Powerful Bible Verses About Women's Health, Menstruation And Well-being
1. Leviticus 15:19-30 - Regulations regarding ritual impurity during menstruation and purification afterward
"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. Anything she lies on during her period will be unclean, and anything she sits on will be unclean. Whoever touches her bed must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. Whoever touches anything she sits on must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening.
Whether it is the bed or anything she was sitting on, when anyone touches it, they will be unclean till evening. 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. 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.
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. Anyone who touches them will be unclean; they must wash their clothes and bathe with water, and they will be unclean till evening. When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean.
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. 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."
Leviticus 15:19-30:
2. Leviticus 20:18 - Prohibition against sexual relations with a woman during her menstrual period.
"If a man has sexual relations with a woman during her monthly period, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has also uncovered it. Both of them are to be cut off from their people."
Leviticus 20:18
3. Ezekiel 36:17 - Metaphorically refers to Israel's uncleanness as that of a menstruating woman.
"Son of man, when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by their conduct and their actions. Their conduct was like a woman’s monthly uncleanness in my sight."
Ezekiel 36:17
4. Luke 8:43-46 - Description of a woman with a chronic menstrual issue being healed by touching Jesus' garment.
"And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years, but no one could heal her. She came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped. 'Who touched me?' Jesus asked. When they all denied it, Peter said, 'Master, the people are crowding and pressing against you.' But Jesus said, 'Someone touched me; I know that power has gone out from me.'"
Luke 8:43-46
5. Leviticus 18:19 - Prohibition against sexual relations with a woman during her menstrual period.
"Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period."
Leviticus 18:19
6. Ezekiel 18:6 - Mentions avoiding contact with a menstruating woman
"He does not eat at the mountain shrines or look to the idols of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife or have sexual relations with a woman during her period."
Ezekiel 18:6
7. Leviticus 15:28-30 - Instructions for purification after abnormal menstruation.
"When she is cleansed from her discharge, she must count off seven days, and after that she will be ceremonially clean. 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. 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."
Leviticus 15:28-30
8. Ezekiel 22:10 - Accusation of defiling a menstruating woman.
"In you are those who dishonor their fathers’ bed; in you are those who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean."
Ezekiel 22:10
9. Leviticus 15:16 - Instructions for purification after emission of semen.
"When a man has an emission of semen, he must bathe his whole body with water, and he will be unclean till evening."
Leviticus 15:16
10. Genesis 31:35 - Reference to menstruation in the story of Rachel and Laban
"Rachel said to her father, 'Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I’m having my period.' So he searched but could not find the household gods."
Genesis 31:35
11. Isaiah 30:22 - Metaphorical reference to the removal of menstrual impurity in the context of repentance and purification
"Then you will desecrate your idols overlaid with silver and your images covered with gold; you will throw them away like a menstrual cloth and say to them, 'Away with you!'"
Isaiah 30:22
12. Hosea 2:5-13 - Metaphorical description of Israel's unfaithfulness using imagery related to menstruation and its impurity
"Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.' Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will say, 'I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.' She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold— which they used for Baal.
'Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body. So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.
I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals. I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them. I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,' declares the LORD."
Hosea 2:5-13
These verses collectively offer a comprehensive view of the biblical perspective on menstruation, covering various aspects such as ritual purity laws, cultural practices, and symbolic imagery.
