Suicide

The deliberate taking of one's own life, a rare occurrence in Scripture.

Psychological causes of suicide

A sense of guilt leads to suicide

Matthew 27:5 See also Acts 1:18–19

So Judas threw the silver into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

Defeat leads to suicide

1 Samuel 31:4 See also 1 Samuel 31:5–6 parallel 1 Chronicles 10:4–5; 2 Samuel 1:9, 2 Samuel 17:23; 1 Kings 16:18

Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, “Draw your sword and run me through with it, or these uncircumcised men will come and run me through and torture me!” But his armor-bearer was terrified and refused to do it. So Saul took his own sword and fell on it.

Defiance leads to suicide

Judges 16:26–30; 2 Samuel 17:23

Failure leads to attempted suicide

Acts 16:27

Desire for death is more frequently expressed in the Bible than actual suicide

The desire for death in a prophet's depression

1 Kings 19:3–4 See also Jeremiah 15:10, Jeremiah 20:14–18; Jonah 4:1–3 A desire for death does not lead to taking of one's own life, but to entrusting the place and time of one's death to the Lord.

And Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life, for I am no better than my fathers.”

The desire for death arising from grief and pain

Job 10:1 See also Job 3:1–4, Job 7:15–16

“I loathe my own life; I will express my complaint and speak in the bitterness of my soul.

The desire for death because of judgment

Revelation 9:6 See also Hosea 10:8; Revelation 6:16

In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them.

Life hated because of its apparent futility

Ecclesiastes 2:17 See also Psalm 90:8–10; Ecclesiastes 4:1–3

So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. For everything is futile and a pursuit of the wind.

Suicide usurps God's sovereignty over life

God is Creator, and thus has authority over his creation

Job 10:12 See also Genesis 2:7, Genesis 2:17; Psalm 90:1–10, Psalm 139:13–15

You have granted me life and loving devotion, and Your care has preserved my spirit.

God controls life and death

saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.”

Taking life, including one's own, is sin

Exodus 20:13

You shall not murder.

God's command that believers love themselves is violated by suicide

God's command that believers should love others is violated by suicide

Matthew 7:12 Relatives and friends are hurt when a loved one commits suicide.