was still working.

Where the verse goes in a eulogy

Put it near the end, in the last thirty seconds, just before your final words to them. That is where it does the most work, because by then the room knows who the person was and the verse lands on a full picture rather than an empty one.

The three usable positions, in order of how often they work:

• Just before your closing line. The verse carries the weight and your own short sentence lands after it. There is more on building that final stretch in our guide to how to end a eulogy.
• In the first fifteen seconds. Only for a sudden death, and only a short verse. It buys you a moment to steady yourself. Our notes on how to start a eulogy cover the handover into your first sentence.
• In the middle, attached to one story. Best when the verse describes their character rather than their death, as in the Micah example above.

Do not open and close with scripture. Two verses in a five-minute eulogy is one too many, and the second always weakens the first.

What is a good opening scripture for a funeral?

Psalm 46:1 is the best opening scripture for a funeral, because it is five seconds long, it makes sense to people who do not know the Bible, and it steadies a room that is still settling. Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 is the other reliable opener, though only where the death was not sudden.

An opening verse has one job, which is to get everyone breathing at the same rate before anyone has to concentrate. Long passages fail at that. Save John 14 and Romans 8 for later in the service.

If you are the second or third speaker, ask the person before you what they are reading. Two speakers unknowingly opening with the same psalm is common and entirely avoidable.

How to read a verse aloud without losing your place

Print the verse on its own line, larger than the rest of your eulogy, and mark where you breathe. A verse is the most likely part of a eulogy to go wrong out loud, because the word order is older than the words you have been speaking for the last four minutes.

1. Read it aloud six times before the day. Not in your head. The unfamiliar phrasing only settles with your voice.
2. Slow down at the start of the quote. People need half a second to register that you have changed register.
3. Do not announce the chapter and verse number. "Second Timothy, chapter four, verse seven" is admin. Say "there is a line Dad knew by heart" instead.
4. Mark a full stop after the quote. The instinct is to rush on. The pause is what makes it sound intended.

If you are worried about getting through the whole eulogy, the techniques in our piece on delivering a eulogy without breaking down are worth ten minutes tonight.

If their faith and yours do not match

Read the verse as theirs, not as yours. The sentence that solves this is short: "Dad believed this, so I am going to read it." You have then told the truth twice over, and nobody can accuse you of pretending to something you do not hold.

The reverse happens too. You may be the only believer in a family that is not. In that case Micah 6:8 and Psalm 90:12 are your friends, because both are about how a person lived rather than what happens next.

And if the whole thing is wrong for this family, leave it out. A eulogy with no Bible in it is not a lesser eulogy. If you want something that is not scripture, we have twelve complete eulogy poems and readings, all out of copyright and safe to print in an order of service.

Frequently asked questions

What is a good Bible verse for a eulogy?

2 Timothy 4:7 is the best all-round verse for a eulogy: "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." It suits almost any adult life, it takes eight seconds, and because it is in the first person it sounds like the person speaking rather than you speaking about them. After a long illness, use Revelation 21:4 instead.

What is a good psalm for a funeral?

Psalm 23 is the most read psalm at funerals, and Psalm 23:4 on its own is usually enough inside a eulogy. Psalm 46:1 is better for opening a service, Psalm 34:18 for a room still in shock, and Psalm 90:12 if you want to end by turning towards the people who are left. The full Psalm 23 takes about fifty seconds to read aloud.

What is a beautiful Bible verse to read at a funeral?

Revelation 21:4 is the verse most often described as beautiful at a funeral, for the line about no more death, sorrow, crying or pain. John 14:1-3, with its house of many mansions, is the other one families ask for by description rather than by reference. Both take ten to fourteen seconds, so allow for the pause afterwards.

What's a good Bible verse when someone passes away?

When someone has just died and you need something to say to the family rather than at a service, use Psalm 34:18, because it does not try to fix anything. It says only that a broken heart is not an abandoned one. Romans 8:38-39 works in a card for the same reason: it ends on love rather than on death.

What are some good prayers to use in a eulogy?

A eulogy does not usually contain a prayer, and it is better not to lead one unless the family or the minister has asked you to. Prayers belong to the officiant's part of the service. If you want a devotional note at the end of your own words, read a verse instead, or say one plain sentence such as "rest well, Dad."

Are there short Bible verses for a funeral?

Yes. The four shortest usable ones are Matthew 25:21 at four seconds, Psalm 46:1 and 1 Corinthians 15:55 at five, and Psalm 90:12 at six. Short verses beat long ones in a eulogy about nine times out of ten, because your own words are what the family came to hear.

One more thing

Whichever verse you choose, it will occupy about eight seconds of a speech that will run five minutes. The other four minutes and fifty-two seconds are the part only you can write, because you are the one who knew them. If you want a first draft to argue with rather than a blank page, our eulogy writer is free to preview.

Print it large. Read it out loud tonight, twice. Then go and be with your family.