Verses on The Holiness of God

Exodus 3:5: Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.”

Exodus 15:11: Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?

Exodus 20:7: You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.[1]

Leviticus 10:3: Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD has said, ‘Among those who are near me I will be sanctified, and before all the people I will be glorified.’” And Aaron held his peace.[2]

Leviticus 11:44-45: For I am the LORD your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. You shall not defile yourselves with any swarming thing that crawls on the ground. For I am the LORD who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.[3]

Leviticus 19:2: Speak to all the congregation of the people of Israel and say to them, You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.

Leviticus 20:3: I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name.

Leviticus 20:7: Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the LORD your God.

Leviticus 20:26: You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

Leviticus 21:6: They shall be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. For they offer the LORD’s food offerings, the bread of their God; therefore they shall be holy.

Leviticus 21:8: You shall sanctify him, for he offers the bread of your God. He shall be holy to you, for I, the LORD, who sanctify you, am holy.

Leviticus 22:2: Speak to Aaron and his sons so that they abstain from the holy things of the people of Israel, which they dedicate to me, so that they do not profane my holy name: I am the LORD.

Leviticus 22:32: And you shall not profane my holy name, that I may be sanctified among the people of Israel. I am the LORD who sanctifies you.

Numbers 20:13: These are the waters of Meribah, where the people of Israel quarreled with the LORD, and through them he showed himself holy.

Deuteronomy 23:14: Because the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you.

Joshua 5:15: And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so.

Joshua 24:19: But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins.”

1 Samuel 2:2: There is none holy like the LORD; there is none besides you; there is no rock like our God.[4]

1 Samuel 6:20: Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?”

2 Kings 19:22: Whom have you mocked and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes to the heights? Against the Holy One of Israel![5]

1 Chronicles 16:10: Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!

1 Chronicles 16:35: Say also: “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather and deliver us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name, and glory in your praise.”

1 Chronicles 29:16: O LORD our God, all this abundance that we have provided for building you a house for your holy name comes from your hand and is all your own.

Psalm 22:3: Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.

Psalm 30:4: Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.

Psalm 33:21: For our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.

Psalm 47:8: God reigns over the nations; God sits on his holy throne.

Psalm 68:5: Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation.

Psalm 77:13: Your way, O God, is holy. What god is great like our God?

Psalm 89:35: Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David.

Psalm 97:12: Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name!

Psalm 98:1: Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

Psalm 99:5: Exalt the LORD our God; worship at his footstool! Holy is he!

Psalm 99:9: Exalt the LORD our God, and worship at his holy mountain; for the LORD our God is holy!

Psalm 103:1: Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!

Psalm 105:3: Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!

Psalm 106:47: Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy name and glory in your praise.

Psalm 145:21: My mouth will speak the praise of the LORD, and let all flesh bless his holy name forever and ever.

Isaiah 5:16: But the LORD of hosts is exalted in justice, and the Holy God shows himself holy in righteousness.

Isaiah 6:3: And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”[6]

Isaiah 8:13: But the LORD of hosts, him you shall regard as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.

Isaiah 29:23: For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel.

Isaiah 40:25: To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.

Isaiah 43:15: I am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.

Isaiah 47:4: Our Redeemer – the LORD of hosts is his name – is the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 52:10: The LORD has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

Isaiah 57:15: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.”

Ezekiel 20:39: As for you, O house of Israel, thus says the Lord GOD: Go serve every one of you his idols, now and hereafter, if you will not listen to me; but my holy name you shall no more profane with your gifts and your idols.

Ezekiel 20:41: As a pleasing aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you have been scattered. And I will manifest my holiness among you in the sight of the nations.

Ezekiel 28:25: Thus says the Lord GOD: When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and manifest my holiness in them in the sight of the nations, then they shall dwell in their own land that I gave to my servant Jacob.

Ezekiel 36:22-23: Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

Ezekiel 38:16: You will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

Ezekiel 38:23: So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 39:7: And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and I will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

Ezekiel 39:25: Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name.

Ezekiel 39:27: When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations.

Ezekiel 43:7-8: And he said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places, by setting their threshold by my threshold and their doorposts beside my doorposts, with only a wall between me and them. They have defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed, so I have consumed them in my anger.

Hosea 11:9: I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.

Amos 2:7: Those who trample the head of the poor into the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the afflicted; a man and his father go in to the same girl, so that my holy name is profaned.[7]

Amos 4:2: The Lord GOD has sworn by his holiness that, behold, the days are coming upon you, when they shall take you away with hooks, even the last of you with fishhooks.

Habakkuk 1:12-13: Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O LORD, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof. You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and are silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?[8]

Habakkuk 3:3: God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

Mark 1:24: What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God.[9]

Luke 1:35: And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.”

Luke 1:49: For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.

Luke 4:34: Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are – the Holy One of God.

John 6:69: And we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.

Acts 2:27: For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One see corruption.

Acts 7:33: Then the Lord said to him, “Take off the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”

Acts 13:35: Therefore he says also in another psalm, “You will not let your Holy One see corruption.”

Romans 1:4: And was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hebrews 12:10: For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

1 Peter 1:15: But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.

1 Peter 3:15: But in your hearts regard Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

1 John 1:5: This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.[10]

1 John 2:20: But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.[11]

Revelation 3:7: And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: “The words of the holy one, the true one, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, who shuts and no one opens.”

Revelation 4:8: And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”[12]

Revelation 6:10: They cried out with a loud voice, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?”

Revelation 15:4: Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.

Revelation 16:5: And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments.”

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*God is holy because he is completely unique and distinguished from everything in creation. The holiness of God is closely associated with his transcendence and unapproachability (1 Tim 6:16). All of his unique, or incommunicable attributes, are manifestations of his holiness. Holiness is also used to describe objects that have been consecrated or set apart for use to God. All Christians are saints, or holy ones, because they have been chosen by God to serve him and are distinct from the rest of mankind. Because we are holy, we are called to separate ourselves from every sin. God alone is holy intrinsically whereas ours is communicated to us from him (Rev 15:4). The opposite of holiness is profaneness. See The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul. See also 5. The Transcendence and Incomprehensibility of God and 79. Sanctification.

[1]To take God’s name in vain is to use it in a way that is irreverent, vulgar, or profane. The Jews later built a fence around this law by forbidding anyone to use God’s name, regardless of how it was being used.

[2]To sanctify is to declare or make holy. We declare the holiness of God but do not make him holy or add to his worth. God makes us holy in sanctification and glorification and therefore declares us to be holy in Christ.

[3]As those created in God’s image, we are called to imitate him in all the communicable attributes of God that we share with him by way of analogy (Eph 5:1).

[4]Here we see the relationship between the holiness of God and his incomparability. To be holy is to be wholly other.

[5]The other verses which use the name “Holy One” have not been included in this section unless they help to define what holiness is.

[6]The thrice repeated “holy” represents the completeness and perfection of God’s holiness. The holiness of God is the demonstration of his glory or worth.

[7]All sin profanes the holy name of God by declaring that he is unworthy of worship and that something else besides him is more satisfying.

[8]The holiness of God is associated with the purity and righteousness of God.

[9]To speak of Jesus as the Holy One is to say that he was chosen or set apart by God to be the Messiah before the foundation of the world (John 10:36). It is also a title for God since Jesus is God and yet he is a distinct person from the Father.

[10]Darkness is a metaphor for sin and light represents purity and righteousness (John 3:19-20).

[11]The knowledge John speaks of is the intimate personal knowledge of God that is shared by all Christians (Heb 8:11). It is a knowledge of persons, not facts. Hence, the gnostics cannot contribute to it. It is the only knowledge that really matters.

[12]A repetition of the thrice “holy” of Isaiah 6:3.