17 Bible Verses about Hygiene

Most Relevant Verses

Leviticus 5:2-3

Or if someone touches anything unclean—a carcass of an unclean wild animal, or unclean livestock, or an unclean swarming creature—without being aware of it, he is unclean and guilty. Or if he touches human uncleanness—any uncleanness by which one can become defiled—without being aware of it, but later recognizes it, he is guilty.

Leviticus 7:19-21

“Meat that touches anything unclean must not be eaten; it is to be burned up. Everyone who is clean may eat any other meat. But the one who eats meat from the Lord’s fellowship sacrifice while he is unclean, that person must be cut off from his people. If someone touches anything unclean, whether human uncleanness, an unclean animal, or any unclean, detestable creature, and eats meat from the Lord’s fellowship sacrifice, that person must be cut off from his people.”

Leviticus 11:24-47

“These will make you unclean. Whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until evening, and whoever carries any of their carcasses must wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening. All animals that have hooves but do not have a divided hoof and do not chew the cud are unclean for you. Whoever touches them becomes unclean. read more.
All the four-footed animals that walk on their paws are unclean for you. Whoever touches their carcasses will be unclean until evening, and anyone who carries their carcasses must wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening. They are unclean for you. “These creatures that swarm on the ground are unclean for you:

the weasel, the mouse,
any kind of large lizard,
the gecko, the monitor lizard,
the common lizard, the skink,
and the chameleon. These are unclean for you among all the swarming creatures. Whoever touches them when they are dead will be unclean until evening. When any one of them dies and falls on anything it becomes unclean—any item of wood, clothing, leather, sackcloth, or any implement used for work. It is to be rinsed with water and will remain unclean until evening; then it will be clean. If any of them falls into any clay pot, everything in it will become unclean; you must break it. Any edible food coming into contact with that unclean water will become unclean, and any drinkable liquid in any container will become unclean. Anything one of their carcasses falls on will become unclean. If it is an oven or stove, it must be smashed; it is unclean and will remain unclean for you. A spring or cistern containing water will remain clean, but someone who touches a carcass in it will become unclean. If one of their carcasses falls on any seed that is to be sown, it is clean; but if water has been put on the seed and one of their carcasses falls on it, it is unclean for you. “If one of the animals that you use for food dies, anyone who touches its carcass will be unclean until evening. Anyone who eats some of its carcass must wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening. Anyone who carries its carcass must wash his clothes and will be unclean until evening. “All the creatures that swarm on the earth are detestable; they must not be eaten. Do not eat any of the creatures that swarm on the earth, anything that moves on its belly or walks on all fours or on many feet, for they are detestable. Do not become contaminated by any creature that swarms; do not become unclean or defiled by them. For I am Yahweh your God, so you must consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any swarming creature that crawls on the ground. For I am Yahweh, who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God, so you must be holy because I am holy. “This is the law concerning animals, birds, all living creatures that move in the water, and all creatures that swarm on the ground, in order to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between the animals that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.”

Leviticus 13:1-3

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: “When a person has a swelling, scab, or spot on the skin of his body, and it becomes a disease on the skin of his body, he is to be brought to Aaron the priest or to one of his sons, the priests. The priest will examine the infection on the skin of his body. If the hair in the infection has turned white and the infection appears to be deeper than the skin of his body, it is a skin disease. After the priest examines him, he must pronounce him unclean.

Leviticus 14:1-8

The Lord spoke to Moses: “This is the law concerning the person afflicted with a skin disease on the day of his cleansing. He is to be brought to the priest, who will go outside the camp and examine him. If the skin disease has disappeared from the afflicted person, read more.
the priest will order that two live clean birds, cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop be brought for the one who is to be cleansed. Then the priest will order that one of the birds be slaughtered over fresh water in a clay pot. He is to take the live bird together with the cedar wood, scarlet yarn, and hyssop, and dip them all into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over the fresh water. He will then sprinkle the blood seven times on the one who is to be cleansed from the skin disease. He is to pronounce him clean and release the live bird over the open countryside. The one who is to be cleansed must wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe with water; he is clean. Afterward he may enter the camp, but he must remain outside his tent for seven days.

Leviticus 15:1-13

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron: “Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When any man has a discharge from his body, he is unclean. This is uncleanness of his discharge: Whether his body secretes the discharge or retains it, he is unclean. All the days that his body secretes or retains anything because of his discharge, he is unclean. read more.
Any bed the man with the discharge lies on will be unclean, and any furniture he sits on will be unclean. Anyone who touches his bed is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. Whoever sits on furniture that the man with the discharge was sitting on is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. Whoever touches the body of the man with a discharge is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. If the man with the discharge spits on anyone who is clean, he is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. Any saddle the man with the discharge rides on will be unclean. Whoever touches anything that was under him will be unclean until evening, and whoever carries such things is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. If the man with the discharge touches anyone without first rinsing his hands in water, the person who was touched is to wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will remain unclean until evening. Any clay pot that the man with the discharge touches must be broken, while any wooden utensil must be rinsed with water. “When the man with the discharge has been cured of it, he is to count seven days for his cleansing, wash his clothes, and bathe his body in fresh water; he will be clean.

Leviticus 22:4-8

No man of Aaron’s descendants who has a skin disease or a discharge is to eat from the holy offerings until he is clean. Whoever touches anything made unclean by a dead person or by a man who has an emission of semen, or whoever touches any swarming creature that makes him unclean or any person who makes him unclean—whatever his uncleanness— the man who touches any of these will remain unclean until evening and is not to eat from the holy offerings unless he has bathed his body with water. read more.
When the sun has set, he will become clean, and then he may eat from the holy offerings, for that is his food. He must not eat an animal that died naturally or was mauled by wild beasts, making himself unclean by it; I am Yahweh.

Numbers 9:6-10

But there were some men who were unclean because of a human corpse, so they could not observe the Passover on that day. These men came before Moses and Aaron the same day and said to him, “We are unclean because of a human corpse. Why should we be excluded from presenting the Lord’s offering at its appointed time with the other Israelites?” Moses replied to them, “Wait here until I hear what the Lord commands for you.” read more.
Then the Lord spoke to Moses: “Tell the Israelites: When any one of you or your descendants is unclean because of a corpse or is on a distant journey, he may still observe the Passover to the Lord.

Numbers 19:1-22

The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, “This is the legal statute that the Lord has commanded: Instruct the Israelites to bring you an unblemished red cow that has no defect and has never been yoked. Give it to Eleazar the priest, and he will have it brought outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence. read more.
Eleazar the priest is to take some of its blood with his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the tent of meeting. The cow must be burned in his sight. Its hide, flesh, and blood, are to be burned along with its dung. The priest is to take cedar wood, hyssop, and crimson yarn, and throw them onto the fire where the cow is burning. Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe his body in water; after that he may enter the camp, but he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening. The one who burned the cow must also wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and he will remain unclean until evening. “A man who is clean is to gather up the cow’s ashes and deposit them outside the camp in a ceremonially clean place. The ashes must be kept by the Israelite community for preparing the water to remove impurity; it is a sin offering. Then the one who gathers up the cow’s ashes must wash his clothes, and he will remain unclean until evening. This is a permanent statute for the Israelites and for the foreigner who resides among them. “The person who touches any human corpse will be unclean for seven days. He is to purify himself with the water on the third day and the seventh day; then he will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third and seventh days, he will not be clean. Anyone who touches a body of a person who has died, and does not purify himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. That person will be cut off from Israel. He remains unclean because the water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him, and his uncleanness is still on him. “This is the law when a person dies in a tent: everyone who enters the tent and everyone who is already in the tent will be unclean for seven days, and any open container without a lid tied on it is unclean. Anyone in the open field who touches a person who has been killed by the sword or has died, or who even touches a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean for seven days. For the purification of the unclean person, they are to take some of the ashes of the burnt sin offering, put them in a jar, and add fresh water to them. A person who is clean is to take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle the tent, all the furnishings, and the people who were there. He is also to sprinkle the one who touched a bone, a grave, a corpse, or a person who had been killed. “The one who is clean is to sprinkle the unclean person on the third day and the seventh day. After he purifies the unclean person on the seventh day, the one being purified must wash his clothes and bathe in water, and he will be clean by evening. But a person who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person will be cut off from the assembly because he has defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. The water for impurity has not been sprinkled on him; he is unclean. This is a permanent statute for them. The person who sprinkles the water for impurity is to wash his clothes, and whoever touches the water for impurity will be unclean until evening. Anything the unclean person touches will become unclean, and anyone who touches it will be unclean until evening.”

Numbers 31:19-20

“You are to remain outside the camp for seven days. All of you and your prisoners who have killed a person or touched the dead are to purify yourselves on the third day and the seventh day. Also purify everything: garments, leather goods, things made of goat hair, and every article of wood.”

Deuteronomy 21:22-23

“If anyone is found guilty of an offense deserving the death penalty and is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, you are not to leave his corpse on the tree overnight but are to bury him that day, for anyone hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.

Deuteronomy 23:10-11

If there is a man among you who is unclean because of a bodily emission during the night, he must go outside the camp; he may not come anywhere inside the camp. When evening approaches, he must wash with water, and when the sun sets he may come inside the camp.

Deuteronomy 24:8

“Be careful in a case of infectious skin disease, following carefully everything the Levitical priests instruct you to do. Be careful to do as I have commanded them.

2 Chronicles 26:21

So King Uzziah was diseased to the time of his death. He lived in quarantine with a serious skin disease and was excluded from access to the Lord’s temple, while his son Jotham was over the king’s household governing the people of the land.

Matthew 23:25-26

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence! Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so the outside of it may also become clean.

Mark 7:1-8

The Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Him. They observed that some of His disciples were eating their bread with unclean—that is, unwashed—hands. (For the Pharisees, in fact all the Jews, will not eat unless they wash their hands ritually, keeping the tradition of the elders. read more.
When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they have washed. And there are many other customs they have received and keep, like the washing of cups, jugs, copper utensils, and dining couches.) Then the Pharisees and the scribes asked Him, “Why don’t Your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders, instead of eating bread with ritually unclean hands?” He answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written:

These people honor Me with their lips,
but their heart is far from Me.
They worship Me in vain,
teaching as doctrines the commands of men. Disregarding the command of God, you keep the tradition of men.”

Luke 17:12

As He entered a village, 10 men with serious skin diseases met Him. They stood at a distance

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