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For hospice, the bedside, and the last days
Free printable: What to read when someone is dying
At a bedside you need verses that are short, plain, and true, because the person may be drifting and you will be reading through your own tears. These are the ones hospice chaplains reach for. None of them argues. They say: you are held, you are going somewhere, and you are not going alone. Read one, slowly. Then sit. The sitting is most of it.
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What’s on it
For the room
- Psalm 23:1-6 — The person has probably known it their whole life, and hearing it now connects the end to everything before. It names the valley and walks through it.
- Isaiah 43:2 — When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When, not if. Honest about the crossing.
For the person
- Luke 23:43 — Jesus, dying, to the man dying next to him: today. The shortest, clearest promise in the Bible about what comes next, made to someone with nothing left to offer.
- Psalm 31:5 — “Into your hand I commend my spirit.” Jesus said it on the cross. If the person can still speak, they may want to say it. If not, say it for them.
- John 14:1-3 — A prepared place, and someone coming back to get you. From the one who went first.
For the family, afterward
- Psalm 116:15 — Precious in his sight. One line, for when nobody knows what to say.
What to say
- Say less. One verse, slowly. Then hold a hand.
- “You can go when you’re ready. We’ll be all right.” Families often need to give permission, and the dying often wait for it.
- Say what they meant to you, in the present tense, while they can hear it. Hearing is usually the last sense to go.
- Play the music they loved. Read the psalm they knew. Familiar beats profound now.
How to use it
Bring two verses, not seven. Psalm 23 for the room, Luke 23:43 or Psalm 31:5 for the person. If you don’t know what they believed, Psalm 23 and Isaiah 43:2 ask nothing of the listener.
One of the passages, in full
1Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing. 2He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. 3He restores my soul. He guides me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. 5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup runs over. 6Surely goodness and loving kindness shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in Yahweh’s house forever.
The person has probably known it their whole life, and hearing it now connects the end to everything before. It names the valley and walks through it.
Free to print and share; the footer of the sheet says so. If you keep a resource page for a church, a hospice, or a chaplaincy, you’re welcome to link here. How I choose verses.