The Bible is full of inspirational stories. The Bible is also full of scary stories. Stories about demons and angels. Stories about plagues and punishments. Stories about retribution and cycles of violence.
While not all of these stories are easy to understand at first, they ultimately each have something important to teach us about God. The following looks at 10 of the Bible's scary and bizarre stories. Each entry considers not just the story, but what moral ideas the story has to teach us.
Note: the Bible stories summarized in this article include some graphic references, including several stories mentioning abuse, death, and mutilation
1. The Dagger I See Before Me: Ehud Kills King Eglon (Judges 3)
Most of the Old Testament's history books can be summed up as a series of stories following the same pattern: the Israelites stop following God, suffering follows, then a new leader brings the people back to God. In the book of Judges, the story of the period between Joshua dying and Saul becoming Israel's first king, these new leaders were warriors or prophets who were selected directly by God. Ehud, the left-handed judge who rescued Israel from the Moabites, provided one of the most violent deliverances.
Ehud lived in a period where the Israelites had wandered from God, so God allowed foreigners to invade. King Eglon of Moab and his allies invaded and made the Israelites serve them for 14 years (Judges 3:14). After the Israelites repented and asked for God to rescue them, he selected Ehud son of Gera, an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin (Judges 3:15). Ehud went with a group of Israelites to deliver tribute money to King Eglon, hiding a homemade dagger in his clothes. When Ehud reached King Eglon, he said that he had a confidential message. King Eglon commanded his men to leave the room, Ehud declared that he had a message from God, and stabbed the king in the stomach. Eglon was obese and the dagger sank so far into his stomach that Ehud couldn't remove it (Judges 3:21-24). Ehud locked the room, escaped by another way (Judges 3:23-26), and called the Israelites to take arms once he arrived home (Judges 3:27-30).
Ehud's assassination of Eglon is one of the most graphic deaths in the book of Judges, but it's one with a clear moral. King Eglon was an evil man that God allowed to tyrannize Israel for a period, who then paid for his wickedness.
Further Reading: Who Was Ehud the Judge (and Left-Handed Assassin)?
2. If I Had a Hammer: Jael Kills Commander Sisera (Judges 4)
Most of us remember Judges 4 because it's the story about Deborah, the female prophetess who warned Barak son of Abinoam that if she went with him on his battle against the Canaanites, "the Lord will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman" (Judges 4:9). Deborah is a fascinating character in her own right, with her time as ruler over Israel raising interesting questions about what the Bible really says about female leadership. However, the woman whose hands God delivered Canaanite commander Sisera to is equally interesting, for the way that she disposed of him. After Barak's forces had successfully routed Sisera's army, he ran away and found what he believed would be a safe place to hide. Sisera reached the property of Heber the Kenite, a man whose family had an alliance with Sisera's king, Jabin (Judges 4:17). Heber's wife Jael was at the tent, and took him inside to rest. Sisera drifted off to sleep after drinking some milk that Jael gave him, believing that she would stand guard so no one attacked him (Judges 4:20). Instead, Jael took a tent peg and hammered it into Sisera's head. Barak arrived later, and Jael showed him that his foe was dead (Judges 4:22).
The Bible doesn't state Jael's motives for killing Sisera. It may be that she felt threatened, or worried that Sisera would attack her when he awoke. Even granting that her husband's family had an alliance with Sisera's superior, she lived in an Ancient Near Eastern society where women had few (if any) rights and their word was rarely taken seriously. If Sisera attacked her, without any male witnesses to verify what happened, Jael probably wouldn't see any justice. Alternatively, she may have simply realized that Sisera fleeing meant the Canaanites had lost a battle, in which case it was prudent to get on the Israelites' good side. Whatever the reason, Jael played a surprising, graphic part in fulfilling a prophecy. God ensured that Israelites' enemies would be removed, one way or another.
Further Reading: 5 Powerful Lessons from the Unusual Story of Jael
3. When Road Trips Go Wrong: Violence in Gibeah (Judges 19-21)
The final story in the book of Judges is perhaps its most graphic. It begins with a Levite fighting and eventually reconciling with his concubine, then traveling home with her. Along the way, they stop in Gibeah. A mob seeking someone to exploit appeared at the door, and hoping to placate them, the homeowner threw the concubine outside (Judges 19:23-25). After a full night of abuse, the concubine crawled to the door and died. When the Levite found her body, he took it home, cut it into twelve pieces, and sent each one to a different part of Israel (Judges 19:29). Shocked at this message, Israelites gathered and a civil war followed, slaughtering many Benjamites (the tribe that Gibeah was located in) (Judges 20). The violence was so great that only a few Benjamites were left, and the other Israelites made a deal with them, allowing them to kidnap women to be their wives during a festival at Shiloh (Judges 21:16-22).
From abuse to mutilation to civil war to misogyny, this story is full of horrible elements. However, it begins (Judges 19:1) and ends (Judges 21:25) with the same message: "In those days Israel had no king." The ending clarifes, saying "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit." As David Guzik observes in his Enduring Word Commentary, these words make the story's point clear: this is a tale about moral chaos. Not only were there no rulers at this time (no king, and also no judge, as shown by the fact no judge appears at the council in chapter 21), but the people weren't following God properly. They did as they saw fit, and their attempts to deal with injustice only compounded the problem by adding more violence. This moral ending makes the story more than just a grisly true crime story, turning it into a meditation about what human depravity is capable of.
Further Reading: Why Do We Tend to Skip the Heavy Parts of the Bible?
4. Speak of the Dead: Samuel Speaks to Saul (1 Samuel 28)
One of the Bible's recurring warnings, in both the Old Testament and New, is to avoid engaging in witchcraft. Given this often-stated warning, it's especially shocking when Israel's king Saul decides to consult a witch. By 1 Samuel 28, Saul is at the end of his rope. He has already been told that God will replace him with another (). He has seen his replacement David rise up, despite Saul's repeated attempts to kill him. Now, after the prophet Samuel is dead and Saul is about to fight a battle with the Philistines, he seeks answers from God about whether he will survive. When no answers come by holy means (1 Samuel 28:6), Saul has his men find a witch he can speak to. Saul comes disguised, and convinces the woman to defy the death penalty against witchcraft and raise Samuel (1 Samuel 28:8-11). Samuel appears, the witch realizes that her client is Saul himself (2 Samuel 28:12-14), and Samuel gives a message. He repeats that God has taken Israel from Saul and given it to David, and states that Saul and his sons will die in he coming battle (2 Samuel 28:16-19).
Scholars debate whether or not the witch raised Samuel or simply a demon posing as him. The first option raises the question why God would let a witch summon Samuel, which may relate to the question of where Samuel's soul was at that time. Was he in heaven (or Abraham's bosom)? Was he in some sort of limbo state awaiting the Messiah to perform the harrowing of hell? Or is it possible that the witch never raised Samuel at all, that he simply appeared (hence her scream)? The truth is we may not learn the answers to these questions on this side of eternity. What we do know is that Saul didn't gain anything from his attempt to get knowledge by occult means. Yes, Saul got a message that he would die in the coming battle, something he didn't learn from his other sources tried earlier. However, this answer gave Saul no peace: he learned what he already knew, that God had rejected him for his sins.
Further Reading: Who Was the Witch of Endor?
5. Beware the Inner Room: Micaiah Warns the False Prophet (1 Kings 22)
King Ahab had been warned multiple times over that his refusal to follow God would lead to destruction. After his wife Jezebel had Naboth killed so Ahab could have Naboth's property, Elijah prophecied Jezebel's death and that dogs would lick up Ahab's blood (). When Ahab joined with King Jehosophat of Judah to fight against Ramoth of Gilead, Ahab had 400 prophets who said their battle would lead to success (1 Kings 22:6), including Zedekiah son of Kenaanah who showed Ahab some iron horns that he would use to kill his enemies (1 Kings 22:11). When Jehosophat asked for other prophets who could advise them, Ahab reluctantly had Micaiah son of Imlah brought to speak.
Micaiah, who Ahab introduced as the prophet who "never says anything good about me" (1 Kings 22:8), initially agreed with all the prophets who had already spoken. When pressed for an honest response, Micaiah said that Ahab would die in battle (1 Kings 22:17). Furthermore, God had sent a spirit to deceive the other prophets, leading Ahab to his death (1 Kings 22:19-23). Zedekiah responded by slapping Micaiah and asking, "Which way did the spirit from[a] the Lord go when he went from me to speak to you?" Micaiah answered, "You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room" (1 Kings 22:24-26).
The idea of God sending a spirit to deceive someone is frightening by itself. Like the story of a spirit repeatedly coming to disturb King Saul (), the implication seems to be that God would let spiritual forces do dark things to Israelite leaders who were not following Israel's covenant. God's agreement with Israel on Mount Sinai specified he was their leader, and there would be consequences if Israel's rulers lead the people astray. Ahab, like Saul, had defied God, and his defiance eventually led to his death. Whether in these two cases God was letting unclean spirits (i.e. a demon) influence Saul and Ahab or directing one of his angels to do the task, is up for debate. Matthew Henry leans toward the first option in his commentary, interpreting Micaiah's statement as "God permitted Satan by them to deceive him into [Ahab's] ruin."
However, the most frightening part of this story is what Micaiah said to Zedekiah: "You will find out on the day you go to hide in an inner room." In most Bible stories, where we see the fulfillment of the prophecies. For example, 1 Kings 22:38 describes how Ahab died and dogs licked up his blood, like Elijah had said. The Bible doesn't say when Zedekiah hid in an inner room, or what happened there. Henry suggests, partly based on the detail about Zedekiah showing Ahab a pair of iron horns, that Zedekiah went to the battle and like Ahab, fled the scene only to die afterward while hiding. John Gill takes a similar view, observing that if enemy soldiers didn't find and kill Zedekiah, Ahab's people would probably have done so for sealing the king's fate. However this cliffhanger ending resolved itself, the moral takeaway seems clear: Zedekiah sinned, if not by giving false advice then certainly for attacking Micaiah, and eventually faced consequences.
Further Reading: Who Is King Ahab in the Bible?
6. Teaching Young People A Lesson: Elisha and the Two Bears (2 Kings 2)
One of the most misunderstood Bible stories details how shortly after Elisha saw his mentor Elijah be carried up to heaven in a fiery chariot, he had a run-in with some young men near Bethel. The young men insulted Elisha, calling him "baldhead" (2 Kings 22:24). Elisha responded by putting a curse on them, and two female bears came and mauled the youths (2 Kings 22:24). The King James Bible describes these youths as "little children," which may explain why many people misread the passage as being about Elisha terrorizing children who teased him. As Leigh Ann Thomas notes in her article on Elisha, the verse's original wording refers to "young men," which could equal men in their twenties. Furthermore, the fact the text says the two bears mauled "forty-two of the boys" (2 Kings 2:24) communicates that these were more than just a few young men. Adding these pieces of evidence together, the text implies that Elisha was being threatened by a large group of young men. What precisely the young men were planning is hard to say (Bible.org suggests that Bethel's false prophets sent them to harass Elisha); still, a group of over 42 young men mocking one older man likely wouldn't stop at just calling him names.
Hence, this frightening story is not a story about slaughtered children, but about an intense situation where Elisha reacted in self-defense, and the response proved to be graphic. Perhaps more than anything else, the story reminds us that we need to be careful to look at context when Bible stories seem off-putting.
Further Reading: What Do We Learn about Elisha in the Bible?
7. A Werewolf in Babylon: King Nebuchadnezzar Goes Insane (Daniel 12)
Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon who invaded Jerusalem and brought the Israelites under a 70-year captivity, had a complicated relationship with God. On the one hand, he trusted Israelite Daniel's interpretation of a dream and made Daniel a favored advisor (Daniel 2). On the other hand, when Daniel's friends Shadrach, Misach, and Abednego refused to worship a statue that Nebuchadnezzar made, he threw them into a fiery furnace (Daniel 3). The three men survived without a scratch or singe, which one would think would teach Nebuchadnezzar not to mess with their God. However, Daniel 4 details how despite being given a dream as a warning, and Daniel interpreting the dream to show that Nebuchadnezzar would like an animal if he didn't renounce his sins (Daniel 4:25-27), the king became arrogant God punished him. For "seven times" (seven years), Nebuchadnezzar lived in wilderness, walking an all fours like an animal, away from humans. After the seven years, Nebuchadnezzar honored God, and became sane again (Daniel 4:36). Returned to his kingdom, Nebuchadnezzar reflected on God's greatness and how "those who walk in pride he is able to humble" (Daniel 4:37).
Brenton Dickieson highlights how this story provides an interesting precedent for stories about lycanthropy: werewolves. Nebuchadnezzar becomes a beast, separated from God (a recurring theme in werewolf stories). Whether or not he can repent becomes central to whether he can become whole again. John Gill explicitly connects Daniel 4 to werewolf stories in his Exposition of the Bible, noting how some early commentators argued that Nebuchadnezzar literally became an animal. However, Gill notes the text doesn't say that the king became a wolf or any other animal: he lost his mind and behaved like an animal. Furthermore, this breakdown had a particular cause: Nebuchadnezzar was being punished in a unique way for his narcissism, for placing himself on God's level.
Further Reading: Who Was Nebuchadnezzar in the Bible?
8. Night of the Living Dead Saints: (Matthew 27)
Jesus' death on the cross was a shocking event by itself. Death by crucifixion was reserved for the worst criminals, so the idea that Jesus would die on a cross was unthinkable to his followers (hence why they didn't understand the various times when he forewarned them about his death). However, according to Matthew, more shocks followed. He states that when Jesus " hadcried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people." (Matthew 27:50-53).
Most of us have heard about the torn curtain and earthquake in Sunday School or various dramatizations of Jesus' story. But holy people rising from their graves? This detail has shocked and confounded Christians for centuries. Greg Lanier explains that scholars tend to take two views: the passage is a description of what really happened, or it's an apocalyptic transition. The second explanation is plausible because apocalyptic writing frequently starts with a historical event, then adds strange details that show how the event fits into a cosmic scheme of events. In other words, Matthew could be describing God's followers rising from the dead to show Jesus' sacrifice redefined life and death, and had consequences for the supernatural as well as the natural realm. However, Lanier and others have pointed out the problem is the Gospel writers usually signal when they shift from straight history to a parable or something apocalyptic. Matthew doesn't give any kind of signal that he's switching tone or genre; in fact, as you can see in the quote above, he starts talking about holy people rising again in the middle of a sentence. Hence, it's more likely that the holy people rising from their graves is, like the curtain being torn and the earthquake, a genuine event that happened at the time (although Lanier suggests Matthew may play with the timeline, and they really rose on Easter Sunday).
The fact Matthew doesn't specify what happened to the holy people later (did they die again? Did they go back to their graves to wait for the final resurrection?) makes the event even stranger. What the passage does communicate clearly is that Jesus' death and resurrection was a major event, one that could only mean Jesus was the Messiah. Hence, it fits with what Mark L. Strauss identifies as the unique focus of Matthew's Gospel. Other Gospels may emphasize Jesus' status as the world's savior or as a healer: Matthew highlights Jesus as the Messiah who fulfilled everything the Jews were waiting for.
Further Reading: When Zombies Roamed the Streets of Jerusalem
9. Drop Dead, Judas: The Field of Blood (Acts 1)
Judas Iscariot is easily the most notorious person mentioned in the New Testament. His betrayal of Jesus in the days leading up to the Last Supper, culminating in his identifying Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, set the stage of Jesus' crucifixion. Many details about Judas' life (why he betrayed Jesus, how much free will he had in the matter) have been discussed endlessly. However, not many people talk about a surprising story that Luke tells about how Judas died.
Luke records how after Jesus had risen from the dead and ascended to heaven, the disciples discussed finding a replacement for Judas. As an aside, Luke notes that Judas took the money he received for betraying Jesus, and used it to buy a field. After his purchase, Judas visited his new land, and " there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out. Everyone in Jerusalem heard about this, so they called that field in their language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood" (Acts 1:18-19).
The shocking story of how Judas died might be even more gruesome if, as some writers have suggested, Judas hanged himself from a tree before his intestines burst out. The explanation that Judas hanged himself before falling forward would explain why Matthew 27 refers to Judas dying by hanging himself from a tree. However we reconcile the two accounts, the point remains that Judas died in a horrible way, suffering graphic consequences for his sin.
Further Reading: What Is the Field of Blood in the Bible?
10. Demons 1, Exorcists 0: The Seven Sons of Sceva (Acts 19)
The New Testament contains several accounts of demon possession, notably the story of Jesus exorcising a man from various demons and sending them into a herd of pigs. However, the story of the seven sons of Sceva is especially memorable. As Luke tells it, these men were sons of a chief priest and part of a larger movement of people trying to benefit secondhand from Paul's ministry. Others used clothing that Paul had touched to heal others (Acts 19:12); the seven sons of Sceva used Paul's name to perform exorcisms, declaring, "in the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out” (Acts 19:13). Their tactic apparently worked at least initially, but one demon responded, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?" and beat them up (Acts 19:15-16).
Matthew Henry argues in his commentary that the seven sons of Sceva were profiting from their exorcisms, which is certainly possible. Even if people weren't paying the men to remove demons, the fact remains that they didn't try to find out about Jesus by following Paul and gain the Holy Spirit for themselves. The fact they didn't take that step indicates that they may have been doing something constructive, but were doing it for themselves. They didn't want the responsibility of believing in Jesus, merely the power that came with his name. The story provides a brutal but important reminder that taking God's name in vain doesn't just refer to saying obscenities: it refers to misusing it for selfish purposes.
Further Reading: Are You Known in Hell?
To read more about scary stories in the Bible, check out these articles:
3 Scary Stories in the Bible - and How God Is Still There
Rethinking Halloween through 7 Scary Stories of the Bible
Photo Credit: ©sankavi/Unsplash
This article is part of our Bible resource for understanding the significance and meaning of biblical phrases and ideas. Here are our most popular Bible articles to grow in your knowledge of God's Word:
Promises of God in the Bible
Is "This Too Shall Pass" in the Bible?
What Was the Ark of the Covenant?
Top 10 Bible Stories for Kids
“Iron Sharpens Iron” in Proverbs 27:17
"Fearfully and Wonderfully Made" in Psalm 139
“Be Still and Know That I am God” in Psalm 46:10
"No Weapon Formed Against Me Shall Prosper" - Isaiah 54:17
