The best Bible verses for patience (ESV) include passages about God's love, strength, and guidance. This page features 15+ carefully curated Scripture passages for patience (ESV), each selected for its relevance and depth. Read, save, and share the perfect verse for your situation.
"With patience a ruler may be persuaded, and a soft tongue will break a bone."Proverbs 25:15
"Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?"Romans 2:4
"What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction,"Romans 9:22
"But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life."1 Timothy 1:16
"because they formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water."1 Peter 3:20
"And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all."1 Thessalonians 5:14
"If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer."2 Corinthians 1:6
"The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance."2 Peter 3:9
"I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us."Habakkuk 3:16
"I calmed myself until morning; like a lion he breaks all my bones; from day to night you bring me to an end."Isaiah 38:13
"Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains."James 5:7
"So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’"Matthew 18:26
"So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’"Matthew 18:29
Translations differ in what they optimise for. Some follow the original wording closely at the cost of a natural English sentence; others read smoothly and make interpretive choices to get there. Neither is wrong, but they produce noticeably different verses.
Each of the 15 verses below is shown in the translation you asked for, and every verse links to a page comparing all six side by side — which is usually the fastest way to see where the translators disagreed.
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The most-cited Bible verses for patience (ESV) are Proverbs 25:15, Romans 2:4, Romans 9:22. This page collects 15 of them, each with its full passage, context and the text in six translations.
Read the verse in its surrounding passage before you use it — a verse that fits in isolation sometimes says something different in context. Compare two translations where the wording is unclear, and pick for the person who will read it rather than for the theme.
Scripture returns to patience (ESV) across both testaments rather than settling it in one passage, which is why the verses on this page do not all say the same thing. Read together they give a fuller answer than any single verse does.
There is no single best translation. The NIV and NLT read most naturally and communicate well to someone outside the church; the ESV and NASB stay closer to the original wording; the KJV carries the phrasing most people recognise. Every verse here links to a page showing all six side by side.
More than any page can list. This one carries the 15 that are most often turned to for patience (ESV), chosen so each stands on its own and links through to the full chapter it belongs to.