Scriptures About Women's Menstrual Periods: Bible Verses That Promote Purity, Holiness And Respect In Relationships
Below are Bible verses related to menstruation and related themes of purity, holiness, and respect in relationships. These verses are from the Tanakh and provide context for understanding the cultural and religious significance of menstruation in biblical times:
1. Leviticus 15:19-31
19 “‘When a woman has her regular flow of blood, the impurity of her monthly period will last seven days, and anyone who touches her will be unclean till evening.
20 “‘Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. 21 Anyone who touches her bed will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. 22 Anyone who touches anything she sits on will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. 23 Whether it is the bed or anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, they will be unclean till evening.
24 “‘If a man has sexual relations with her and her monthly flow touches him, he will be unclean for seven days; any bed he lies on will be unclean.
25 “‘When a woman has a discharge of blood for many days at a time other than her monthly period or has a discharge that continues beyond her period, she will be unclean as long as she has the discharge, just as in the days of her period. 26 Any bed she lies on while her discharge continues will be unclean, as is her bed during her monthly period, and anything she sits on will be unclean, as during her period. 27 Anyone who touches them will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.
28 “‘When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean. 29 On the eighth day she must take two doves or two young pigeons and bring them to the priest at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 30 The priest is to sacrifice one for a sin offering and the other for a burnt offering. In this way he will make atonement for her before the LORD for the uncleanness of her discharge.
31 “‘You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.’” Leviticus 15:19-31
2. Leviticus 12:2: "Speak to the people of Israel, saying, If a woman conceives and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean seven days. As at the time of her menstruation, she shall be unclean."
3. Leviticus 20:18: "If a man lies with a woman during her sickness and uncovers her nakedness, he has made naked her fountain, and she has uncovered the fountain of her blood; both of them shall be cut off from among their people."
4. Ezekiel 18:6: "If he does not eat upon the mountains or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, does not defile his neighbor's wife or approach a woman in her time of menstrual impurity."
5. Ezekiel 22:10: "In you, men uncover their fathers' nakedness; in you, they violate women who are unclean in their menstrual impurity."
6. Isaiah 64:6: "We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment."
7. Lamentations 1:17: "Zion stretches out her hands, but there is none to comfort her; the Lord has commanded against Jacob that his neighbors should be his foes; Jerusalem has become a filthy thing among them."
8. 2 Samuel 11:4: "So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house."
9. Genesis 31:35: "And she said to her father, 'Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise before you, for the way of women is upon me.' So he searched but did not find the household gods."
10. Leviticus 18:19: "You shall not approach a woman to uncover her nakedness during her menstrual impurity."
11. Numbers 5:2: "Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead."
12. Leviticus 7:20: "But the person who eats of the flesh of the sacrifice of the Lord's peace offerings while an uncleanness is on him, that person shall be cut off from his people."
13. Leviticus 7:21: "And if anyone touches an unclean thing, whether human uncleanness or an unclean beast or any unclean detestable creature, and then eats some flesh from the sacrifice of the Lord's peace offerings, that person shall be cut off from his people."
14. Jeremiah 2:32-34 On your clothes is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor, though you did not catch them breaking in. Yet in spite of all this Jeremiah 2:32-34
15. Numbers 5:1-3: "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 'Command the people of Israel that they put out of the camp everyone who is leprous or has a discharge and everyone who is unclean through contact with the dead. You shall put out both male and female, putting them outside the camp, that they may not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell.'"