56 Bible Verses about Holiness,  Worldly Separation

You shall not follow the statutes (laws, practices, customs) of the nation which I am driving out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I have loathed them. But I have said to you, “You are to inherit and take possession of their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land [of plenty] flowing with milk and honey.” I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples (pagan nations). You are therefore to make a distinction between the [ceremonially] clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that crawls on the ground, which I have set apart from you as unclean. read more.
You are to be holy to Me; for I the Lord am holy, and have set you apart from the peoples (nations) to be Mine.

And Moses said to Him, “If Your presence does not go [with me], do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight? Is it not by Your going with us, so that we are distinguished, Your people and I, from all the [other] people on the face of the earth?”

“Thus you shall separate the Israelites from their uncleanness, so that they do not die in their uncleanness by their defiling My tabernacle that is among them.”

For whoever commits any of these repulsive acts, those persons who do so shall be cut off from among their people [excluding them from the atonement made for them]. So keep My command: do not practice any of the repulsive customs which have been practiced before you, so as not to defile yourselves by them; I am the Lord your God.’”

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land which you are entering to possess, and has cleared away many nations before you, the Hittite and the Girgashite and the Amorite and the Canaanite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall not make a covenant (treaty) with them nor show mercy and compassion to them. You shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughter to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son; read more.
for they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled and burn against you and He will quickly destroy you. But this is how you shall deal with them: you shall tear down their altars and smash to pieces their sacred pillars, and cut down their Asherim (symbols of the goddess Asherah), and burn their carved or sculpted images in the fire. For you are a holy people [set apart] to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be a people for His own possession [that is, His very special treasure].

“When you go out as an army [to fight] against your enemies, you shall keep yourselves from every evil [thing]. “If there is any man among you who is [ceremonially] unclean because of nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he shall not come back to the camp. But when evening comes, he shall bathe in water, and at sundown he may return to the camp. read more.
“You shall also have a place outside the camp to which you may go, and you shall have a spade among your tools, and when you [prepare to] sit down outside [to relieve yourself], you shall dig a hole with it and shall turn and cover up your waste. Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to rescue you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy (undefiled); and He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you.

When these things were completed, the officials came to me and said, “The people of Israel and the priests and Levites have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, but have committed the repulsive acts of the Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Jebusites, Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Amorites. For they have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy race has intermingled with the peoples of the lands. Indeed, the officials and chief men have been foremost in this unfaithful act and direct violation [of God’s will].”

Depart, depart, go out from there (the lands of exile),
Touch no unclean thing;
Go out of the midst of her (Babylon), purify yourselves,
You who carry the articles of the Lord [on your journey from there].

This is the law regarding the animal and the bird and every living thing that moves in the waters and everything that swarms on the earth, to make a distinction between the [ceremonially] unclean and the [ceremonially] clean, and between the animal that may be eaten and the animal that may not be eaten.

The Lord spoke again to Moses and Aaron, saying to them, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘Among all the animals which are on the earth, these are the animals which you may eat. You may eat any animal that has a divided hoof [that is, a hoof split into two parts especially at its distal extremity] and chews the cud. read more.
Nevertheless, you are not to eat these, among those which chew the cud or divide the hoof: the camel, because it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it is [ceremonially] unclean to you. And the shaphan, because it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it is unclean to you. And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not divide the hoof; it is unclean to you. And the swine, because it divides the hoof and makes a split hoof, but does not chew the cud; it is unclean to you. You shall not eat their meat nor touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you. ‘These you may eat, whatever is in the water: whatever has fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, these you may eat; but whatever does not have fins and scales in the seas and in the rivers, of all the teeming life in the waters, and of all the living creatures that are in the waters, they are [to be considered] detestable to you. They shall be hated things to you. You may not eat their meat; you shall detest their carcasses. Everything in the water that does not have fins and scales is detestable to you. ‘These you shall detest among the birds; they are not to be eaten, for they are hated things: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, the kite, every kind of falcon, every kind of raven, the ostrich, the nighthawk, the sea gull, every species of hawk, the little owl and the cormorant and the great owl, the white owl, the pelican, the carrion vulture, the stork, all kinds of heron, the hoopoe, and the bat. ‘All winged insects that walk on all fours are detestable to you; yet of all winged insects that walk on all fours you may eat those which have legs above their feet with which to leap on the ground. Of these you may eat: the whole species of migratory locust, of bald locust, of cricket, and of grasshopper. But all other winged insects which are four footed are detestable to you.

“You shall not eat anything that is detestable [to the Lord and forbidden by Him]. These are the animals that you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope and the mountain sheep. read more.
Among the animals, you may eat any animal that has the divided hoof [that is, a hoof] split into two parts [especially at its distal extremity] and that chews the cud. However, you are not to eat any of these [animals] among those which chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in two: the camel, the hare and the shaphan, for though they chew the cud, they do not split the hoof; they are unclean for you. The swine, because it has a divided hoof but does not chew the cud; it is unclean for you. You shall not eat their meat nor touch their carcasses. “Of all [creatures] that are in the waters, you may eat these: anything that has fins and scales you may eat, but you may not eat anything that does not have fins and scales; it is unclean for you. “You may eat any clean bird. But these are the ones which you shall not eat: the eagle, the vulture, and the black buzzard, and the red kite, the falcon, and the birds of prey of any variety, and every raven of any variety, and the ostrich, the owl, the seagull, the hawk of any variety, the little owl, the great owl, the long-eared owl, the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, the stork, and the heron of any variety, and the hoopoe, and the bat. And all flying insects are unclean for you; they shall not be eaten. You may eat any clean bird.

After He called the people to Him again, He began saying to them, “Listen [carefully] to Me, all of you, [hear] and understand [what I am saying]: there is nothing outside a man [such as food] which by going into him can defile him [morally or spiritually]; but the things which come out of [the heart of] a man are what defile and dishonor him. [If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”] read more.
When Jesus had left the crowd and gone into the house, His disciples asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, “Are you, too, so foolish and lacking in understanding? Do you not understand that whatever goes into the man from outside cannot defile and dishonor him, since it does not enter his heart, but [only] his stomach, and [from there it] is eliminated?” (By this, He declared all foods ceremonially clean.)

But Peter said, “Not at all, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common (unholy) and [ceremonially] unclean.”

“When a man has a swelling on the skin of his body, a scab, or a bright spot, and it becomes the infection of leprosy on the skin of his body, then he shall be brought to Aaron the priest, or to one of his sons the priests. The priest shall look at the diseased spot on the skin of his body, and if the hair in the infection has turned white and the infection appears deeper than the skin of his body, it is an infection of leprosy; when the priest has looked at him, he shall pronounce him [ceremonially] unclean.

“This shall be the law of the leper on the day of his [ceremonial] cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest [at a meeting place outside the camp];

“When a garment has a mark of leprosy in it, whether it is a wool garment or a linen garment, whether in woven or knitted material or in the warp (lengthwise strands) or woof (crosswise strands) of linen or of wool, or in a skin or on anything made of leather, if the mark is greenish or reddish in the garment or in the leather or in the warp or woof or in any article made of leather, it is an infestation of leprosy and shall be shown to the priest.

The Lord further spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, “When you come into the land of Canaan, which I am giving you as a possession, and I put a mark of leprosy on a house in your land, then the one who owns the house shall come and tell the priest, ‘I have seen something that looks like a mark of leprosy in my house.’ read more.
The priest shall order that they empty the house before he goes in to examine the mark, so that everything in the house will not have to be declared unclean; afterward he shall go in to see the house.

“Speak to the children of Israel, saying,

‘If a woman conceives and gives birth to a male child, she shall be [ceremonially] unclean for seven days, unclean as during her monthly period.

“Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them, ‘When any man has a bodily discharge, his discharge is unclean.

Or if someone touches any [ceremonially] unclean thing—whether the carcass of an unclean wild animal or the carcass of an unclean domestic animal or the carcass of unclean creeping things—even if he is unaware of it, he has become unclean, and he will be guilty. Or if he touches human uncleanness—whatever kind it may be—and he becomes unclean, but he is unaware of it, when he recognizes it, he will be guilty.

These [creatures] are unclean to you among all that swarm; whoever touches them when they are dead becomes unclean until evening. Also anything on which one of them falls after dying becomes unclean, whether it is an article of wood or clothing, or a skin, or a sack—any article that is used—it must be put in water, and will be unclean until the evening; then it becomes clean. As for any earthenware container into which any of these [crawling things] falls, whatever is in it becomes unclean, and you shall break the container. read more.
Any of the food which may be eaten, but on which [unclean] water falls, shall become unclean, and any liquid that may be drunk in every container shall become unclean. Everything that part of their carcass falls on becomes unclean; an oven, or a small stove shall be smashed; they are unclean, and shall be unclean to you. Nevertheless a spring or a cistern (reservoir) collecting water shall be clean; but whoever touches one of these carcasses shall be unclean. If a part of their carcass falls on any seed for sowing which is to be sown, it is clean; but if water is put on the seed and a part of their carcass falls on it, it is unclean to you. ‘If one of the animals that you may eat dies [of natural causes], whoever touches its carcass becomes unclean until the evening. And whoever eats some of its meat shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until evening; also whoever picks up its carcass shall wash his clothes, and be unclean until the evening.

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and say to them:

‘No one shall defile himself [that is, become ceremonially unclean] for the dead among his people [by touching a corpse or assisting in preparing it for burial],

and to make a distinction and recognize a difference between the holy (sacred) and the common (profane), and between the [ceremonially] unclean and the clean; and you are to teach the Israelites all the statutes which the Lord has spoken to them through Moses.”

The priests shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the common, and teach them to distinguish between the (ceremonially) unclean and the clean.

shouting, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who teaches all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place. And besides, he has brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.”

We are perplexed and ashamed, for we have heard reproach;
Disgrace has covered our faces,
For foreigners [from Babylon] have come
Into the [most] sacred parts of the sanctuary of the Lord [even those places forbidden to all but the appointed priest].

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Command the Israelites to send away from the camp every leper and everyone who has a discharge, and whoever is defiled [that is, ceremonially unclean] by [coming in contact with] the dead. You shall send away both male and female; you shall send them outside the camp so that they will not defile their camp where I dwell in their midst.”

Then Ezra the priest stood up and said to them, “You have been unfaithful [to God] and have married foreign (pagan) women, adding to the guilt of Israel. So now, make confession to the Lord God of your fathers and do His will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from [your] foreign wives.”

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the children of Israel, saying, ‘You shall not eat any fat from an ox, a sheep, or a goat. The fat of an animal which dies [of natural causes] and the fat of one which is torn [to pieces by a predator] may be put to any other use, but under no circumstances are you to eat it. read more.
For whoever eats the fat of the animal from which an offering by fire is presented to the Lord, that person who eats shall be cut off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them]. Moreover, you are not to eat any blood [of any kind], whether of bird or animal, in any of your dwelling places. Whoever eats any blood, that person shall be cut off from his people.’”

“As for the leper who has the infection, his clothes shall be torn, and the hair of his head shall be uncovered (disheveled), and he shall cover his mustache and call out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’ He shall remain [ceremonially] unclean as long as the disease is on him; he is unclean. He shall live alone; he shall live outside the camp.

‘Now when you offer a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord, you shall offer it so that you may be accepted. It shall be eaten the same day you offer it and on the day following; and if anything remains until the third day, it shall be burned in the fire. But if it is eaten at all on the third day, it is repulsive; it will not be accepted [by God as an offering]. read more.
Everyone who eats it will bear [the responsibility for] his wickedness, for he has profaned a holy thing of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them].

Whoever touches a corpse, the body of anyone who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord; and that person shall be cut off from Israel [that is, excluded from the atonement made for them]. Because the water for impurity was not sprinkled on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.

“If there is any man among you who is [ceremonially] unclean because of nocturnal emission, then he must go outside the camp; he shall not come back to the camp. But when evening comes, he shall bathe in water, and at sundown he may return to the camp. “You shall also have a place outside the camp to which you may go, read more.
and you shall have a spade among your tools, and when you [prepare to] sit down outside [to relieve yourself], you shall dig a hole with it and shall turn and cover up your waste. Since the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp to rescue you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy (undefiled); and He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you.

King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death; and, being a leper, he lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And his son Jotham took charge of the king’s household, judging and governing the people of the land.

But the one who eats meat from the sacrifice of peace offerings which belong to the Lord, in his uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them]. When anyone touches any unclean thing—human uncleanness, or an unclean animal, or any unclean detestable thing—and then eats the meat of the sacrifice of the Lord’s peace offerings, that person shall be cut off from his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them].’”

Say to them, ‘Any one of your descendants throughout your generations who approaches the holy things which the Israelites dedicate to the Lord, while he is [ceremonially] unclean, that person shall be cut off from My presence and excluded from the sanctuary; I am the Lord. No man of the descendants of Aaron who is a leper or has a discharge may eat the holy things [the offerings and the showbread] until he is clean. And whoever touches any person or thing made unclean by contact with a corpse or a man who has had a seminal emission, or whoever touches any crawling thing by which he is made unclean, or any person by whom he is made unclean, whatever it may be, read more.
the person who touches any such thing shall be unclean until evening and shall not eat the holy things unless he has bathed his body in water.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “If a person commits a breach of faith and sins unintentionally against the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord, a ram without blemish from the flock, valued by you in shekels of silver, that is, the shekel of the sanctuary, as a guilt offering. He shall make restitution for the sin which he has committed against the holy thing, and shall add a fifth [of the ram’s value] to it, and give it to the priest. The priest shall then make atonement for him with the ram of the guilt offering, and he shall be forgiven.

Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Tell Aaron and his sons to be careful with the holy things (offerings, gifts) which the children of Israel dedicate to Me, so that they do not profane My holy name; I am the Lord.

The Lord also said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow [that is, prepare them for My sacred purpose], and have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai [in the cloud] in the sight of all the people. You shall set barriers for the people all around [the mountain], saying, ‘Beware that you do not go up on the mountain or touch its border; whoever touches the mountain must be put to death. read more.
No hand shall touch him [that is, no one shall try to save the guilty party], but the offender must be stoned or shot through [with arrows]; whether man or animal [that touches the mountain], he shall not live.’ When the ram’s horn sounds a long blast, they shall come up to the mountain.”

You shall make for them [white] linen undergarments to cover their bare flesh, reaching from the waist to the thighs. The various articles of clothing shall be on Aaron and on his sons when they enter the Tent of Meeting, or when they approach the altar [of incense] to minister in the Holy Place, so that they do not incur guilt and die. It shall be a statute forever to Aaron and to his descendants after him.

“You shall also make a basin of bronze, with a base of bronze, for washing. You shall put it [outside in the court] between the Tent of Meeting and the altar [of burnt offering], and you shall put water in it. Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet. When they enter the Tent of Meeting, they shall wash with water, so that they will not die. Also, when they approach the altar to minister, to burn an offering in the fire to the Lord [they shall do the same]. read more.
They shall wash their hands and their feet, so that they will not die; it shall be a perpetual statute for them, for Aaron and his descendants throughout their generations.”

Therefore, you shall keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it must be put to death; for whoever does work on the Sabbath, that person (soul) shall be cut off from among his people [excluding him from the atonement made for them]. For six days work may be done, but the seventh is the Sabbath of complete rest, sacred to the Lord; whoever does work on the Sabbath day must be put to death.

When Aaron and his sons have finished covering the sanctuary and all its furniture, as the camp sets out, after all that [is done, but not before], the sons of Kohath shall come to carry them [using the poles], so that they do not touch the holy things, and die. These are the things in the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle) which the sons of Kohath are to carry.

Anyone who has ignored and set aside the Law of Moses is put to death without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much greater punishment do you think he will deserve who has rejected and trampled under foot the Son of God, and has considered unclean and common the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and has insulted the Spirit of grace [who imparts the unmerited favor and blessing of God]?

Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective [ceremonial] censers, put fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange (unauthorized, unacceptable) fire before the Lord, [an act] which He had not commanded them to do. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.

Now Korah the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, with Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, and On the son of Peleth, descendants of Reuben, took action, and they rose up [in rebellion] before Moses, together with some of the Israelites, two hundred and fifty leaders of the congregation chosen in the assembly, men of distinction. They assembled together against Moses and Aaron, and said to them, “You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Why then do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?” read more.
And when Moses heard this, he fell face downward; and he spoke to Korah and all his company, saying, “In the morning the Lord will show who belongs to Him, and who is holy, and will bring him near to Himself; the one whom He will choose He will bring near to Himself. Do this: Take censers for yourselves, Korah and all your company, then put fire in them and place incense on them in the presence of the Lord tomorrow; and the man whom the Lord chooses shall be the one who is holy. You have gone far enough, you sons of Levi.”

The Lord struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck down 50,070 men among the people, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great slaughter. The men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?”

When they came to Nacon’s threshing floor, Uzzah reached out [with his hand] to the ark of God and took hold of it, because the oxen [stumbled and] nearly overturned it. And the anger of the Lord burned against Uzzah, and God struck him there for his irreverence; and he died there by the ark of God.

Her priests have done violence to My law and have profaned My holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy (sacred) and the profane (secular), they have not taught [people] the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they hide their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

Now a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, and with his wife’s full knowledge [and complicity] he kept back some of the proceeds, bringing only a portion of it, and set it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and [secretly] keep back for yourself some of the proceeds [from the sale] of the land? read more.
As long as it remained [unsold], did it not remain your own [to do with as you pleased]? And after it was sold, was the money not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this act [of hypocrisy and deceit] in your heart? You have not [simply] lied to people, but to God.” And hearing these words, Ananias fell down suddenly and died; and great fear and awe gripped those who heard of it. And the young men [in the congregation] got up and wrapped up the body, and carried it out and buried it. Now after an interval of about three hours his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Tell me whether you sold your land for so much?” And she said, “Yes, for so much.” Then Peter said to her, “How could you two have agreed together to put the Spirit of the Lord to the test? Look! The feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.” And at once she fell down at his feet and died; and the young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her beside her husband.

If you belonged to the world, the world would love [you as] its own and would treat you with affection. But you are not of the world [you no longer belong to it], but I have chosen you out of the world. And because of this the world hates you.

You adulteresses [disloyal sinners—flirting with the world and breaking your vow to God]! Do you not know that being the world’s friend [that is, loving the things of the world] is being God’s enemy? So whoever chooses to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a [special] people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies [the wonderful deeds and virtues and perfections] of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people [at all], but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers [in this world] to abstain from the sensual urges [those dishonorable desires] that wage war against the soul.

I have given to them Your word [the message You gave Me]; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world and do not belong to the world, just as I am not of the world and do not belong to it. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but that You keep them and protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.

Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God [which He has laid] stands [sure and unshaken despite attacks], bearing this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord stand apart from wickedness and withdraw from wrongdoing.”

Pure and unblemished religion [as it is expressed in outward acts] in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit and look after the fatherless and the widows in their distress, and to keep oneself uncontaminated by the [secular] world.