Bedtime Bible stories to listen to before bed

Every story in this collection

Noah's Ark and the Great Flood

A clear blue sky, an enormous boat on dry land, and one family choosing to trust God before a single raindrop falls. This gentle retelling brings the animals, the ark, and God's rainbow promise into a calm bedtime adventure.

Genesis 6-9, 7 min, ages 3-8

David and Goliath

A young shepherd walks into a frightened camp carrying no armor, no sword, and one brave belief: the giant is not bigger than God. The familiar adventure is told with warmth, courage, and gentleness for young listeners.

1 Samuel 17, 9 min, ages 3-8

Baby Moses in a Basket

A tiny basket floats among the river reeds while a brave big sister watches nearby. This tender Baby Moses story follows a mother's careful plan and the unexpected kindness that keeps her little boy safe.

Exodus 1-2, 5 min, ages 3-8

Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors

Joseph receives a bright, beautiful coat—and discovers that a special gift can stir up very complicated feelings in a family. The story gently introduces dreams, jealousy, and the beginning of Joseph's long journey.

Genesis 37:1-11, 6 min, ages 3-8

Daniel in the Lions' Den

Daniel keeps praying even when a new law makes faithfulness dangerous. Soon he must spend a long night somewhere no one wants to be—but he is not alone among the lions.

Daniel 6, 7 min, ages 3-8

Noah and the Rainbow

The rain has stopped, the ark door opens, and the whole world feels new. Noah steps onto dry ground and receives a colorful sign that families can still remember whenever sunlight meets rain.

Genesis 9:8-17, 4 min, ages 3-8

David the Shepherd Boy

Before David faced giants or wore a crown, he was a shepherd boy under a wide night sky. This quiet story follows his songs, his sheep, and the courage he practiced when no one else was watching.

1 Samuel 16:1-13, 17:34-37, Psalm 23, 6 min, ages 3-8

Moses Crosses the Red Sea

God's people reach the edge of the sea with danger close behind and nowhere obvious to go. Moses asks them to stand still, trust God, and watch an impossible road appear.

Exodus 14-15, 10 min, ages 3-8

Joseph Interprets Pharaoh's Dreams

In Egypt, Joseph is asked to understand dreams that no one else can explain. Seven healthy cows, seven thin cows, and a warning about the years ahead reveal how wisdom can help a whole nation prepare.

Genesis 39-41, 11 min, ages 3-8

Queen Esther Saves Her People

Esther has two names, a hidden family story, and a place inside the royal palace. When her people face danger, she must decide whether courage means speaking at exactly the right moment.

Esther 2-7, 11 min, ages 3-8

God Creates Light, Sky, and Land

The story begins in complete darkness, before there is a clock to tick or a sun to rise, and then God speaks a single word. Days one through four unfold slowly here — light, the wide sky, dry ground and green growing things, and at last the sun, moon and stars taking their places.

Genesis 1:1-19, 9 min, ages 3-8

God Creates the Animals and Rests

The world has already been built — now God fills it up. Fish tumble into the seas, wings crowd the sky, and a noisy parade of animals walks out onto the land, until a week that started with a splash ends somewhere unexpectedly quiet.

Genesis 1:20-2:3, 3 min, ages 3-8

God Makes Adam and Eve

God shapes the first person out of plain brown dust, plants a garden full of rivers and fruit trees, and hands Adam the job of naming every animal that walks past. But when the last creature has its name, something in the garden is still not finished.

Genesis 2, 3 min, ages 3-8

Adam and Eve and the Forbidden Fruit

Everything in the garden is good until a crafty voice asks Adam and Eve a question about what God really said. This is the Bible's saddest turn, told gently — and it is also where God makes His very first promise of a Rescuer.

Genesis 3, 4 min, ages 3-8

Cain and Abel

Two brothers bring their gifts to God, and only one of them is welcomed — and the anger that follows changes everything. This is one of the Bible's hardest stories, told gently, and it ends somewhere most people do not expect.

Genesis 4, 3 min, ages 5-8

Enoch Walked with God

Enoch's story is one of the Bible's shortest and quietest: he simply walks with God, day after day. This peaceful retelling imagines a life of ordinary steps becoming an extraordinary friendship.

Genesis 5:21-24, 2 min, ages 3-8

Noah Builds the Ark

Before a single animal walked up the ramp, there was a cord stretched over a board and a saw moving back and forth. This steady, rhythmic story follows the plan God handed Noah, cubit by cubit, while the world outside went on as it was.

Genesis 6, 4 min, ages 3-8

The Tower of Babel

When everyone on earth spoke the same words, they decided to bake bricks and build a tower tall enough to reach the sky and make their name famous forever. It goes beautifully — right up until the moment one builder asks for a brick and gets handed a pickle.

Genesis 11:1-9, 3 min, ages 3-8

God Calls Abraham

God asks Abram to leave everything he knows and walk toward a land God will not even name. This unhurried retelling follows the dust, the donkeys and the altars Abram builds wherever God speaks to him.

Genesis 12:1-9, 5 min, ages 3-8

Abraham Counts the Stars

Abram has been carrying the same question for years: God promised him a family, so where is the child? This quiet story takes him out of his tent and into a night sky that answers with far more than he asked for.

Genesis 15:1-6, 3 min, ages 3-8

Sarah and the Three Visitors

Three strangers arrive at the hottest, stillest hour of the day, and Sarah listens to the whole visit from inside the tent. One of them knows her name — and knows exactly what she is thinking.

Genesis 18:1-15, 5 min, ages 3-8

Sarah Laughs and Isaac Is Born

Sarah has waited so long for God's promise that the news sounds impossible. Her surprised laugh becomes part of a baby's name—and a reminder that waiting is not the same as being forgotten.

Genesis 21:1-7, 3 min, ages 3-8

Abraham and Isaac on the Mountain

Abraham wakes before dawn with a heavy heart and the hardest thing he has ever been asked to do, and sets out for a mountain three days away with his son walking beside him. This is Genesis 22 told slowly and tenderly — a story about trusting God one step at a time, and about what was already waiting at the top.

Genesis 22, 8 min, ages 5-8

Rebekah at the Well

Abraham sends his oldest servant across the desert with ten camels and one enormous errand: find a wife for Isaac. Beside a well outside a strange town, the servant prays a very particular prayer — and before he has finished it, someone comes walking down the road.

Genesis 24, 8 min, ages 3-8

Jacob and Esau

Twin brothers, one pot of lentil stew, and a bargain struck in the time it takes to draw a breath. This retelling follows Jacob and Esau from the day they were born to the morning one of them walks into his blind father's tent pretending to be the other.

Genesis 25-27, 10 min, ages 3-8

Jacob's Ladder

One night on the run, with nothing to sleep on but rocks, Jacob lies down in the emptiest place he has ever been. What he sees while he sleeps turns that patch of bare dirt into the gate of heaven.

Genesis 28:10-22, 7 min, ages 3-8

Jacob and Rachel

Jacob meets a shepherdess at a well and offers seven years of work for the chance to marry her. This is a story about how quickly a long wait can pass when you love someone — and about the sister nobody was looking at.

Genesis 29, 4 min, ages 3-8

Jacob Wrestles with God

Jacob sends everyone he loves across the river in the middle of the night and stays behind by himself, dreading the brother he has to face at sunrise. Then, out of the dark, someone takes hold of him and will not let go.

Genesis 32, 9 min, ages 3-8

Jacob and Esau Meet Again

Twenty years after Jacob ran away, he is walking back — with a limp that will not let him run, and a dust cloud on the horizon that turns out to be four hundred men. This retelling stays beside him for the whole frightened walk toward a brother he wronged and has not seen since.

Genesis 33, 4 min, ages 3-8

Joseph Forgives His Brothers

A famine empties the bowls in Jacob's tent, so ten brothers walk to Egypt to buy grain from a ruler they do not recognise. He knows exactly who they are — and before he says a word about it, he sets them a test to find out whether they have changed.

Genesis 42-45; 50:20, 13 min, ages 3-8

Jacob Blesses Ephraim and Manasseh

Old Jacob is nearly blind, propped up on his pillows in Egypt, when Joseph brings in two grandsons he never expected to meet. Joseph places the boys carefully, the older one on the right — and then Jacob's shaking hands do something nobody in the room expects.

Genesis 48, 4 min, ages 3-8

Moses and the Burning Bush

Forty years after running away from Egypt, Moses is walking the same dusty hills with the same sheep when a bush catches fire and simply refuses to burn up. What happens next turns an old shepherd who is sure he is nobody back toward the palace he fled.

Exodus 3-4, 10 min, ages 3-8

Moses and the Plagues of Egypt

Nine times Moses walks into the golden throne room and asks Pharaoh to let God's people go, and nine times he gets the same one-word answer. Sign after sign piles up outside the palace while one man's heart stays as hard as the bricks his slaves are making.

Exodus 5-10, 12 min, ages 5-8

The First Passover

Every family in Israel picks one small lamb and keeps it close for four days, and then paints its blood around the doorframe and bolts the door until morning. Inside, with sandals on and bread still flat, they eat their supper standing up and wait for the night that finally sets them free.

Exodus 12, 9 min, ages 5-8

Miriam Sings by the Red Sea

On the night God's people ran out of Egypt in the dark, somebody reached up and took down a tambourine — and you do not pack a tambourine unless you expect something to celebrate. On the far side of the sea, the girl who once hid in the reeds watching over baby Moses steps out in front of everyone and starts the song.

Exodus 15:1-21, 3 min, ages 3-8

God Sends Manna from Heaven

A month into the wilderness the last crumb of bread carried out of Egypt is gone, and hungry people say hard things to Moses. God's answer arrives overnight, scattered across the sand, and nobody can work out what it is.

Exodus 16, 4 min, ages 3-8

Moses Brings Water from the Rock

The people reach a place called Rephidim with cracked lips and empty water skins, and they are not gentle with Moses about it. Then God gives him an instruction that makes no sense at all: walk out to a rock, and hit it.

Exodus 17:1-7, 3 min, ages 3-8

The Ten Commandments

The mountain is smoking, the ground is shaking, and a whole nation stands very still at the bottom while Moses climbs up into the cloud. What he carries back down is not gold or silver but ten short rules, written for a family by the finger that scattered the stars.

Exodus 19-20, 24, 31, 9 min, ages 3-8

The Golden Calf

Moses has been up on the mountain for forty days, and the people down below grow tired of waiting. What they ask Aaron to make will break Moses' heart, and what God does next is even more surprising.

Exodus 32; 34:1-4, 27-29, 9 min, ages 3-8

Building the Tabernacle

Moses tells the people that God wants to live right in the middle of their camp, and asks anyone whose heart says yes to bring something. The gifts start arriving, and they do not stop.

Exodus 35-40, 4 min, ages 3-8

The Twelve Spies

Moses sends twelve men to sneak into the promised land and bring back some of its fruit. They all see the same hills, cities and tall people, but they do not all come home with the same report.

Numbers 13-14, 8 min, ages 3-8

Joshua and the Battle of Jericho

God gives Joshua a plan for the locked-up city of Jericho, and it has no ladders, no battering rams and no swords. It has trumpets, a lot of walking, and a rule that nobody may say a single word.

Joshua 6, 8 min, ages 3-8

Rahab and the Spies

Rahab lives in a house built right into the wall of Jericho, and one evening two strangers come to her door. When the king's soldiers come looking for them, she has to decide what to do.

Joshua 2, 4 min, ages 3-8

Joshua and the Day the Sun Stood Still

Joshua and his people have marched all night to help their friends in Gibeon, and now the day is running out. So Joshua does something no one had ever done before.

Joshua 10:6-14, 3 min, ages 3-8

Deborah the Judge

Deborah sits under a palm tree in the hill country, listening to everyone who comes with a problem, and listening to God. Then God gives her a message for a soldier named Barak, and his answer is not what you might expect.

Judges 4-5, 7 min, ages 3-8

Gideon's Fleece

Gideon is hiding in a winepress, beating out wheat where no one can see him, when an angel calls him a mighty man of valor. He is not so sure, so he asks God for a sign, and then for one more.

Judges 6-7, 9 min, ages 3-8

Samson and Delilah

Before Samson was even born, an angel said that no razor should ever touch his head. He grows up stronger than anyone, but this story is about what happens when he forgets where that strength comes from.

Judges 13-16, 10 min, ages 6-8

Ruth and Naomi

Naomi has lost her husband and both her sons in a faraway land, and now she wants to go home to Bethlehem. Where the road splits, she tells her two daughters-in-law to turn back, and each of them has to choose.

Ruth 1, 8 min, ages 3-8

Ruth and Boaz

Ruth goes out early to gather leftover barley so that she and Naomi will have something to eat. She does not know whose field she has walked into, or what its owner is about to whisper to his workers.

Ruth 2, 4 min, ages 3-8

Ruth's Baby Obed

The last time we saw Naomi, she told everyone in Bethlehem to call her Mara because she had come home empty. Now she is holding a baby, and her neighbors have something to say about Ruth.

Ruth 4, 3 min, ages 3-8

Hannah Prays for a Baby

Hannah wants a baby more than anything, and every year on the family's trip to Shiloh someone makes the ache worse. One year she gets up from the table, walks into the tabernacle alone, and prays in a way no one around her can hear.

1 Samuel 1, 9 min, ages 3-8

Samuel Hears God Call

Samuel is a boy sleeping in God's temple, near a little lamp that has not yet gone out, when someone calls his name. He is sure it must be old Eli, but Eli says he never called.

1 Samuel 3, 4 min, ages 3-8

Saul Becomes Israel's First King

Samuel is an old prophet now, and the leaders of Israel march up to him with a demand: give us a king like all the other nations. Samuel's heart sinks, but God already has someone in mind.

1 Samuel 8-10, 5 min, ages 3-8

David and Jonathan

Jonathan is a prince and David is a shepherd boy with dust on his sandals, but from the day they meet they are best friends. Then King Saul hears a song about David, and Jonathan is caught between his father and his friend.

1 Samuel 18-20, 10 min, ages 3-8

David Spares Saul in the Cave

David is hiding deep in a cave in the wilderness of En-gedi while King Saul hunts for him with three thousand soldiers. Then the king walks into that very cave, alone, and David's men whisper that this is his chance.

1 Samuel 24, 7 min, ages 3-8

David Becomes King

Samuel poured oil on David's head when he was just a shepherd boy, but the crown did not come for years and years. David has been a giant-slayer, a best friend and a runaway hiding in caves, and he is still waiting.

2 Samuel 5, 4 min, ages 3-8

David and Mephibosheth

Every night at the palace, one chair at the king's table stays empty. King David cannot stop thinking about his old friend Jonathan, and he asks his servants a question that surprises everyone.

2 Samuel 9, 4 min, ages 3-8

King Solomon Asks for Wisdom

Solomon is a young king with an enormous job, and one night God comes to him in a dream with an astonishing offer. He could ask for treasure, or a long life, or victory over every enemy.

1 Kings 3:1-15, 4 min, ages 3-8

King Solomon and the Two Mothers

Two women stand before young King Solomon, each saying the same baby boy is hers, and there is no proof either way. The whole court is watching to see what the king who asked God for a listening heart will do.

1 Kings 3:16-28, 7 min, ages 5-8

Solomon Builds the Temple

For seven years, Solomon builds a house for God, with walls of gold, carved angels and great beams of cedar from Lebanon. But one thing about how it goes up makes it unlike any other building site in the world.

1 Kings 6-8, 5 min, ages 3-8

Elijah and the Ravens

Elijah tells a king that the rain will stop, and then God sends him to hide beside a lonely brook with no food at all. Help is coming, but not from anyone Elijah would have guessed.

1 Kings 17:1-7, 3 min, ages 3-8

Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath

In a town far from Israel, a mother gathers sticks to bake the very last meal she has for herself and her son. Then a tired stranger at the gate asks her for the one thing she cannot spare.

1 Kings 17:8-16, 8 min, ages 3-8

Elijah and the Prophets of Baal

After three years without rain, Elijah calls the whole nation and 450 prophets of Baal up Mount Carmel for a test. Two altars, two offerings, no fire allowed, and whichever god answers from heaven is the real God.

1 Kings 18, 11 min, ages 3-8

Elijah and the Still Small Voice

Just days after fire falls on Mount Carmel, the boldest prophet in Israel is running for his life and too tired to go on. What God does next is not what Elijah, or anyone, would expect.

1 Kings 19, 8 min, ages 5-8

Elijah and the Chariot of Fire

Elijah and his young friend Elisha walk one last road together, and both of them know it. Before the day ends, Elisha will ask for something no one can buy and see something he will never forget.

2 Kings 2:1-14, 5 min, ages 3-8

Elisha and the Floating Axe Head

Elisha's students are chopping trees by the Jordan River to build a bigger house when one man's axe head splashes into the muddy water. It belongs to someone else, and iron always sinks.

2 Kings 6:1-7, 3 min, ages 3-8

Naaman Is Healed in the Jordan

The commander of the whole Syrian army has a sickness under his armor that no doctor can cure, and only a young servant girl from Israel knows where help might be found. When the prophet's answer finally comes, it is so plain that Naaman almost goes home without it.

2 Kings 5, 8 min, ages 3-8

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

When the music plays, everyone in Babylon must bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar's enormous golden statue. Three young men from Israel stay on their feet, and the king's furnace is already burning.

Daniel 3, 9 min, ages 3-8

Daniel Interprets Nebuchadnezzar's Dream

The most powerful king in the world wakes up shaking from a dream he cannot get back, and he orders his wise men to tell him what it was. No one on earth can do it, and now Daniel and his friends are in danger too.

Daniel 2, 8 min, ages 3-8

Daniel and the Writing on the Wall

King Belshazzar throws the biggest party Babylon has ever seen and sends for the sacred cups taken from God's temple. Then the room goes silent, because fingers are writing on the palace wall and none of the king's wise men can read a word.

Daniel 5, 5 min, ages 3-8

Elisha and the Widow's Oil

A mother and her two sons are about to lose everything, and all that is left in the house is one small jar of oil. Elisha tells them to do something odd: knock on every door on the street and ask for empty jars.

2 Kings 4:1-7, 4 min, ages 3-8

Elisha and the Room on the Roof

A woman in the town of Shunem keeps feeding a traveling prophet, and one evening she has an idea for something more. When Elisha asks how he can repay her, her answer surprises him, and God knows something she has never said out loud.

2 Kings 4:8-17, 5 min, ages 3-8

Elisha Raises the Shunammite's Son

An ordinary harvest morning in Shunem turns into the hardest day of one mother's life. She lays her son on the bed in the room on the roof, shuts the door, and rides for Elisha with three words on her lips.

2 Kings 4:18-37, 6 min, ages 5-8

Elisha Feeds a Hundred Men

During a famine, one helpful student tosses some wild gourds nobody recognizes into Elisha's big pot of stew. Before the day is out there will be two problems in one hungry room, and only twenty small loaves to go around.

2 Kings 4:38-44, 4 min, ages 3-8

Elisha and the Invisible Army

An angry king finds out that Elisha keeps telling Israel his secret battle plans, so he sends an army to the small town of Dothan by night. In the morning, Elisha's young helper looks over the wall and counts far too many soldiers.

2 Kings 6:8-23, 6 min, ages 3-8

Jonah Runs from God

God tells Jonah to go to the great city of Nineveh, and Jonah buys a ticket on a ship sailing as far the other way as it can go. Out at sea, a wind comes down so hard the sailors think the whole ship is about to break apart.

Jonah 1, 7 min, ages 3-8

Jonah and the Whale

No sky, no stars and no morning: Jonah is somewhere no person has ever been, deep under the sea. All he can do there is talk to God, and what he says may surprise you.

Jonah 2, 4 min, ages 3-8

Jonah and Nineveh

God gives Jonah a second chance to go to Nineveh, an enormous city that has been cruel for a long time. This time he goes and says one sentence, and what happens next makes Jonah angrier than the storm ever did.

Jonah 3-4, 6 min, ages 3-8

The Angel Gabriel Visits Mary

God sends the angel Gabriel past every palace and king to one young woman in the small town of Nazareth. His news is so big that Mary has a question of her own, and her answer changes everything.

Luke 1:26-39, 4 min, ages 3-8

The Birth of Jesus

Mary's baby is coming very soon when an emperor far away in Rome orders everyone counted, and she and Joseph must walk all the way to Bethlehem. When they finally arrive, the little town is full, and the night is about to bring the baby the angel promised.

Luke 2:1-7 (with Matthew 1:23), 5 min, ages 3-8

The Shepherds and the Angels

On a quiet night outside Bethlehem, a few shepherds stay awake so their sheep can sleep safe. Then a light brighter than morning fills their field, and they hear news too good to keep to themselves.

Luke 2:8-20, 5 min, ages 3-8

Simeon and Anna

Mary and Joseph carry their few-weeks-old baby up to the busy temple in Jerusalem, with a small gift of two birds. Somewhere in that crowd, a man named Simeon has been waiting for a promise God made him.

Luke 2:22-40, 4 min, ages 3-8

The Wise Men Follow the Star

Far away in the east, some wise men who know the night sky by heart see a star they have never seen before. They pack their treasures and set out to find a King, but a jealous king in Jerusalem wants to find him too.

Matthew 2:1-12, 6 min, ages 3-8

Jesus Calms the Storm

At the end of a long day of teaching, Jesus and his friends push off across the lake, and he lies down on a cushion in the back of the boat and falls asleep. Then the wind starts to blow, and the water starts coming in.

Mark 4:35-41 (with Mark 4:1-2; Psalm 107:29), 5 min, ages 3-8

Jesus Feeds the 5000

Jesus and his tired friends sail off to find a quiet place to rest, but a huge crowd runs around the lake and gets there first. Soon thousands of hungry people are climbing the hillside, and the only food anyone can find is one boy's small lunch.

John 6:1-14 (with Mark 6:30-44; Matthew 14:13-23), 5 min, ages 3-8

Jesus Walks on Water

After the picnic on the grassy hill, Jesus sends his friends across the lake and climbs a mountain alone to pray. All night they row against the wind, and just before morning, something is coming toward them over the water.

Matthew 14:22-33 (with Mark 6:48), 5 min, ages 3-8

The Good Samaritan

A lawyer who knows God's law very well asks Jesus a tricky question: who is my neighbor? Jesus answers with a story about a hurt man lying beside a long road down to Jericho, and three travelers who come along it one by one.

Luke 10:25-37, 6 min, ages 3-8

The Parable of the Lost Sheep

Some grumbling people complain that Jesus welcomes sinners and even eats with them, so he answers with a story about a shepherd. The shepherd counts his hundred sheep, gets to ninety-nine, and stops.

Luke 15:1-7, 4 min, ages 3-8

The Prodigal Son

A younger son takes his share of everything, travels to a far country, and ends up so hungry he wishes he could eat the pigs' bean pods. On the long road home he practices what he will say to his father, but his father has something else in mind.

Luke 15:11-32 (with Luke 15:1-10), 6 min, ages 3-8

Jesus Blesses the Children

Families bring their littlest ones through the crowd, hoping Jesus will touch them, just once. But before they can reach him, someone stands in the way.

Mark 10:13-16, 3 min, ages 3-8

Zacchaeus

A crowd fills the road into Jericho, and one short, rich man cannot see a thing over all those heads. So he holds up his fine robes, runs ahead, and climbs into the leaves to wait.

Luke 19:1-10, 5 min, ages 3-8

Esther and the First Purim

Haman is gone, but his cruel letter is still out there, and not even the king can take it back. Esther and Mordecai must find another way, with busy scribes, a royal ring and very fast horses.

Esther 8-9, 6 min, ages 3-8

Daniel and the Vegetables

Far from home in a king's palace school, Daniel and his three friends are given new names and the king's own fancy food every day. Daniel quietly makes up his mind about that food, and a very worried officer has to decide whether to let him try a ten-day test.

Daniel 1, 6 min, ages 3-8

Proud King Nebuchadnezzar Eats Grass

The most powerful king in the world dreams of a tree so tall it reaches the sky, and only Daniel can tell him what it means. It is a hard message, but a small stump left in the grass carries a promise.

Daniel 4, 6 min, ages 3-8

Joshua Crosses the Jordan River

It is harvest time, the Jordan River is spilling over its banks, and God's people have no bridge and no boats. Joshua tells everyone to get ready, because tomorrow God is going to do wonders.

Joshua 3-4, 6 min, ages 3-8

Balaam and the Talking Donkey

A king hires a famous man to curse God's people, and the man saddles up his faithful old donkey for the long ride. But there is someone standing in the road that only the donkey can see.

Numbers 22-24, 7 min, ages 3-8

Josiah the Boy King

Josiah is only eight years old when the crown is set on his head, and as he grows he starts looking for God. Then, on an ordinary day of hammers and sawdust in the temple, the high priest finds something that has been lost for a very long time.

2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34-35, 6 min, ages 3-8

Nehemiah Rebuilds the Wall

Nehemiah serves the king his drinks in a palace far from Jerusalem, and the news from home makes him sit down and weep. Then one day the king notices his sad face, and Nehemiah has only a moment to pray before he answers.

Nehemiah 1-4; 6:15-16; 12:27-43, 7 min, ages 3-8

Common questions

How long is each bedtime Bible story?

The shortest is Enoch Walked with God at about two and a half minutes. The longest is Joseph Forgives His Brothers at about thirteen, with Moses and the Plagues of Egypt and Queen Esther Saves Her People next at around eleven. Most sit between three and nine minutes, and the narration length is printed on every story card so you can pick one that fits the time you actually have left.

Are any of these too exciting to play right before sleep?

Most are written to settle rather than stir, but a few are not really wind-down stories. David and Goliath, Moses Crosses the Red Sea, Queen Esther Saves Her People, Elijah and the Prophets of Baal, Jesus Calms the Storm and Jesus Walks on Water all build to something big, and Cain and Abel and Samson and Delilah are among the hardest stories we tell. Those work better earlier in the evening. The stories in our preschool collection are the safest choice for lights out.

Can my child listen on their own after lights out?

Yes, and that is what the app is built for. Stories can be downloaded so they play with the wifi off, and the app has a bedtime mode for exactly this moment. On the website a preview will play from any phone or tablet browser without an account.

Can I hear a whole story free on this website?

Not the whole narration. Every story here has a free audio preview so you can hear the voice and the pace before you decide, and most of the stories have their complete text on the page if you would rather read it yourself. The full narration of every story is in the app.

Which part of the Bible are these stories from?

Most are Old Testament. The largest group comes from Genesis and Exodus, and the rest run on through Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel and Kings to Daniel, Esther, Nehemiah and Jonah. The New Testament stories come from the Gospels: the Christmas story, then Jesus on the Sea of Galilee, the stories he told, and his walk toward Jerusalem. Every story page names the chapters it retells, and the memory verse is quoted from the World English Bible so you can look it up in whichever translation you use at home.