25 Bible Verses about Ritual Law

All priests must observe the regulations that I have given. Otherwise, they will become guilty and die, because they have disobeyed the sacred regulations. I am Jehovah and I make them holy.

You must learn the difference (distinction) between what is holy and what is not holy and between the clean and the unclean.

Tell them: 'In future generations if any of your descendants, while unclean, comes near the holy offerings the Israelites set apart for Jehovah, that person must be excluded from my presence. I am Jehovah.

Jehovah gave Moses these instructions for Aaron's sons, the priests: Touching a dead body will make you unclean. So do not go near a dead relative, except for your mother, father, son, daughter, brother, or an unmarried sister, who has no husband to take care of her.

Those who touch a corpse are ritually unclean for seven days.

Do not bring any animal with a physical defect. This is because it will not be acceptable for you. A person may bring Jehovah a peace offering to fulfill a vow or for a freewill offering. Whether it is from the cattle, sheep, or goats, it must be an animal that has no defects in order to be acceptable. It must never be an animal that has defects. Do not bring Jehovah an animal that is blind, has broken bones, cuts, warts, scabs, or ringworm. Never give Jehovah any of these in a sacrifice by fire on the altar.read more.
You may use a bull or a sheep with a deformity or one that is stunted in growth as a freewill offering. However, it will not be accepted for a vow. Do not bring Jehovah an animal that has bruised, crushed, torn out, or cut out testicles. Never do any of these things to an animal in your land. Never bring any kind of castrated animal received from a foreigner as a food offering for your God. A castrated animal will not be accepted on your behalf because castration is a physical defect.'

Tell the entire congregation of Israel: 'Be holy because I, Jehovah your God, am holy.

I am Jehovah, the Holy God. You have been chosen to be my people, and so you must be holy too.

The reason is because I am Jehovah your God. You must live holy lives. Consecrate yourselves and be holy because I am holy. Never become unclean by touching anything that swarms or crawls on the ground. I am Jehovah! I brought you out of Egypt to be your God. Be holy because I am holy.

Keep (consecrate) yourselves holy, because I am Jehovah your God!

Be holy because you offer the food of your God. Be holy because I, Jehovah, am holy. I set you apart as holy.

Never dishonor my holy name. I will show my holiness among the Israelites. I am Jehovah, who sets you apart as holy.

This is the law about animals, birds, and every living creature that swims in the water and every creature that swarms on the ground. This law helps you distinguish between clean and unclean, the animals you may eat and those you may not eat.'

Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate.

Noah built an altar to Jehovah and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.

Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron: Tell the Israelites: 'Here are the kinds of land animals you may eat: You may eat all animals that have completely divided hoofs and that also chew their cud.read more.
You must not eat those that either chew their cud or have divided hoofs. These are the kinds you must never eat: You must never eat camels. Camels are unclean because they chew their cud but do not have divided hoofs. Never eat rock badgers. Rock badgers are unclean because they chew their cud but do not have divided hoofs. You must never eat rabbits. Rabbits are unclean because they chew their cud but do not have divided hoofs. Never eat pigs. Pigs have completely divided hoofs but do not chew their cud. They are also unclean. Never eat the meat of these animals or touch their dead bodies. They are unclean for you. Here are the kinds of creatures that live in the water that you may eat. You may eat anything in the seas and streams that have fins and scales. On the other hand, you must consider all swarming creatures living in the seas or the streams that have no fins or scales disgusting. They must remain disgusting to you. Never eat their meat. Consider their dead bodies repulsive. Every creature in the water without fins or scales is offensive to you. Here are the kinds of birds you must consider disgusting and must not eat. They are eagles, bearded vultures, black vultures, kites, all types of buzzards, all types of crows, ostriches, nighthawks, seagulls, all types of falcons, little owls, cormorants, great owls, swans, pelicans, ospreys, storks, all types of herons, hoopoes, and bats. Every swarming, winged insect that walks across the ground like a four-legged animal is disgusting to you. However, you may eat winged insects that swarm if they use their legs to hop on the ground. You may eat any kind of locust, cricket, katydid, or grasshopper. Every kind of winged insect that walks across the ground like a four-legged animal is disgusting to you.

Do not eat any detestable thing. These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope (chamois) and the mountain sheep.read more.
You may eat any animal that divides the hoof and has the hoof split in two and chews the cud. Do not eat of these that chew the cud, or among those that divide the hoof in two: the camel and the rabbit and the shaphan. Even though they chew the cud, they do not divide the hoof. They are unclean for you. The pig, because it divides the hoof but does not chew the cud, it is unclean for you. Do not eat any of their flesh nor touch their carcasses. These you may eat of all that are in water: anything that has fins and scales you may eat. Do not eat anything that does not have fins and scales. It is unclean for you. You may eat any clean bird. These are the ones you should not eat: the eagle and the vulture and the buzzard, and the red kite, the falcon, and the kite in their kinds, and every raven in its kind, and the ostrich, the owl, the sea gull, and the hawk in their kinds, the swan, the great owl, the white owl, the pelican, the carrion vulture, the cormorant, the stork, and the heron in their kinds, and the hoopoe and the bat. And all the teeming life with wings is unclean to you. Do not eat them.

Do not eat anything that dies by itself. You may give it to the alien who is in your town, so that he may eat it. You may sell it to a foreigner, for you are a holy people to Jehovah your God. Do not boil a young goat in its mother's milk.

Jehovah spoke to Moses: Tell the Israelites: 'When a woman gives birth to a boy, she will be unclean for seven days. This is the same number of days she is unclean for her monthly period. The boy must be circumcised when he is eight days old.read more.
She must stay at home for thirty-three days in order to be made clean from her bleeding. She must not touch anything holy or go into the holy place until the days needed to make her clean are over. When a woman gives birth to a girl, she will be unclean as in her monthly period. She will be unclean for two weeks. Then she must stay at home for sixty-six days in order to be made clean from her bleeding.

Following the days of their purification according to the Law of Moses they brought him up to Jerusalem. There they would present him to God. It is written in God's law that every male that opens the womb shall be called holy to God. (Exodus 13:1, 2) According to God's Law they must offer a sacrifice of a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.

Then he said: You did not want nor did you approve of sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin; which are offered by the Law. He also said: I come to do your will, O God. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. We are sanctified by his will through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Christ abolished in his flesh the enmity (ill will), which the law of commandments contained in ordinances. That [way] he might create one new man, out of the two, with himself establishing peace.

He blotted out the bond written in ordinances. It was against us and was contrary to us. He has taken it out of the way. He nailed it to the stake.

If perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the Law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, instead of one named after the order of Aaron?

The Law is a shadow of the good things to come. It is not the actual things. The continual yearly sacrifices can never make those who worship perfect. If it could, it would cease to be offered. Once the worshipers were cleansed they would have no awareness of sin anymore. These sacrifices are an annual reminder of sin.