Anthropomorphisms

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

(Figures of speech, which attribute human forms, acts, and affections to God)

Miscellaneous Figures

• Genesis 2:2–3 And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.
• Genesis 2:19 And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and He brought them to the man to see what he would name each one. And whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.
• Genesis 6:6 And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
• Genesis 9:16 And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.”
• Genesis 11:5 Then the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men were building.
• Genesis 11:7 Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
• Genesis 18:17–19 And the LORD said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed. For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the L…
• Genesis 18:21 I will go down to see if their actions fully justify the outcry that has reached Me. If not, I will find out.”
• Genesis 18:33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, He departed, and Abraham returned home.
• Genesis 19:29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, He remembered Abraham, and He brought Lot out of the catastrophe that destroyed the cities where he had lived.

Attributed to Deity

Memory

• Isaiah 43:26 Remind Me, let us argue the matter together. State your case, so that you may be vindicated.
• Isaiah 63:11 Then His people remembered the days of old, the days of Moses. Where is He who brought them through the sea with the shepherds of His flock? Where is the One who set His Holy Spirit among them,

Assisted by tokens

• Genesis 9:16 And whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of every kind that is on the earth.”

Reason

• Isaiah 1:18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.

Understanding

• Psalm 147:5 Great is our Lord, and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.

Will

• Romans 9:19 One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?”

Miscellaneous Acts and States of Mind Attributed to

Walking

• Genesis 3:8 Then the man and his wife heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the breeze of the day, and they hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
• Leviticus 26:12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be My people.
• Deuteronomy 23:14 For the LORD your God walks throughout your camp to protect you and deliver your enemies to you. Your camp must be holy, lest He see anything unclean among you and turn away from you.
• Job 22:14 Thick clouds veil Him so He does not see us as He traverses the vault of heaven.’
• Habakkuk 3:15 You trampled the sea with Your horses, churning the great waters.

Resting

• Genesis 2:2–3 And by the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on that day He rested from all His work. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because on that day He rested from all the work of creation that He had accomplished.
• Exodus 20:11 For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, but on the seventh day He rested. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.
• Exodus 31:17 It is a sign between Me and the Israelites forever; for in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, but on the seventh day He rested and was refreshed.’”
• Deuteronomy 5:14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God, on which you must not do any work— neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your ox or donkey or any of your livestock, nor the foreigner within your gates, so that your manservant and maidservant may rest…
• Hebrews 4:4 For somewhere He has spoken about the seventh day in this manner: “And on the seventh day God rested from all His works.”
• Hebrews 4:10 For whoever enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from His.

Does not faint

• Isaiah 40:28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary; His understanding is beyond searching out.

Amazement

• Isaiah 59:16 He saw that there was no man; He was amazed that there was no one to intercede. So His own arm brought salvation, and His own righteousness sustained Him.
• Isaiah 63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled that no one assisted. So My arm brought Me salvation, and My own wrath upheld Me.
• Mark 6:6 And He was amazed at their unbelief. And He went around from village to village, teaching the people.

Laughing

• Psalm 2:4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord taunts them.
• Psalm 37:13 but the Lord laughs, seeing that their day is coming.
• Psalm 59:8 But You, O LORD, laugh at them; You scoff at all the nations.
• Proverbs 1:26 in turn I will mock your calamity; I will sneer when terror strikes you,

Sleeping

• Psalm 44:23 Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever.
• Psalm 78:61 He delivered His strength to captivity, and His splendor to the hand of the adversary.

Grieved

• Genesis 6:6 And the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
• Judges 10:16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD, and He could no longer bear the misery of Israel.
• Psalm 95:10 For forty years I was angry with that generation, and I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray, and they have not known My ways.”
• Hebrews 3:10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.’
• Hebrews 3:17 And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?

Oaths

• Isaiah 62:8 The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by His mighty arm: “Never again will I give your grain to your enemies for food, nor will foreigners drink the new wine for which you have toiled.
• Hebrews 6 Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do, if God… (whole chapter)

See Oaths

See also [260]ANGER OF GOD