Apart from the primary vegan diet prescribed by God to humans (Genesis 1:29; Gen. 9:4-5) (note 1), God’s covenant with animals (Gen. 9:8-17; Hosea 2:18) (note 2), the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3-17) (note 3), there are still quite a few animal-friendly verses in the Old Testament, which Jesus not only followed but also extended and deepened, yet which mainstream churches have long ignored and dismissed:-
Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals. (Psalm 36:6 NIV)
For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. (Psalm 50:10-11 ESV)
The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.(Psalm 145:9 NIV)
He gives to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that cry. (Psalm 147:9 ESV)
If you see the donkey of someone who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; be sure you help them with it. (Exodus 23:5 NIV)
Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed. (Exodus 23:12 NIV)
Thus INNOCENT BLOOD will not be shed in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that you will not be guilty of Bloodshed. (Deuteronomy 19:10-13 BSB)
If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet. (Deuteronomy 22:4 NIV)
If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. (Deuteronomy 22:6-7 NIV)
Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. (Deuteronomy 25:4 NIV)
And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals? (Jonah 4:11 NIV)
Better a dish of vegetables where there is love than a fattened ox with hatred. (Proverbs 15:17 BSB)
Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel. (Proverbs 12:10 ESV)
The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. (Isaiah 11:6-9 ESV)
The wolf and the lamb shall graze together; the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,” says the Lord. (Isaiah 65:25 ESV)
“When you spread out your hands in prayer, I hide my eyes from you; even when you offer many prayers, I am not listening. Your hands are full of blood!” (Isaiah 1:15 NIV).
“THE FISHERS also SHALL MOURN, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread nets upon the waters shall languish.” (Isaiah 19:8 KJV)
A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face; who sacrifice in gardens and burn incense on altars of brick; who sit among the graves…eat swine’s flesh, and the broth of abominable things is in their vessels; who say, ‘Keep to yourself, do not come near me, for I am holier than you!’ … “… I will not keep silence, but will repay— even repay into their bosom— your iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers together,” says the LORD, “who have burned incense on the mountains and blasphemed Me on the hills…(Isaiah 65:3–7 NKJV)
“He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man” ; he who sacrifices a lamb, like one who breaks a dog's neck… like one who blesses an idol. These have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations (Isaiah 66:3 ESV)
How long must this land mourn? Even the grass in the fields has withered. The wild animals and birds have disappeared because of the evil in the land. For the people have said, “The Lord doesn’t see what’s ahead for us!” (Jeremiah 12:4 NLT)
"'Will you steal and murder…and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, ‘We are safe’—safe to do all these detestable things?...do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you… MY anger and my WRATH will be poured out on this place…and it will burn and not be quenched." " (Jeremiah 7:9-11, 20 NIV)
“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:7-10 ESV /
Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth and makes us wiser than the birds of the heavens?’ Job 35:11 ESV
“Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the hunger of the lions when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket? Who provides food for the raven when its young cry out to God and wander about for lack of food? (Job 38:39-41 KJV)
“Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you watch when the doe bears her fawn? Do you count the months till they bear? Do you know the time they give birth? They crouch down and bring forth their young; their labor pains are ended. Their young thrive and grow strong in the wilds; they leave and do not return. Who let the wild donkey go free? Who untied its ropes? I gave it the wasteland as its home, the salt flats as its habitat. It laughs at the commotion in the town; it does not hear a driver’s shout. It ranges the hills for its pasture and searches for any green thing. Will the wild ox consent to serve you? Will it stay by your manger at night? Can you hold it to the furrow with a harness? Will it till the valleys behind you? Will you rely on it for its great strength? Will you leave your heavy work to it? Can you trust it to haul in your grain and bring it to your threshing floor? The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, though they cannot compare with the wings and feathers of the stork. She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand, unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them. She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she cares not that her labor was in vain, for God did not endow her with wisdom or give her a share of good sense. Yet when she spreads her feathers to run, she laughs at horse and rider. Do you give the horse its strength or clothe its neck with a flowing mane? Do you make it leap like a locust, striking terror with its proud snorting? It paws fiercely, rejoicing in its strength, and charges into the fray. It laughs at fear, afraid of nothing; it does not shy away from the sword. The quiver rattles against its side, along with the flashing spear and lance. In frenzied excitement it eats up the ground; it cannot stand still when the trumpet sounds. At the blast of the trumpet it snorts, ‘Aha!’ It catches the scent of battle from afar, the shout of commanders and the battle cry. Does the hawk take flight by your wisdom and spread its wings toward the south? Does the eagle soar at your command and build its nest on high? It dwells on a cliff and stays there at night; a rocky crag is its stronghold. From there it looks for food; its eyes detect it from afar. Its young ones feast on blood, and where the slain are, there it is.” (Job 39: 1-30 NIV)
For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same…Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?... (Ecclesiastes 3:19-22 ESV)
“This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion…“But they refused to pay attention… So the Lord Almighty was very angry. “‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty. (Zechariah 7:13NIV)
"I hate, I despise your religious festivals… Even though you bring me burnt offerings… I will not accept them…I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!" (Amos 5:21-24NIV)
You cut down the forests…Now you will be cut down. You destroyed the...animals, so now their terror will be yours. You committed murder throughout the countryside and filled the towns with violence (Habakkuk 2:17 NLV).
When a calf, a lamb, or a goat is born, it shall remain seven days with its mother (Leviticus 22:27 NIV)
Notes
1. Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. (Genesis 1:29 NIV)
“Only you SHALL NOT EAT FLESH WITH its LIFE, that is, its blood. Surely I will require your lifeblood” (Genesis 9:4-5 NASB 1995)
2. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.” (Genesis 9:8-10 NIV KJV)And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”(Genesis 9:12-17 KJV)
And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. (Hosea 2:18 ESV)
3. The Ten Commandments
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (Exodus 20:3 KJV)
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exodus 20:4-6 KJV)
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (Exodus 20:7 KJV)
Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (Exodus 20:8-11 KJV)
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. (Exodus 20:12 KJV)
Thou shalt not kill. (Exodus 20:13 KJV)
Thou shalt not commit adultery. (Exodus 20:14 KJV)
Thou shalt not steal. (Exodus 20:15 KJV)
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (Exodus 20:16 KJV)
Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house… any thing that is thy neighbour's. (Exodus 20:17 KJV)
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