The Bible speaks on a wide range of topics, including some that may seem unusual at first glance—such as bodily functions. While the subject of poop might not be the most discussed, it appears in Scripture in different contexts, from hygiene laws to spiritual metaphors. Here are Bible verses that reference or relate to this natural process, revealing God’s concern for cleanliness, humility, and even judgment.
Also Read: Bible Verses About Overeating
God’s Command for Sanitation
God gave specific instructions to the Israelites about maintaining cleanliness, including how to handle human waste. These laws reflect God’s care for both physical health and spiritual purity. Even in everyday bodily functions, God desired His people to live in a way that honored Him.
Deuteronomy 23:12-13
“You must have a designated area outside the camp where you can go relieve yourself. Each of you must have a spade as part of your equipment. Whenever you relieve yourself, dig a hole with the spade and cover the excrement.”
Ezekiel 4:12
“Prepare and eat this food as you would barley cakes. While all the people are watching, bake it over a fire using dried human dung as fuel.”
Ezekiel 4:15
“All right,” the Lord said. “You may bake your bread with cow dung instead of human dung.”
2 Kings 6:25
“As a result, there was a great famine in the city. The siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty pieces of silver, and a cup of dove’s dung sold for five pieces of silver.”
Malachi 2:3
“I will punish your descendants and splatter your faces with the manure from your festival sacrifices, and I will throw you on the manure pile.”
Humility and Human Frailty
The Bible reminds us that we are made from dust and return to dust. References to waste and uncleanliness serve as a humbling reminder of our frail, earthly existence and our need for God’s grace.
Isaiah 64:6
“We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind.”
Philippians 3:8
“Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ.”
Job 20:7
“They will vanish like a dream and fade from the vision of night. They will be gone like a dream that one cannot recall; they will fly away like a vision in the night.”
Luke 14:11
“For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Psalm 103:14
“For he knows how weak we are; he remembers we are only dust.”
Judgment and Defilement
In many passages, filth and waste symbolize sin and judgment. These verses remind us that sin defiles us, and only through repentance can we be cleansed.
Isaiah 36:12
“But Sennacherib’s chief of staff replied, ‘Do you think my master sent this message only to you and your master? He wants all the people to hear it, for when we put this city under siege, they will suffer along with you—they will be so hungry and thirsty that they will eat their own waste and drink their own urine.'”
Jeremiah 8:2
“They will spread out their bones on the ground before the sun, moon, and stars—the gods my people have loved, served, and worshiped. Their bones will not be gathered up again or buried but will remain scattered on the ground like manure.”
Jeremiah 9:22
“This is what the Lord says: ‘Bodies will be scattered across the fields like manure, like bundles of grain after the harvest that no one gathers.'”
Psalm 83:10
“They were destroyed at Endor, and their decaying corpses fertilized the soil.”
1 Kings 14:10
“I will bring disaster on your dynasty and destroy every one of your male descendants, slave and free alike, anywhere in Israel. I will burn up your royal dynasty as one burns up trash until it is all gone.”
God’s Provision and Control Over Nature
Even in matters of waste, the Bible reminds us that God is sovereign over all creation. He provides for His people and even uses what seems worthless to fulfill His purposes.
Exodus 16:20
“But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them.”
2 Kings 18:27
“But the commander replied, ‘My master wants everyone to hear this, not just you! He wants the people to know that they will be eating their own dung and drinking their own urine soon.'”
Jonah 2:10
“Then the Lord ordered the fish to spit Jonah out onto the beach.”
Psalm 113:7
“He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump.”
1 Samuel 2:8
“He lifts the poor from the dust and the needy from the garbage dump. He sets them among princes, placing them in seats of honor. For all the earth is the Lord’s, and he has set the world in order.”
Also Read: Bible Verses About Being Fat
Illustrations of Worthlessness
Throughout Scripture, waste and excrement are used as metaphors for things that have no value. This imagery is often applied to idols, worldly riches, and anything that distracts from God’s glory.
Isaiah 30:22
“Then you will destroy all your silver idols and your precious gold images. You will throw them out like filthy rags, saying to them, ‘Good riddance!'”
Jeremiah 16:4
“They will die from terrible diseases. No one will mourn for them or bury them, and they will lie scattered on the ground like manure. They will be killed by war and famine, and their bodies will be food for the vultures and wild animals.”
Jeremiah 25:33
“In that day the slaughtered will fill the earth from one end to the other. No one will mourn for them or gather up their bodies to bury them. They will be scattered on the ground like manure.”
Lamentations 4:5
“The people who once ate the richest foods now beg in the streets for anything they can get. Those who once wore the finest clothes now search the garbage dumps for food.”
Philippians 3:8 (KJV for emphasis)
“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
The Call to Be Clean
God calls His people to be clean, both physically and spiritually. The Bible emphasizes that cleanliness reflects holiness, and even the handling of waste was given specific guidelines.
Leviticus 11:32
“If one of them falls into a clay pot, everything in the pot will be defiled, and the pot must be smashed.”
Leviticus 15:13
“When the man with the discharge is healed, he must count off seven days for the period of purification. Then he must wash his clothes and bathe himself in fresh water, and he will be ceremonially clean.”
Numbers 19:7
“Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water. Afterward, he may return to the camp, though he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening.”
Matthew 23:27
“What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity.”
Titus 1:15
“Everything is pure to those whose hearts are pure. But nothing is pure to those who are corrupt and unbelieving, because their minds and consciences are corrupted.”
God’s Power to Transform
Even in the messiness of life, God has the power to cleanse, renew, and transform. What is seen as waste or worthless can be turned into something new in His hands.
Isaiah 61:3
“To all who mourn in Israel, he will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair. In their righteousness, they will be like great oaks that the Lord has planted for his own glory.”
2 Corinthians 5:17
“This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!”
1 Corinthians 6:11
“Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”
Revelation 21:5
“And the one sitting on the throne said, ‘Look, I am making everything new!’ And then he said to me, ‘Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.'”
Ezekiel 36:25
“Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. Your filth will be washed away, and you will no longer worship idols.”