Every aspect of human existence, including those we frequently find amusing or distressing, is touched by the lessons found in the Bible verses about poop. The reference to human waste, or what we usually refer to as “poop,” is one of the unexpected motifs strewn throughout Scripture. Despite their first oddity, these allusions have significant functions. They frequently serve as examples of impurity, spiritual corruption, or the significance of maintaining bodily and spiritual cleanliness. In order to emphasize His concern for their health and His cleanliness, God even gave Israel comprehensive instructions regarding hygiene.
Excrement and manure are frequently used in the Old Testament as metaphors for rejection or uncleanliness. Prophets occasionally reminded the people that disobedience to God results in shame by using the image of dung to convey God’s wrath on sin. Other times, God’s concern for order, health, and the dignity of His people was demonstrated by the inclusion of dung in practical rules. These bible verses about poop teach us that even something as fundamental as body functioning is within God’s power to handle.
Scripture uses feces in a profoundly symbolic way that goes beyond simple hygienic or offensive purposes. It frequently serves as a contrast to things that are valued, holy, and pure. Paul, for instance, likened all material wealth to trash (or dung) in light of knowing Christ. This symbol demonstrates the profundity of spiritual truth: in contrast to the everlasting richness of God’s presence, sometimes what the world values can be nothing more than rubbish.
We are reminded that God utilizes every part of life, including the ones we would find funny or avoid discussing, to teach us timeless lessons as we examine these 30 potent Bible verses regarding excrement. These bible verses about poop demonstrate God’s wisdom, holiness, and desire to purify His people through everything from hygienic regulations to prophetic warnings and spiritual symbolism. Despite its strange appearance, this study reveals important lessons about humility, repentance, and the incomparable value of God’s kingdom.
30 Powerful Bible Verses About Poop in 2025
1. Deuteronomy 23:12-13
“Designate a place outside the camp where you can go to relieve yourself. As part of your equipment have something to dig with, and when you relieve yourself, dig a hole and cover up your excrement.”
This instruction shows God’s concern for the physical and spiritual cleanliness of His people. In the wilderness, sanitation was vital to prevent disease, but more than that, it reflected God’s holiness dwelling among His people. Covering waste was not just hygienic—it was symbolic of covering impurity. God cares about order and purity in both our physical lives and spiritual walk.
2. Ezekiel 4:12-13
“Eat the food as you would a loaf of barley bread; bake it in the sight of the people, using human excrement for fuel.”
In this dramatic prophecy, God commanded Ezekiel to use human dung as fuel, symbolizing the defilement Israel would experience in exile. Although later permitted to use cow dung instead, the point was clear: sin leads to impurity, disgrace, and judgment. The shocking imagery forces readers to confront how rebellion against God contaminates life.
3. Malachi 2:3
“Because of you I will rebuke your descendants; I will smear on your faces the dung from your festival sacrifices, and you will be carried off with it.”
Here, dung represents rejection and humiliation. The priests had dishonored God with corrupt offerings, so He declared judgment using the very waste from their sacrifices. The imagery is graphic, but it emphasizes God’s disgust with hypocrisy and false worship. When our service is polluted with selfish motives, God rejects it as waste.
4. Philippians 3:8
“I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ.”
The word “garbage” (Greek: skubalon) is often translated as “dung” or “refuse.” Paul uses this strong word to show that compared to Christ, every achievement, possession, or status is worthless. It’s a powerful reminder that worldly treasures are like waste next to the eternal value of knowing Jesus.
5. 2 Kings 18:27
“But the commander replied, ‘Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?’”
This was an insult hurled at Jerusalem during siege warfare, illustrating the desperation people face when cut off from food and water. Poop here symbolizes humiliation and hopelessness. Yet, even in this bleak imagery, it points to the truth that rejecting God’s protection leaves people vulnerable to devastation.
6. Lamentations 4:5
“Those who once ate delicacies are destitute in the streets. Those brought up in royal purple now lie on ash heaps.”
Though dung is not explicitly mentioned, “ash heaps” often included refuse and waste. This verse shows the reversal of fortune when sin brings judgment—those once exalted fall to shame. Waste imagery here highlights the fragility of earthly glory when God is removed from the center of life.
7. Isaiah 36:12
“But the commander replied, ‘Was it only to your master and you that my master sent me to say these things, and not to the people sitting on the wall—who, like you, will have to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?’”
This mirrors the taunt in 2 Kings, emphasizing how enemies of God mocked His people. It demonstrates that apart from God’s salvation, human pride ends in disgrace. The use of excrement in speech was meant to strip people of dignity, contrasting with the honor God restores to His faithful.
8. Jeremiah 8:2
“They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served… They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like dung lying on the ground.”
Dung here symbolizes worthlessness and rejection. Just as excrement is discarded, so the remains of the rebellious would lie exposed. This stark image reminds us that worshiping false gods leads to shame and ruin. Only honoring the Lord preserves dignity.
9. Psalm 83:10
“They perished at Endor and became like dung on the ground.”
In describing God’s judgment on enemies, the psalmist likens them to dung—trampled, valueless, and quickly forgotten. Waste here becomes an image of defeat and dishonor. God’s justice reduces human arrogance to nothing but refuse.
10. Zephaniah 1:17
“They will grope about like those who are blind, because they have sinned against the Lord. Their blood will be poured out like dust and their entrails like dung.”
Dung imagery shows utter disgrace in judgment. Just as waste is discarded, so too are the rebellious. This reminds us that sin leads to degradation, but repentance restores purity and dignity before God.
11. 1 Kings 14:10
“Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone.”
God compares the destruction of a sinful dynasty to burning dung—total, consuming, and leaving no trace. This vivid imagery underscores how sin leaves behind only shame and emptiness.
12. Job 20:7
“He will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’”
Here, dung represents disappearance and insignificance. The wicked may flourish briefly, but they vanish as worthless waste. Job reminds us that only righteousness endures before God.
13. Psalm 18:42
“I beat them as fine as windblown dust; I trampled them like mud in the streets.”
While not directly naming dung, the imagery of trampling reflects how enemies are reduced to waste-like status under God’s judgment. Just as refuse is crushed, so too are the proud before God’s might.
14. Ezekiel 6:5
“I will lay the dead bodies of the Israelites in front of their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars.”
This verse ties closely to waste imagery, as unburied bodies were often compared to dung in prophetic writings. The message is clear: idolatry leaves nothing but corruption and decay.
15. Jeremiah 16:4
“They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like dung lying on the ground.”
Dung imagery highlights shame, dishonor, and rejection. When God’s people forsake Him, they forfeit the dignity of burial, becoming as refuse.
16. Ezekiel 4:15
“Very well,” he said, “I will let you bake your bread over cow dung instead of human excrement.”
God’s mercy allowed a symbolic substitution for Ezekiel, but the lesson remained: Israel’s rebellion made them unclean. Cow dung symbolized impurity, showing the consequences of disobedience.
17. Nahum 3:6
“I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.”
“Filth” here connects to dung. God warns Nineveh of utter humiliation, showing that sin leads to public disgrace. Waste becomes a tool of divine justice.
18. Zechariah 3:3
“Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel.”
“Filthy clothes” symbolized sin, often linked with excrement. The vision shows that only God can cleanse us from the filth of unrighteousness, clothing us instead in holiness.
19. 2 Kings 6:25
“There was a great famine in the city; the siege lasted so long that a donkey’s head sold for eighty shekels of silver, and a quarter of a cab of seed pods for five shekels.”
Though translated “seed pods,” some versions interpret it as “dove’s dung.” In desperation, people turned to refuse for survival. This emphasizes how sin and judgment reduce life to degradation.
20. Micah 3:12
“Because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets.”
Though not explicitly dung, prophetic language often compared rubble to refuse. Waste imagery underscores the devastation of rebellion.
21. Jeremiah 9:22
“This is what the Lord declares: ‘The dead bodies of men will lie like dung on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.’”
Here, dung is used as a metaphor for the dishonor awaiting the rebellious. Just as excrement is abandoned and unwanted, so too would the corpses of the unrepentant lie unburied. This graphic imagery emphasizes the shame of rejecting God’s word.
22. 2 Chronicles 32:27
“Hezekiah had very great riches and honor, and he made treasuries for his silver and gold and for his precious stones, spices, shields and all kinds of valuables.”
Though not directly referencing dung, this contrasts sharply with Paul’s declaration in Philippians 3:8, where all earthly riches are considered dung compared to Christ. This verse sets the stage for understanding how temporary treasures pale in value when weighed against eternal glory.
23. Malachi 2:9
“So I have caused you to be despised and humiliated before all the people, because you have not followed my ways but have shown partiality in matters of the law.”
Humiliation is closely linked with dung imagery in Malachi 2:3, making this verse a continuation of God’s warning. To be despised is to be treated as worthless refuse. God warns leaders that partiality and corruption turn even sacred duties into filth before Him.
24. Isaiah 25:10
“The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain; but Moab will be trampled in their land as straw is trampled down in the manure.”
God likens His judgment on Moab to being crushed in manure—filthy, degrading, and inescapable. The imagery of manure emphasizes humiliation, showing that pride leads to disgrace when it resists God’s power.
25. Jeremiah 25:33
“At that time those slain by the Lord will be everywhere—from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned or gathered up or buried, but will be like dung lying on the ground.”
This echoes earlier prophetic warnings: the unrepentant will be like dung—valueless and discarded. It highlights the ultimate shame of living without God, contrasted with the eternal honor of those who belong to Him.
26. 1 Samuel 2:8
“He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor.”
The “ash heap” often contained refuse, including dung. This verse reveals God’s power to lift people from filth—both physical and spiritual—and exalt them. It is a beautiful reminder that God redeems even those considered worthless by society.
27. Proverbs 30:12
“Those who are pure in their own eyes and yet are not cleansed of their filth.”
The word “filth” here ties to excrement, symbolizing sin. Pride blinds people to their own corruption. True cleansing comes only through God’s forgiveness, not self-righteousness.
28. 1 Kings 21:23-24
“And also concerning Jezebel the Lord says: ‘Dogs will devour Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel. Dogs will eat those belonging to Ahab who die in the city, and the birds will feed on those who die in the country.’”
While not explicitly mentioning dung, the imagery of being eaten and left unburied ties into the same theme—being treated as refuse. Those who defy God end in disgrace, stripped of dignity.
29. Ezekiel 29:5
“I will leave you in the desert, you and all the fish of your streams. You will fall on the open field and not be gathered or picked up. I will give you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky.”
Being left in the open without burial was synonymous with becoming like dung. It symbolized rejection, worthlessness, and judgment. Yet this also reminds us that God alone preserves life and dignity for the faithful.
30. Luke 13:8
“‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.’”
Here, dung takes on a redemptive purpose—fertilizer. While waste is often a symbol of shame, it is also used for growth and renewal. In Jesus’ parable, manure represents God’s patience and mercy, giving people time to bear fruit. What is discarded in one sense becomes useful in another, reflecting how God transforms even the filth of our lives into something fruitful when surrendered to Him.
Conclusion
Though they may initially seem odd, the Bible’s allusions to dung, trash, and excrement have deep spiritual meanings. Poop is used both literally and figuratively to represent impurity, worthlessness, judgment, and occasionally redemption throughout the Bible. God reminds us that His truth permeates every part of existence by addressing even this awkward topic. For Him, nothing is too little, too human, or too lowly to serve as a lesson.
Many of these texts emphasize that disobedience to God results in disgrace, dishonor, and ruin by linking waste to sin and rebellion. The products of pride, idolatry, and disobedience are as useless and undesirable as manure. However, we also observe that excrement is utilized in prophetic parables to depict expansion and in practical rules for hygiene. This harmony demonstrates that God is both smart and holy, concerned with order, purity, and converting the impure into the productive.
The lesson is ultimately clear: life in God turns even the lowest and most shameful things into tools of His glory, while life without Him is as useless as trash. Paul’s statement that all material accomplishments were “dung” in comparison to knowing Christ perfectly encapsulated this truth. What the world values may be considered trash, but what God redeems is a priceless asset. God’s grace may transform our waste, humiliation, and brokenness into manifestations of His power, much like manure can enrich soil to produce life.
Therefore, the biblical imagery of poop is really serious, even though the subject may make us giggle. It serves as a warning against arrogance, a reminder of the consequences of sin, and a reminder of the immeasurable worth of God’s holiness. Furthermore, it gives us comfort in knowing that God has the ability to purify, restore, and produce fruit in His kingdom, regardless of how tainted our history may appear.
