37 Bible Verses about Animals, religious role of

I will destroy the men and the beasts; I will destroy the fowls of the heaven and the fishes of the sea, and the wicked shall stumble; and I will cut off men from upon the face of the earth, saith the LORD.

And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast and the animals and the fowls of the air; for I repent of having made them.

And the LORD called unto Moses, and spoke unto him out of the tabernacle of the testimony, saying, Speak unto the sons of Israel and say unto them, When any of you offers an offering unto the LORD of animals, of cattle, even of the cows, or of the sheep ye shall make your offering.

I will offer unto thee burnt sacrifices of fatlings with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.

And Noah built an altar unto the LORD and took of every clean animal and of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And if his offering is a sacrifice of peace, if he offers it of the bovine cattle, whether it is male or female, he shall offer it without blemish before the LORD.

All the oxen for the burnt offering were twelve bullocks, the rams twelve, the lambs of the first year twelve, with their present; and the he goats for sin twelve. And all the oxen for the sacrifice of the peace were twenty-four bullocks, the rams sixty, the he goats sixty, the lambs of the first year sixty. This was the dedication of the altar, after it was anointed.

Thou shalt, therefore, sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, of the sheep and the cows, in the place which the LORD shall choose to cause his name to dwell therein.

And when ye offer the blind animal for sacrifice, is it not evil? Likewise when ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy prince; will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person? said the LORD of the hosts.

Ye shall not offer unto the LORD that which is bruised or crushed or broken or cut; neither shall ye do thus in all your land. Neither from the son of a stranger's hand shall ye offer the bread of your God of any of these because their corruption is in them and blemishes are in them; they shall not be accepted for you.

And if there is any blemish in it, if it is lame or blind or has any ill blemish, thou shalt not sacrifice it unto the LORD thy God.

And ye say, Behold, what a weariness it is! and ye have rejected it, said the LORD of the hosts; and ye brought that which was stolen or lame or sick and presented an offering: should this be acceptable unto me by your hand? said the LORD. But cursed be the deceiver, who has in his flock a male and vows and sacrifices unto the Lord a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of the hosts, and my name is formidable among the Gentiles.

Therefore, ye shall differentiate between clean animals and unclean and between unclean fowls and clean; and ye shall not defile your persons by animals or by fowl or by any manner of living thing that moves on the ground which I have separated from you as unclean. Ye must, therefore, be holy unto me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the other peoples, that ye should be mine.

And ye shall be holy men unto me; neither shall ye eat any flesh that is torn of beasts in the field; ye shall cast it to the dogs.

That which dies of itself or is torn by beasts, he shall not eat to defile himself therewith. I am the LORD.

Notwithstanding, thou may kill and eat flesh in all thy gates, according to the desire of thy soul, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he has given thee; the unclean and the clean may eat thereof, as of the roebuck and as of the hart. Only ye shall not eat the blood; ye shall pour it upon the earth as water.

Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! behold, my soul is not defiled: for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither has abominable flesh come into my mouth.

On the morrow, as they went on their journey and drew near unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to pray about the sixth hour; and he became very hungry and would have eaten; but while they made ready, he fell into a rapture of understanding and saw the heaven opened and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners and let down to the earth,read more.
in which were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth and wild beasts and reptiles and fowls of the air. And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.

And the LORD spoke unto Moses, saying, Sanctify unto me all the firstborn, whatever opens the womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and of beast; for it is mine.

And if it is an animal which is offered unto the LORD, all that anyone gives of such unto the LORD shall be holy. He shall not alter it nor change it, a good for a bad, or a bad for a good; and if he shall exchange one animal for another, then it and the one exchanged thereof shall belong to the sanctuary. And if it is an unclean animal, which cannot be offered as a sacrifice unto the LORD, then he shall present the animal before the priest;read more.
and the priest shall value it, whether it is good or bad; according to the estimation of the priest, so shall it be. But if it must be redeemed, then they shall add a fifth part thereof unto thy estimation.

Every thing that opens the womb in all flesh, which they shall offer unto the LORD, whether it is of men or animals, shall be thine; nevertheless the firstborn of man shalt thou surely ransom, and the firstborn of unclean animals shalt thou ransom.

And if someone shall open a pit or if someone shall dig a pit and not cover it and an ox or an ass falls in it, the owner of the pit shall make it good and give money unto their owner, and the dead beast shall be his. And if one man's ox hurts another's that he dies; then they shall sell the live ox and divide the money of it, and the dead ox they shall also divide.read more.
Or if it is known that the ox used to push in time past and his owner has not kept him in, he shall surely pay ox for ox, and the dead shall be his own.

And he that kills an animal shall make it good: animal for animal. And if a man causes a blemish in his neighbour; as he has done, so shall it be done to him; breach for breach, eye for eye, tooth for tooth: as he has caused a blemish in a man, so shall it be done to him again.read more.
He that kills an animal shall restore it, but he that kills a man shall be put to death.

Whoever lies with a beast shall surely be put to death.

Ye shall keep my statutes. Thou shalt not let thy animal join with a diverse kind for mixtures; thou shalt not sow thy field with mixture, neither shalt thou wear garments of a mixture of different things.

And if any animal of which ye may eat dies, he that touches the carcase thereof shall be unclean until the evening;

And the LORD said unto Moses, Stretch forth thine hand toward heaven that there may be hail in all the land of Egypt, upon the men and upon the beasts and upon all the grass of the field throughout the land of Egypt. And Moses stretched forth his rod toward heaven, and the LORD raised his voice and it hailed, and the fire ran along upon the ground; and the LORD rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail and fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none like it in all the land of Egypt since it became inhabited.read more.
And that hail smote throughout all the land of Egypt all that was in the field, both men and beasts; and the hail smote all the grass of the field and broke all the trees of the field.

He who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast;

Upon the mountains I will lift up weeping and wailing and lamentation upon the habitations of the wilderness because they are burned up, so that no one can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and even the beasts of the earth are fled; they are gone.

Thus hath the Lord GOD spoken; Because of what Edom did when he took vengeance against the house of Judah, (for they are condemned as guilty) and revenged themselves upon them; therefore thus hath the Lord GOD said: I will also stretch out my hand upon Edom and will cut off man and beast from her; and I will make her desolate from Teman; and those of Dedan shall fall by the sword.

O LORD, to thee will I cry for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field. The beasts of the field also cry unto thee for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire has devoured the meadows of the wilderness.

For the violence of Lebanon shall fall upon thee and the destruction of the wild beasts shall break thee, because of the human blood, and of the robbery of the land, of the cities, and of all that dwell therein.

And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that were in the armies.

And if ye walk contrary unto me and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you which shall rapture your children and destroy your animals and make you few in number, and your ways shall be desolate.

Thou shalt speak unto them like this, Thus hath the Lord GOD said; As I live, surely those that are in those wastes shall fall by the sword, and he that is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and those that are in the forts and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.

The word was yet in the king's mouth when there fell a voice from heaven, saying, O King Nebuchadnezzar, to thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee; and they drive thee from among men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field; and they shall feed thee as the oxen, and seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the most High takes rule in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever he will.

And I will cause her vine and her fig tree to be cut down, of which she has said, These are my wages that my lovers have given me; and I will reduce them to a thicket, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.