Healing Scriptures in the Old Testament: Every Promise from Genesis to Malachi
Topic: Healing & Scripture | Audience: Anyone Studying What the Old Testament Says About Healing
DIRECT ANSWER BLOCK
The Old Testament establishes God's identity as Healer long before Jesus walked the earth. From Exodus through Malachi, God declared healing part of his covenant, wove it into his promises, and revealed it through his prophets. These are the scriptures that built the foundation for everything Jesus would later fulfill.
KEY VERSE
"If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee."
Exodus 15:26 (KJV)
DEVOTIONAL BODY
Before Jesus healed the leper, before he opened blind eyes, before he raised the dead, God had already declared himself to be the Healer. He did not wait until the New Testament to reveal his nature. He announced it at the very beginning of his covenant with Israel, and he confirmed it through every prophet who followed.
Andrew Murray, in Divine Healing, drew the connection plainly: "Bless the Lord, O my soul... who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases." Murray saw in Psalm 103 the same truth that runs through the entire Old Testament: that forgiveness and healing were never separated in the mind of God. "The pardon of sin and the healing of sickness complete one the other," he wrote, "for in the eyes of God, who sees our entire nature, sin and sickness are as closely united as the body and the soul."
What follows is every major healing promise in the Old Testament, organized by book and section. These are not proof-texts pulled from context. They are the building blocks of a covenant. Read them in order, and watch the foundation take shape.
The Covenant Foundation: Exodus and Deuteronomy
God's first act after delivering Israel from Egypt was to reveal himself as their Healer. Before the law was given at Sinai, before the tabernacle was built, before the priesthood was established, God named himself. And the name he chose was not Creator, not Judge, not King. It was Healer.
Exodus 15:26
"If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee."
This is the oldest healing promise in the Bible. Israel had just crossed the Red Sea. The bitter waters at Marah had been made sweet. And God spoke his identity into the covenant. Matthew Henry wrote of this moment: "God is the great Physician. If we are kept well, it is he that keeps us; if we are made well, it is he that recovers us."
Murray would later build on this same verse: "I am the Lord that healeth thee. Look to Jesus, who bare our sickness, and who healed all who came to Him."
Exodus 23:25-26
"And ye shall serve the LORD your God, and he shall bless thy bread, and thy water; and I will take sickness away from the midst of thee. There shall nothing cast their young, nor be barren, in thy land: the number of thy days I will fulfil."
Healing was not a favor God might choose to grant. It was a covenant benefit, promised to those who served him. He would take sickness away. He would complete their days.
Numbers 21:8-9
"And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived."
Jesus himself pointed back to this moment. In John 3:14-15, he said, "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life." The bronze serpent was a picture of the cross. Those who looked upon it were healed. Those who look upon Christ are healed still.
Deuteronomy 7:15
"And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee."
Deuteronomy 32:39
"See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand."
God does not share the work of healing with anyone. He alone wounds and he alone heals. There is no other source. When you need healing, there is only one place to go.
The Psalms: Prayers for Healing
If the books of Moses established the covenant, the Psalms show us what it looks like to pray from within it. David and the psalmists did not treat healing as a theological concept. They cried out for it. They wept for it. They praised God after they received it. And every one of those prayers was recorded for you.
Psalm 6:2
"Have mercy upon me, O LORD; for I am weak: O LORD, heal me; for my bones are vexed."
David did not hide his weakness. He brought it straight to God. Asking for healing is not presumption. It is worship.
Psalm 30:2
"O LORD my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me."
Murray pointed believers to this very verse: "Praise the Lord without waiting to feel better, or to have more faith. Praise Him, and say with David, O Lord, my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me."
Psalm 41:3
"The LORD will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing: thou wilt make all his bed in his sickness."
God does not leave the sick person alone. He comes to the bedside. He strengthens. He makes the bed. This is personal, tender, and near.
Psalm 103:2-3
"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases."
Forgiveness and healing, side by side, in the same breath. Not one without the other. Matthew Henry wrote of this passage: "Christ alone forgives all our sins; it is he alone who heals all our infirmities. And the person who finds his sin cured, has a well-grounded assurance that it is forgiven."
Psalm 107:20
"He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions."
God healed by sending his Word. This is what you are holding when you hold the scriptures. This is what you are speaking when you speak them aloud. The Word that healed then is the Word that heals now.
Psalm 147:3
"He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds."
God heals the body, but he does not stop there. He reaches into the deepest wound, the broken heart, and binds it up. Nothing in you is beyond his care.
Carry these Old Testament promises with you.
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Get Your Free Bible →Proverbs: The Healing Power of Words and Wisdom
Proverbs takes the covenant promise of healing and connects it to something surprising: the words you speak and the wisdom you follow. In Proverbs, God's words are not just true. They are medicine. They are life. They are health to the body.
Proverbs 3:7-8
"Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones."
Fearing the Lord, walking in humility before him, produces a physical result. Health to the body. Marrow to the bones. Obedience is not just moral. It is medicinal.
Proverbs 4:20-22
"My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh."
This is the prescription. Attend to God's words. Listen to them. Look at them. Keep them in your heart. The result is not just spiritual refreshment. It is health to all their flesh. Every part of the body. This is why reading healing scriptures aloud is not a ritual. It is obedience to a direct instruction.
Proverbs 12:18
"There is that speaketh like the piercings of a sword: but the tongue of the wise is health."
Proverbs 16:24
"Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones."
Proverbs 17:22
"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones."
Words heal. Joy heals. The opposite is also true: bitterness, harshness, and a broken spirit do damage to the body. Proverbs is not speaking in metaphor. It is describing the way God designed the human being to work.
The Prophets: God's Promise of Restoration
The prophets pointed forward. They saw what was coming. And again and again, what they saw was a Healer. A Restorer. One who would bear sickness in his own body and rise with healing in his wings.
Isaiah 53:4-5
"Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."
This is the passage that binds the Old Testament to the New. Matthew quotes it directly in chapter 8, verse 17, after describing Jesus healing multitudes: "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." The prophet saw it centuries before it happened. The Gospel writer confirmed it after it did.
Andrew Murray, in his chapter "Jesus Bore Our Sickness," wrote: "In this same chapter (Isaiah 53) the expression 'to bear' occurs twice, but in relation to two different things. It is said not only that the Lord's righteous Servant has borne our sins (vs. 12), but also that He has borne our sicknesses (vs. 4). Thus His bearing our sicknesses forms an integral part of the Redeemer's work as well as bearing our sins."
Murray pressed the point further: "Sin had attacked and ruined equally the soul and the body. Jesus came to save both. Having taken upon Him sickness as well as sin, He is in a position to set us free from the one as well as the other, and that He may accomplish this double deliverance He expects from us only one thing: our faith."
To read what Jesus did with these promises, see What Jesus Said About Healing: Every Healing in the Gospels.
Isaiah 58:8
"Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward."
Health that springs forth speedily. Not slowly. Not eventually. Speedily. The word implies a sudden breaking through, the way light appears at dawn.
Isaiah 61:1
"The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound."
Jesus stood up in the synagogue at Nazareth and read this passage aloud. Then he sat down and said, "This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears" (Luke 4:21). The prophecy became a Person. The promise became present tense.
Jeremiah 17:14
"Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise."
Jeremiah's confidence was not in the healing itself but in the Healer. If the Lord heals, it is done. There is no second opinion needed.
Jeremiah 30:17
"For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after."
God heals the ones the world has given up on. The outcasts. The ones nobody seeks after. If you have felt forgotten, this word is for you.
Jeremiah 33:6
"Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth."
Hosea 6:1
"Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up."
Malachi 4:2
"But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall."
The last healing promise in the Old Testament is also the most vivid. The Sun of righteousness, rising with healing in his wings. This is how the Old Testament ends: looking forward to the One who was coming. And when he came, he healed them all. You can read his record in 20 Healing Scriptures to Stand On When You Are Sick.
CALLOUT
"If He has borne your sicknesses, why then bear them yourself?"
This question, drawn from the teaching of Andrew Murray in Divine Healing, cuts through every hesitation about healing. Isaiah 53 says he bore our sicknesses. Matthew 8:17 confirms it. Murray testified that a woman bedridden for seven years heard these words, rose from her sofa, and was healed. If the work is already done, what remains is for us to receive it.
APPLICATION
Three ways to use these Old Testament promises in your own faith:
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Start with the covenant. Read Exodus 15:26 and let God's identity as Healer settle into your spirit. This is who he IS, not just what he sometimes does. He did not say "I am the LORD that occasionally healeth thee." He said it without qualification. Let that be your foundation.
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Pray the Psalms. David's prayers for healing are your prayers too. Read Psalm 103:1-5 aloud and make it personal. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgives all my sins, who heals all my diseases." The Psalms are not just scripture to study. They are prayers to pray.
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Stand on Isaiah 53. The cross did not just cover your sin. It covered your sickness. Murray wrote: "As soon as a sick believer understands the purport of the words, 'Jesus has borne my sins,' he does not fear to say also: 'I need no longer bear my sins.' In the same way, as soon as he has fully taken in and believed for himself that Jesus has borne our sicknesses, he does not fear to say: 'I need no longer bear my sickness.'" Read Isaiah 53 slowly. Believe it. Declare it over your body.
FAQ BLOCK
Q: Does the Old Testament promise healing?
Yes. God declared "I am the LORD that healeth thee" (Exodus 15:26) and placed healing in the covenant alongside forgiveness of sins. Psalm 103:3 pairs them directly: "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." Healing was not an afterthought or an occasional favor. It was a named benefit of belonging to God.
Q: Is Isaiah 53:5 about physical healing or spiritual healing?
Both. Matthew 8:17 quotes Isaiah 53 specifically in the context of Jesus healing physical diseases: "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses." Andrew Murray wrote that "His bearing our sicknesses forms an integral part of the Redeemer's work as well as bearing our sins." The prophecy includes physical restoration, confirmed by the Gospel writer himself.
Q: What is the oldest healing promise in the Bible?
Exodus 15:26, where God reveals his name as Healer to the nation of Israel shortly after the crossing of the Red Sea. The nation had just witnessed God's deliverance from Egypt, and at the waters of Marah, he declared his identity: "I am the LORD that healeth thee." It is the first time in scripture that God names himself as the Healer of his people.
Q: How do I use Old Testament healing scriptures in prayer?
Read them aloud, personalize them ("Lord, you said you would heal all my diseases"), and declare them over your situation. Andrew Murray counseled believers to "lean wholly upon His promises" and to "praise the Lord without waiting to feel better, or to have more faith. Praise Him, and say with David, O Lord, my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me." The promises were spoken to God's people, and if you belong to Christ, they belong to you.
CALL TO ACTION
You may have come to this page looking for scriptures about healing. But these scriptures point to a Person. Every verse in the Old Testament that speaks of healing was pointing forward to the One who would come and fulfill every promise. His name is Jesus.
If you have never given your life to him, that is the first step. Not because healing requires it, but because knowing him is the point of everything. He is the Healer, the Savior, the Good Shepherd. He is looking for you.
Learn how to begin a relationship with God through prayer.
Want to carry God's Word with you everywhere? We are placing free Pocket New Testaments into willing hands. The God who declared "I am the LORD that healeth thee" is the same God who heals in the Gospels. Just cover $4.95 shipping.