21 Advent Bible verses for the four weeks before Christmas
Prophecy, waiting, preparation and light: a few short passages for each week from the first Sunday of Advent to Christmas Eve, and a short note on how to pray each one.
The MySavior teamUpdated · 11 min read
I wait for the LORD; my soul does wait, and in His word I put my hope.
Psalm 130:5 · BSB
The true Light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
John 1:9 · BSB
The Bible verses Christians turn to most in Advent are the prophets’ promises and the Gospels’ calls to keep watch: Isaiah 40:1–5, Isaiah 64:1, Psalm 130:5–6, Philippians 4:4–5 and Luke 1:78–79 among them. Below are 21 of them, quoted from the Berean Standard Bible and grouped by the four weeks of Advent, which in 2026 begins on Sunday, November 29.
Advent is easy to skip. The Christmas music is often in the shops before the leaves are off the trees, and by mid-December plenty of us are tired of a feast that has not started yet. The Church keeps four quieter weeks first. The name comes from the Latin adventus, “coming”, and the season looks two ways: back to Bethlehem, and ahead to the day Christ comes again.
So the verses come in four groups. Week 1 (from November 29) is about watching and waiting. Week 2 (from December 6) is about preparing the way, with John the Baptist in the wilderness. Week 3 (from December 13) turns to joy. Week 4 (from December 20) brings Mary, Immanuel and the light, and this year it lasts only five days before Christmas Eve.
If your church follows the Revised Common Lectionary, this Advent opens Year B: Isaiah 64 and Mark 13 on November 29, Isaiah 40 and Mark 1 on December 6, John 1:6–8 on December 13 and Luke 1:26–38 on December 20. Several of the verses below come from those readings, so you may hear them again on Sunday morning.
Week 1 · The cry that opens Advent
From Isaiah 64:1
If only You would rend the heavens and come down
From Isaiah 64:1 · BSB
Advent does not begin politely. It begins with a prophet who is tired of waiting and asks God to tear the sky open. If your own prayers lately sound more like a complaint than a hymn, you are in good company: this is the first reading of Advent this year in lectionary churches.
Week 1 · The days are coming
Jeremiah 33:14
Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will fulfill the gracious promise that I have spoken to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
Jeremiah 33:14 · BSB
Jeremiah heard this while Babylon’s army was besieging Jerusalem and he himself was confined in the courtyard of the guard (Jeremiah 33:1). It was a strange moment to talk about good days ahead. Advent hope is not a forecast based on how things are going; it rests on what God has already said.
Week 1 · Like a watchman before dawn
Psalm 130:5–6
I wait for the LORD; my soul does wait, and in His word I put my hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning—more than watchmen wait for the morning.
Psalm 130:5–6 · BSB
Anyone who has worked a night shift knows this one from the inside: the last hour before morning is the longest. The psalmist says it twice because once was not enough. Psalm 130 begins “Out of the depths”, but it does not stay there. It ends in hope.
Week 1 · Waiting quietly
Lamentations 3:25–26
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.
Lamentations 3:25–26 · BSB
These lines sit near the middle of Lamentations, a book of grief over a burned city. Quiet waiting is not the same as doing nothing. It means not filling every silence, in a month that seems built to fill them all. Try five minutes this week with no music, no news and no phone.
Week 1 · Stay awake
Mark 13:33
Be on your guard and stay alert! For you do not know when the appointed time will come.
Mark 13:33 · BSB
Jesus says this a few days before his death, and he is talking about his coming again. That is the half of Advent we tend to forget. Staying alert is not anxious news-watching; it is living in a way you would be glad to be found in.
Week 1 · Nearly morning
Romans 13:12
The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Romans 13:12 · BSB
Paul writes as if it were half past five in the morning: still dark, but you can feel the day coming. Get dressed for it, he says, and the clothes are made of light. Advent asks us to live now by the day that is on its way.
Week 2 · Comfort first
Isaiah 40:1
“Comfort, comfort My people,” says your God.
Isaiah 40:1 · BSB
Isaiah 40 marks a turn in the book: the voice now speaks to a people in exile. Before any call to get ready, God begins with comfort, and says it twice. Handel heard it too. After the overture, the first words sung in Messiah are these.
Week 2 · Making the road
Isaiah 40:4
Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain.
Isaiah 40:4 · BSB
Isaiah pictures a highway for God across the desert, with the valleys raised and the hills cut down, the kind of road you build for a royal visit. It is an honest picture of preparation. Some things in us need lifting up: courage, prayer, hope. Others need to come down a little.
Week 2 · The messenger
From Malachi 3:1
Behold, I will send My messenger, who will prepare the way before Me
From Malachi 3:1 · BSB
Malachi comes last among the prophets in Christian Bibles, so this promise of a messenger is one of the last prophetic words before the Gospels. Mark opens his Gospel by quoting it (Mark 1:2), and the messenger turns out to be John the Baptist.
Week 2 · A voice in the wilderness
Mark 1:3
“A voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.’”
Mark 1:3 · BSB
Mark has no manger and no shepherds. His Gospel starts with a man in camel’s hair by the Jordan, and people walking out from Jerusalem to confess their sins (Mark 1:5–6). Getting ready for Christmas, in John’s sense, has more to do with an honest confession than a finished shopping list.
Week 2 · Why God waits
2 Peter 3:9
The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.
2 Peter 3:9 · BSB
Peter knew the question people were asking: “Where is the promise of His coming?” (2 Peter 3:4). His answer is that the delay is mercy, room for one more person to turn around. When God seems slow in your own life, it is fair to wonder who the extra time might be for.
Week 3 · Gaudete Sunday
Philippians 4:4
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Philippians 4:4 (BSB)
The third Sunday of Advent, December 13 this year, is called Gaudete Sunday, after the Latin for “Rejoice”, the first word of its old entrance chant, taken from this verse. In churches with an Advent wreath, it is the Sunday of the rose candle. Paul wrote this in chains, and gives his reason in the next line: “The Lord is near.”
Sunday, November 8
9:41
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!
Philippians 4:4 · BSBTurn this verse into your Lock Screen wallpaperWrite it over a photograph in MySavior’s wallpaper maker and save it to Photos at the size of your iPhone’s screen.
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Week 3 · God sings
Zephaniah 3:17
The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.”
Zephaniah 3:17 · BSB
We are used to singing to God. Here God sings over his people, and quiets them with his love, like a parent bent over a crib at bedtime. Zephaniah spends most of his short book on judgment, which makes this ending all the brighter.
Week 3 · The desert in bloom
Isaiah 35:1
The wilderness and the dry land will be glad; the desert will rejoice and blossom like a rose.
Isaiah 35:1 · BSB
The land that looked finished will flower. If you light a rose candle this Sunday, let this verse go with it. The joy of Advent is not that the desert has gone, but that it has started to bloom.
Week 3 · The farmer’s patience
James 5:7
Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer awaits the precious fruit of the soil—how patient he is for the fall and spring rains.
James 5:7 · BSB
A farmer cannot hurry the rain, but he is not idle while he waits; the field is already ploughed and sown. James asks for that kind of patience, then adds: “You, too, be patient and strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming is near.”
Week 3 · Not the light, but a witness
John 1:6–8
There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that through him everyone might believe. He himself was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light.
John 1:6–8 · BSB
John’s Gospel interrupts its great opening poem to make one thing plain: John the Baptist was not the light. He pointed away from himself. That is a freeing job description for December. Nobody needs you to be the light, only to point to him.
Week 4 · God with us
Matthew 1:23
“Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means, “God with us”).
Matthew 1:23 · BSB
Matthew quotes Isaiah 7:14 and then translates the name so that nobody can miss it. The last of the O Antiphons, sung at evening prayer on December 23, is “O Emmanuel”, and the hymn “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” is built from those antiphons. Sing it this week and mean the first word.
Week 4 · She believed
Luke 1:45
Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord’s word to her will be fulfilled.”
Luke 1:45 · BSB
Elizabeth says this to Mary, both of them pregnant and neither with an easy story to tell. Mary is called blessed not for having the details worked out, but for trusting that God would keep his word.
Week 4 · Mary’s song
Luke 1:46–47
Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
Luke 1:46–47 · BSB
The Magnificat has been sung at evening prayer for centuries, and this year it may replace the psalm on the third and fourth Sundays. Notice what Mary rejoices in: not her circumstances, which were hard, but God her Savior.
Week 4 · The Dawn from on high
Luke 1:78–79
because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the Dawn will visit us from on high, to shine on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Luke 1:78–79 · BSB
Zechariah, struck silent until his son was born (Luke 1:20, 64), gets his voice back and sings this. The Dawn is the Messiah, rising on people who sit in the dark. In the Latin Bible the word is oriens, and it names the antiphon “O Oriens”, sung on December 21, close to the longest night of the northern year.
Week 4 · For Christmas Eve, December 24
John 1:9
The true Light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
John 1:9 · BSB
“Was coming” is Advent in two words: the light on its way into a world that cannot see it yet. Read this one last, on Christmas Eve, light whatever candles you have, and let the waiting end.
A small practice for these four weeks
Each Sunday, starting on Sunday, November 29, read that week’s verses aloud, all of them, before dinner or after the dishes. Then choose one to carry through the week. Write it on a card for the fridge, or make it your Lock Screen wallpaper with MySavior’s wallpaper maker, so the first thing you see on a dark December morning is a promise and not a notification. Swap it for a new one the next Sunday. By Christmas Eve you will know four verses by heart, and you will have done a little of the waiting the prophets did.
Keep Advent in view until Christmas
A countdown to Christmas on your Lock Screen, Bible verse widgets that change by themselves on a schedule, and a verse wallpaper you write yourself.
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Questions
What are good Bible verses for Advent?
Isaiah 40:1–5 (“Comfort, comfort My people”), Isaiah 64:1, Jeremiah 33:14, Psalm 130:5–6, Philippians 4:4–5, Luke 1:46–55 and Luke 1:78–79 are among the best loved. Between them they carry the season’s themes: prophecy, waiting, preparation, joy and light.
When does Advent start in 2026?
Advent 2026 begins on Sunday, November 29, 2026, the fourth Sunday before Christmas. Its four Sundays are November 29, December 6, December 13 and December 20, and the season ends on Christmas Eve, Thursday, December 24. See the Advent dates for the next few years.
What do the four Advent candles mean?
Many churches name them hope, peace, joy and love, though traditions vary. The candles are usually violet or blue, with a rose candle for the third Sunday, Gaudete Sunday, which is given to joy. The wreath is usually traced to Johann Hinrich Wichern, a Lutheran pastor in Hamburg, who in 1839 set 24 small red candles and four large white ones on an old cartwheel for the children of his mission school.
How can I count down to Christmas on my iPhone?
With the Christian Countdown widget in MySavior. Add it to your Lock Screen or Home Screen and choose Christmas as its Event; the number goes down by one every night at midnight. Advent is one of the feasts you can choose too. See how many days are left until Christmas.
Which Bible translation is quoted here?
Every verse in this article is quoted from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB).
