20 Bible Verses About Honey

Exodus 3:8

“So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.”

Reflection: God speaks to Moses from the burning bush, after saying he has seen the misery of his people in Egypt and heard them crying out (Exodus 3:7). The rescue has a destination: “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.” The same verse names the peoples already living in the land, from the Canaanites to the Jebusites.

Exodus 33:3

“Go up to the land flowing with milk and honey. But I will not go with you, because you are a stiff-necked people and I might destroy you on the way.”

Reflection: This comes after the golden calf. God still sends the people toward the land flowing with milk and honey, but says he will not go with them, and when they hear it they mourn and put off their ornaments (Exodus 33:4). The land without God’s presence is treated as a loss. Moses pleads, and God answers in verse 14: “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Numbers 16:13

“Isn’t it enough that you have brought us up out of a land flowing with milk and honey to kill us in the wilderness? And now you also want to lord it over us!”

Reflection: Dathan and Abiram, refusing Moses’ summons during Korah’s rebellion, turn the phrase around: they call Egypt the land flowing with milk and honey. In the next verse they complain that Moses has not brought them into any such land. The phrase meant for the promise is applied to the place of slavery.

Deuteronomy 8:8

“a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey”

Reflection: Moses describes the land before Israel enters it, with brooks and springs, grain, vines, figs, pomegranates, olive oil and honey, and rocks that yield iron and copper. Verse 10 tells the people what to do when they have eaten: “praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.” The verses that follow warn that full stomachs and large herds can make them forget the Lord who brought them out of Egypt.

Ezekiel 20:6

“On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of Egypt into a land I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands.”

Reflection: Ezekiel recounts Israel’s history to the elders who have come to inquire of the Lord. God swore to bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey, “the most beautiful of all lands,” and told them to get rid of the idols of Egypt. Verse 8 records that they would not, so the promise of the land is set beside a history of rebellion.

Psalm 81:16

“But you would be fed with the finest of wheat; with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”

Reflection: The psalm closes with God’s lament over a people who would not listen: “If my people would only listen to me” (Psalm 81:13). Honey from the rock is what they would have been given. The image echoes the Song of Moses, where God nourished Israel “with honey from the rock” (Deuteronomy 32:13), and verse 10 of the psalm has already promised, “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”

Psalm 19:10

“They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb.”

Reflection: The “they” of this verse are the law, statutes, precepts, commands and decrees of the Lord listed in verses 7-9. The psalmist ranks them above gold for value and above honey from the comb for sweetness. Verse 11 adds what they do: “By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”

Psalm 119:103

“How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

Reflection: Psalm 119 is a long meditation on God’s word, and this verse sits between a claim of obedience (“I have not departed from your laws”) and a statement of what God’s precepts give: “I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path.”

Ezekiel 3:3

“Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, eat this scroll I am giving you and fill your stomach with it.’ So I ate it, and it tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth.”

Reflection: God tells Ezekiel to eat a scroll and then go and speak to Israel. The scroll is written on both sides with “words of lament and mourning and woe” (Ezekiel 2:10), yet it tastes as sweet as honey. When the Spirit then carries him to the exiles, Ezekiel says he went “in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit” (Ezekiel 3:14).

Revelation 10:10

“I took the little scroll from the angel’s hand and ate it. It tasted as sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.”

Reflection: John repeats Ezekiel’s act: an angel gives him a little scroll to eat, sweet in the mouth and sour in the stomach, as the angel had warned in verse 9. The next verse explains the commission: “You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, languages and kings.”

Proverbs 24:13

“Eat honey, my son, for it is good; honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.”

Reflection: A father tells his son to eat honey because it is good, and then turns the advice into a comparison in the next verse: “Know also that wisdom is like honey for you: If you find it, there is a future hope for you, and your hope will not be cut off.” The literal food and the wisdom it pictures are both commended.

Proverbs 16:24

“Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

Reflection: The verse before this one says that the hearts of the wise make their mouths prudent. Gracious words, like a honeycomb, are pleasant to the one who hears them and do the hearer good, “sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

Proverbs 5:3

“For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil”

Reflection: Here the sweetness is a trap. The adulterous woman’s lips drip honey and her speech is smooth, “but in the end she is bitter as gall” and “her steps lead straight to the grave” (Proverbs 5:4-5). Proverbs 16:24 uses the honeycomb for gracious words; here the same picture describes speech that leads to death.

Song of Solomon 4:11

“Your lips drop sweetness as the honeycomb, my bride; milk and honey are under your tongue. The fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.”

Reflection: The bridegroom speaks to his bride and says her love is more pleasing than wine (Song of Solomon 4:10). In Song of Solomon 5:1 he answers her invitation to come into his garden: “I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey.”

Proverbs 25:16

“If you find honey, eat just enough—too much of it, and you will vomit.”

Reflection: Proverbs does not forbid honey; the same book commends it in Proverbs 24:13. This verse sets a limit, eat just enough, and names the result of ignoring it. Proverbs 25:27 makes the same point about honey and sets it beside the search for matters too deep.

Proverbs 27:7

“One who is full loathes honey from the comb, but to the hungry even what is bitter tastes sweet.”

Reflection: Whether honey tastes good depends on the one eating it. A full person turns away from the comb, while a hungry one finds even bitter food sweet. The proverb observes appetite rather than giving a command.

Leviticus 2:11

“Every grain offering you bring to the Lord must be made without yeast, for you are not to burn any yeast or honey in a food offering presented to the Lord.”

Reflection: Grain offerings burned on the altar were to contain no yeast and no honey. Verse 12 allows both to be brought as firstfruits, just not burned on the altar, and 2 Chronicles 31:5 lists honey among the firstfruits the Israelites gave in Hezekiah’s day. Leviticus 2 gives no reason for keeping honey off the altar.

Judges 14:8-9

“Some time later, when he went back to marry her, he turned aside to look at the lion’s carcass, and in it he saw a swarm of bees and some honey. He scooped out the honey with his hands and ate as he went along. When he rejoined his parents, he gave them some, and they too ate it. But he did not tell them that he had taken the honey from the lion’s carcass.”

Reflection: On his way to marry a Philistine woman at Timnah, Samson turns aside to the carcass of the lion he had torn apart and finds bees and honey in it. He eats some, gives some to his parents, and does not tell them where it came from. The episode becomes his riddle at the wedding feast: “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet” (Judges 14:14).

1 Samuel 14:27

“But Jonathan had not heard that his father had bound the people with the oath, so he reached out the end of the staff that was in his hand and dipped it into the honeycomb. He raised his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened.”

Reflection: Saul had put the army under an oath not to eat until evening, and they came across honey on the ground in the woods. Jonathan, who had not heard the oath, tasted it and “his eyes brightened.” He then said, “My father has made trouble for the country” (1 Samuel 14:29). When Saul later swore that Jonathan must die, the soldiers refused to allow it, and Jonathan was not put to death (1 Samuel 14:44-45).

Matthew 3:4

“John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey.”

Reflection: John the Baptist’s clothing and food are described together. The camel’s hair and leather belt match the description of Elijah in 2 Kings 1:8, “a garment of hair and … a leather belt around his waist.” Locusts were among the insects the law allowed Israel to eat (Leviticus 11:22), and Mark 1:6 gives the same diet.