passages

The verses everyone knows

Eight passages, chosen from what people actually read rather than from what we like. Each one prints the verses around it and then deals with the reading it is usually given — which for several of them is the opposite of what the passage says.

• Isaiah 41:10 · 5 minIsaiah 41:10, and what it promisesThe most-read verse on the world's largest Bible app, four years out of six. Who it was spoken to, what the promise covers, and what it does not.
• Jeremiah 29:11 · 6 minJeremiah 29:11, and the letter it comes fromThe plans-to-prosper-you verse is a line from a letter to deported exiles about seventy years. What the surrounding paragraph says, and why it changes the promise.
• Psalm 23 · 5 minPsalm 23, verse by verseThe whole of Bible Gateway's 2025 top six was this psalm, read in order. What each verse does, why the valley is walked through, and who is at the table.
• Psalm 91 · 5 minPsalm 91, and the one place the New Testament quotes itPsalm 91 has climbed past John 3:16 in the most-read lists. The one New Testament quotation of it is on the lips of the tempter, which is worth knowing before you claim it.
• Philippians 4:6–7 · 5 minPhilippians 4:6–7, which is not an order to feel differentlyThe anxiety verse people are handed most often. It does not tell you to stop being anxious — it tells you what to do with it, which is a possible instruction at 3am.
• Philippians 4:13 · 5 minPhilippians 4:13, and what the “all things” areIt is painted on gym walls and written on wristbands. Two verses earlier Paul says what he has learned to do: be content, hungry or full, from a prison cell.
• Proverbs 3:5–6 · 5 minProverbs 3:5–6, and what “make your paths straight” meansThe verse people reach for when a decision will not resolve. It promises a level road rather than a revealed route, and the difference decides how you use it.
• Romans 12:2 · 5 minRomans 12:2, where both verbs are passiveThird most-read verse of 2025 on the world's largest Bible app. Do not be conformed, be transformed — and the grammar is the argument: something is shaping you either way.