Is God Called Father in the Old Testament?

Yes. God is called Father in the Old Testament, though not as often as in the New Testament. The title appears in Israel’s worship, in the prophets, and in God’s covenant with David. It is not a New Testament invention. When Jesus taught His disciples to pray “Our Father,” He was building on something God’s people had already been given.

That matters for anyone who wonders whether the Old Testament God is distant and the New Testament God is close. The same Father speaks in both. What changes across the Bible is not God’s character but the fullness of what He reveals — and the coming of the Son who makes the Father known in person.

Where does the Old Testament actually call God Father?

The clearest places are worth reading slowly.

Moses, near the end of his life, asks Israel a pointed question:

Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you? — Deuteronomy 32:6 (BSB)

That is not a vague poetic image. It is covenant language. God made Israel, bought Israel, and stands to them as Father.

When God makes His promise to David, He says of David’s son:

I will be his Father, and he will be My son. — 2 Samuel 7:14 (BSB)

Psalm 89 repeats this and puts words in the mouth of the coming king:

He will call to Me, ‘You are my Father, my God, the Rock of my salvation.’ — Psalm 89:26 (BSB)

Jeremiah pictures a returning people:

They will come with weeping, and by their supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk beside streams of waters, on a level path where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn. — Jeremiah 31:9 (BSB)

Isaiah prays to God as Father twice in one chapter:

Yet You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O LORD, are our Father; our Redeemer from Everlasting is Your name. — Isaiah 63:16 (BSB)

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand. — Isaiah 64:8 (BSB)

And Malachi asks:

Do we not all have one Father? Did not one God create us? Why then do we break faith with one another so as to profane the covenant of our fathers? — Malachi 2:10 (BSB)

Add to these Exodus 4:22, where God calls Israel His firstborn son, and Psalm 103:13, where His pity for His children is compared to a father’s pity. The theme is real and repeated.

If God is Father in the Old Testament, why does it feel so rare?

It is rare compared to the New Testament, and there are reasons for that.

The Old Testament was written into a world crowded with gods and idols. Israel’s neighbors had father-gods and mother-gods, fertility deities and household idols. God revealed Himself as Father, but He did so carefully, so that Israel would not confuse Him with the nations’ gods. The dominant picture of God in the Old Testament is King, Judge, Shepherd, Rock, and Husband. Father is present, but it is one note among many.

Also, the Old Testament is largely the story of a nation. God is Father to Israel as a people. The New Testament opens the same fatherhood to individuals from every nation, who are adopted as sons and daughters through Christ. What was true of a covenant people becomes personal for every believer.

So the difference is not that God changed. It is that the Son came and made the Father known, and the Spirit now teaches believers to cry out to Him.

What does the Old Testament show us about what God the Father is like?

It shows a Father who is not passive. He forms, He provides, He disciplines, and He grieves.

Deuteronomy 32:6 says He is Israel’s Father and Creator, the one who made and established them. A father who makes and owns His children is a father who takes responsibility for them. Isaiah 64:8 uses the potter and clay picture: the Father is the one shaping the vessel. Psalm 103:13 says:

As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him. — Psalm 103:13 (BSB)

Hosea gives the tender side of this fatherhood, where God speaks of teaching Ephraim to walk and holding him by the arms. That is the language of a parent with a small child.

But the Old Testament also shows a Father who is grieved by His children’s rebellion. Hosea 11:1 says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son” (BSB). A few verses later God laments that His people turned away. Fatherhood in the Bible includes joy and sorrow, nearness and heartbreak. It is not a soft metaphor. It is a bond that can be wounded.

How does the Old Testament Father connect to the New Testament?

Everything Jesus says about the Father stands on this foundation.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He said, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name” (Matthew 6:9, BSB). He was not introducing a brand-new idea. He was fulfilling one. The Old Testament had already called God Father; Jesus now makes that relationship possible for all who believe.

John writes, “But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12, BSB). Paul adds that the Spirit of adoption lets believers call God “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). Abba is a term of warm affection and trust, not cold formality.

So the Old Testament gives us the title. The New Testament gives us the adoption. The Father was always Father. In Christ, He becomes our Father.

What if my own father was absent or harsh?

This is where the Bible’s teaching about God as Father becomes deeply personal, and also where it can be painful.

God is not a copy of your earthly father. He is the standard your earthly father was meant to reflect. When human fathers fail — through absence, anger, abandonment, or worse — that failure does not define what fatherhood is. It distorts it. God’s fatherhood is the original, and it is good.

Psalm 68:5 calls God “a father to the fatherless” and “a defender of widows.” That verse is not sentimental. It is a legal and emotional promise: the one with no protector has God Himself as protector.

If your experience of fatherhood has been painful, you do not have to pretend it was not. You can bring that wound to God honestly. He is not offended by grief. And He does not ask you to call Him Father before you are ready. He invites you to come and see what kind of Father He is — patient, present, and faithful — and to let Scripture, prayer, and a local church help you trust Him over time.

If the pain is heavy, please do not carry it alone. Speak with a pastor or a trusted believer in person, and consider seeing a doctor or licensed counselor. In the United States and Canada, you can call or text 988. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, call Samaritans on 116 123. In Australia, call Lifeline on 13 11 14. Anywhere else, visit findahelpline.com or call your local emergency number.

How should this change the way I read the Old Testament?

Read it looking for the Father. He is there in the covenant with David, in the prophets’ prayers, in the songs of Israel, and in the discipline and mercy of a God who refuses to let His children go.

The Old Testament does not give us a different God from the New. It gives us the same Father, speaking in promises and pictures, waiting for the day when His Son would come and say, “Anyone who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9, BSB).

Take these passages to God in prayer. Ask Him to show you what kind of Father He is. Read them with other believers in a local church, where His fatherhood is lived out in a family. And when you are ready, call Him what He has always been.

Common questions

How many times is God called Father in the Old Testament?

The exact count depends on how you define the term, but the title appears in at least a dozen clear passages, including Deuteronomy 32:6, 2 Samuel 7:14, Psalm 89:26, Isaiah 63:16, Isaiah 64:8, Jeremiah 31:9, and Malachi 2:10. It is less frequent than in the New Testament but is a real and repeated theme.

Does the Old Testament call God Father to individuals or only to Israel as a nation?

Mostly to Israel as a covenant people, as in Deuteronomy 32:6 and Isaiah 63:16. The New Testament extends this fatherhood to individual believers from every nation through adoption in Christ, as in John 1:12 and Romans 8:15.

Why did Jesus call God Father if the Old Testament already did?

Jesus did not invent the title; He fulfilled it. The Old Testament had already called God Father, but Jesus made that relationship available to all who believe. He taught His disciples to pray “Our Father” and revealed the Father perfectly in Himself.