Hebrews 6:2

6:2 teaching about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Hebrews 10:22

10:22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in the assurance that faith brings, ¹  because we have had our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience ²  and our bodies washed in pure water.

Exodus 29:4

29:4 “You are to present ³  Aaron and his sons at the entrance of the tent of meeting. You are to wash ⁴  them with water

Exodus 30:19-21

30:19 and Aaron and his sons must wash their hands and their feet from it. ⁵  30:20 When they enter ⁶  the tent of meeting, they must wash with ⁷  water so that they do not die. ⁸  Also, when they approach ⁹  the altar to minister by burning incense ¹⁰  as an offering made by fire ¹¹  to the Lord, 30:21 they must wash ¹²  their hands and their feet so that they do not die. And this ¹³  will be a perpetual ordinance for them and for their descendants ¹⁴  throughout their generations.” ¹⁵ 

Exodus 40:12

40:12 “You are to bring ¹⁶  Aaron and his sons to the entrance of the tent of meeting and wash them with water.

Leviticus 14:8-9

The Seven Days of Purification

14:8 “The one being cleansed ¹⁷  must then wash his clothes, shave off all his hair, and bathe in water, and so be clean. ¹⁸  Then afterward he may enter the camp, but he must live outside his tent seven days. 14:9 When the seventh day comes ¹⁹  he must shave all his hair – his head, his beard, his eyebrows, all his hair – and he must wash his clothes, bathe his body in water, and so be clean. ²⁰ 

Leviticus 16:4

16:4 He must put on a holy linen tunic, ²¹  linen leggings are to cover his body, ²²  and he is to wrap himself with a linen sash ²³  and wrap his head with a linen turban. ²⁴  They are holy garments, so he must bathe ²⁵  his body in water and put them on.

Leviticus 16:24

16:24 Then he must bathe his body in water in a holy place, put on his clothes, and go out and make his burnt offering and the people’s burnt offering. So he is to make atonement ²⁶  on behalf of himself and the people. ²⁷ 

Leviticus 17:15-16

Regulations for Eating Carcasses

17:15 “‘Any person ²⁸  who eats an animal that has died of natural causes ²⁹  or an animal torn by beasts, whether a native citizen or a foreigner, ³⁰  must wash his clothes, bathe in water, and be unclean until evening; then he becomes clean. 17:16 But if he does not wash his clothes ³¹  and does not bathe his body, he will bear his punishment for iniquity.’” ³² 

Leviticus 22:6

22:6 the person who touches any of these ³³  will be unclean until evening and must not eat from the holy offerings unless he has bathed his body in water.

Numbers 19:7-21

19:7 Then the priest must wash ³⁴  his clothes and bathe himself ³⁵  in water, and afterward he may come ³⁶  into the camp, but the priest will be ceremonially unclean until evening. 19:8 The one who burns it ³⁷  must wash his clothes in water and bathe himself in water. He will be ceremonially unclean until evening.

19:9 “‘Then a man who is ceremonially clean must gather up the ashes of the red heifer and put them in a ceremonially clean place outside the camp. They must be kept ³⁸  for the community of the Israelites for use in the water of purification ³⁹  – it is a purification for sin. ⁴⁰  19:10 The one who gathers the ashes of the heifer must wash his clothes and be ceremonially unclean until evening. This will be a permanent ordinance both for the Israelites and the resident foreigner who lives among them.

Purification from Uncleanness

19:11 “‘Whoever touches ⁴¹  the corpse ⁴²  of any person ⁴³  will be ceremonially unclean ⁴⁴  seven days. 19:12 He must purify himself ⁴⁵  with water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so will be clean. But if he does not purify himself on the third day and the seventh day, then he will not be clean. 19:13 Anyone who touches the corpse of any dead person and does not purify himself defiles the tabernacle of the Lord. And that person must be cut off from Israel, ⁴⁶  because the water of purification was not sprinkled on him. He will be unclean; his uncleanness remains on him.

19:14 “‘This is the law: When a man dies ⁴⁷  in a tent, anyone who comes into the tent and all who are in the tent will be ceremonially unclean seven days. 19:15 And every open container that has no covering fastened on it is unclean. 19:16 And whoever touches the body of someone killed with a sword in the open fields, ⁴⁸  or the body of someone who died of natural causes, ⁴⁹  or a human bone, or a grave, will be unclean seven days. ⁵⁰ 

19:17 “‘For a ceremonially unclean person you must take ⁵¹  some of the ashes of the heifer ⁵²  burnt for purification from sin and pour ⁵³  fresh running ⁵⁴  water over them in a vessel. 19:18 Then a ceremonially clean person must take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all its furnishings, and on the people who were there, or on the one who touched a bone, or one killed, or one who died, or a grave. 19:19 And the clean person must sprinkle the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he must purify him, ⁵⁵  and then he must wash his clothes, and bathe in water, and he will be clean in the evening. 19:20 But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself, that person must be cut off from among the community, because he has polluted the sanctuary of the Lord; the water of purification was not sprinkled on him, so he is unclean.

19:21 “‘So this will be a perpetual ordinance for them: The one who sprinkles ⁵⁶  the water of purification must wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water of purification will be unclean until evening. ⁵⁷ 

Deuteronomy 21:6

21:6 and all the elders of that city nearest the corpse ⁵⁸  must wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. ⁵⁹ 

Deuteronomy 23:11

23:11 When evening arrives he must wash himself with water and then at sunset he may reenter the camp.

[10:22]  ¹ tn Grk “in assurance of faith.”

[10:22]  ² sn The phrase our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience combines the OT imagery of the sprinkling with blood to give ritual purity with the emphasis on the interior cleansing provided by the new covenant: It is the heart that is cleansed and the conscience made perfect (cf. Heb 8:10; 9:9, 14; 10:2, 16).

[29:4]  ³ tn Here too the verb is Hiphil (now imperfect) meaning “bring near” the altar. The choice of this verb indicates that they were not merely being brought near, but that they were being formally presented to Yahweh as the offerings were.

[29:4]  ⁴ sn This is the washing referred to in Lev 8:6. This is a complete washing, not just of the hands and feet that would follow in the course of service. It had to serve as a symbolic ritual cleansing or purifying as the initial stage in the consecration. The imagery of washing will be used in the NT for regeneration (Titus 3:5).

[30:19]  ⁵ tn That is, from water from it.

[30:20]  ⁶ tn The form is an infinitive construct with the temporal preposition bet (ב), and a suffixed subjective genitive: “in their going in,” or, whenever they enter.

[30:20]  ⁷ tn “Water” is an adverbial accusative of means, and so is translated “with water.” Gesenius classifies this with verbs of “covering with something.” But he prefers to emend the text with a preposition (see GKC 369 §117.y, n. 1).

[30:20]  ⁸ tn The verb is a Qal imperfect with a nuance of final imperfect. The purpose/result clause here is indicated only with the conjunction: “and they do not die.” But clearly from the context this is the intended result of their washing – it is in order that they not die.

[30:20]  ⁹ tn Here, too, the infinitive is used in a temporal clause construction. The verb נָגַשׁ (nagash) is the common verb used for drawing near to the altar to make offerings – the official duties of the priest.

[30:20]  ¹⁰ tn The text uses two infinitives construct: “to minister to burn incense”; the first is the general term and expresses the purpose of the drawing near, and the second infinitive is epexegetical, explaining the first infinitive.

[30:20]  ¹¹ tn The translation “as an offering made by fire” is a standard rendering of the one word in the text that appears to refer to “fire.” Milgrom and others contend that it simply means a “gift” (Leviticus 1-16, 161).

[30:21]  ¹² tn Heb “and [then] they will wash.”

[30:21]  ¹³ tn The verb is “it will be.”

[30:21]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “for his seed.”

[30:21]  ¹⁵ tn Or “for generations to come”; it literally is “to their generations.”

[40:12]  ¹⁶ tn The verb is “bring near,” or “present,” to Yahweh.

[14:8]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the one cleansing himself” (i.e., Hitpael participle of טָהֵר [taher, “to be clean”]).

[14:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and he shall be clean” (so ASV). The end result of the ritual procedures in vv. 4-7 and the washing and shaving in v. 8a is that the formerly diseased person has now officially become clean in the sense that he can reenter the community (see v. 8b; contrast living outside the community as an unclean diseased person, Lev 13:46). There are, however, further cleansing rituals and pronouncements for him to undergo in the tabernacle as outlined in vv. 10-20 (see Qal “be[come] clean” in vv. 9 and 20, Piel “pronounce clean” in v. 11, and Hitpael “the one being cleansed” in vv. 11, 14, 17, 18, and 19). Obviously, in order to enter the tabernacle he must already “be clean” in the sense of having access to the community.

[14:9]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “And it shall be on the seventh day.”

[14:9]  ²⁰ tn Heb “and he shall be clean” (see the note on v. 8).

[16:4]  ²¹ sn The term “tunic” refers to a shirt-like garment worn next to the skin and, therefore, put on first (cf. Exod 28:4, 39-40; 29:5, 8; 39:27). It covered the upper body only. For detailed remarks on the terminology for the priestly clothing in this verse (except the “linen leggings”) see the notes on Lev 8:7-9 and the literature cited there.

[16:4]  ²² tn Heb “shall be on his flesh.” As in many instances in Lev 15, the term “flesh” or “body” here is euphemistic for the male genitals (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:1017, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 222; cf. the note on Lev 15:2), which the priest must be careful not to expose during such ritual procedures (see Exod 20:26 with 28:42-43).

[16:4]  ²³ sn The sash fastened the tunic around the waist (Exod 28:4, 39; 29:9; 39:29).

[16:4]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and in a turban of linen he shall wrap.”

[16:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he shall bathe….”

[16:24]  ²⁶ tn Heb “And he shall make atonement.”

[16:24]  ²⁷ tn Heb “on behalf of himself and on behalf of the people.” After “on behalf of himself” the LXX adds the expected “and on behalf of his household” (cf. vv. 6, 11, and 17).

[17:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “And any soul” (נֶפֶשׁ, nefesh).

[17:15]  ²⁹ tn Heb “carcass,” referring to the carcass of an animal that has died on its own, not the carcass of an animal slaughtered for sacrifice or killed by wild beasts. This has been clarified in the translation by supplying the phrase “of natural causes”; cf. NAB “that died of itself”; TEV “that has died a natural death.”

[17:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “in the native or in the sojourner.”

[17:16]  ³¹ tn The words “his clothes” are not in the Hebrew text, but are repeated in the translation for clarity.

[17:16]  ³² tn Heb “and he shall bear his iniquity.” The rendering “bear the punishment for the iniquity” reflects the use of the word “iniquity” to refer to the punishment for iniquity. This is sometimes referred to as the consequential use of the term (cf. Lev 5:17; 7:18; 10:17; etc.).

[22:6]  ³³ sn The phrase “any of these” refers back to the unclean things touched in vv. 4b-5.

[19:7]  ³⁴ tn The sequence continues with the perfect tense and vav (ו) consecutive.

[19:7]  ³⁵ tn Heb “his flesh.”

[19:7]  ³⁶ tn This is the imperfect of permission.

[19:8]  ³⁷ sn Here the text makes clear that he had at least one assistant.

[19:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “it will be.”

[19:9]  ³⁹ tn The expression לְמֵי נִדָּה (lÿme niddah) is “for waters of impurity.” The genitive must designate the purpose of the waters – they are for cases of impurity, and so serve for cleansing or purifying, thus “water of purification.” The word “impurity” can also mean “abhorrent” because it refers to so many kinds of impurities. It is also called a purification offering; Milgrom notes that this is fitting because the sacrificial ritual involved transfers impurity from the purified to the purifier (pp. 62-72).

[19:9]  ⁴⁰ sn The ashes were to be stored somewhere outside the camp to be used in a water portion for cleansing someone who was defiled. This is a ritual that was enacted in the wilderness; it is something of a restoring rite for people alienated from community.

[19:11]  ⁴¹ tn The form is the participle with the article functioning as a substantive: “the one who touches.”

[19:11]  ⁴² tn Heb “the dead.”

[19:11]  ⁴³ tn The expression is full: לְכָל־נֶפֶשׁ אָדָם (lÿkhol-nefesh ’adam) – of any life of a man, i.e., of any person.

[19:11]  ⁴⁴ tn The verb is a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it follows only the participle used as the subject, but since the case is hypothetical and therefore future, this picks up the future time. The adjective “ceremonially” is supplied in the translation as a clarification.

[19:12]  ⁴⁵ tn The verb is the Hitpael of חָטָא (khata’), a verb that normally means “to sin.” But the Piel idea in many places is “to cleanse; to purify.” This may be explained as a privative use (“to un-sin” someone, meaning cleanse) or denominative (“make a sin offering for someone”). It is surely connected to the purification offering, and so a sense of purify is what is wanted here.

[19:13]  ⁴⁶ sn It is in passages like this that the view that being “cut off” meant the death penalty is the hardest to support. Would the Law prescribe death for someone who touches a corpse and fails to follow the ritual? Besides, the statement in this section that his uncleanness remains with him suggests that he still lives on.

[19:14]  ⁴⁷ tn The word order gives the classification and then the condition: “a man, when he dies….”

[19:16]  ⁴⁸ tn The expression for “in the open field” is literally “upon the face of the field” (עַל־פְּנֵי הַשָּׂדֶה, ’al pÿne hassadeh). This ruling is in contrast now to what was contacted in the tent.

[19:16]  ⁴⁹ tn Heb “a dead body”; but in contrast to the person killed with a sword, this must refer to someone who died of natural causes.

[19:16]  ⁵⁰ sn See Matt 23:27 and Acts 23:3 for application of this by the time of Jesus.

[19:17]  ⁵¹ tn The verb is the perfect tense, third masculine plural, with a vav (ו) consecutive. The verb may be worded as a passive, “ashes must be taken,” but that may be too awkward for this sentence. It may be best to render it with a generic “you” to fit the instruction of the text.

[19:17]  ⁵² tn The word “heifer” is not in the Hebrew text, but it is implied.

[19:17]  ⁵³ tn Here too the verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; rather than make this passive, it is here left as a direct instruction to follow the preceding one. For the use of the verb נָתַן (natan) in the sense of “pour,” see S. C. Reif, “A Note on a Neglected Connotation of ntn,” VT 20 (1970): 114-16.

[19:17]  ⁵⁴ tn The expression is literally “living water.” Living water is the fresh, flowing spring water that is clear, life-giving, and not the collected pools of stagnant or dirty water.

[19:19]  ⁵⁵ tn The construction uses a simple Piel of חָטָא (khata’, “to purify”) with a pronominal suffix – “he shall purify him.” Some commentators take this to mean that after he sprinkles the unclean then he must purify himself. But that would not be the most natural way to read this form.

[19:21]  ⁵⁶ tn The form has the conjunction with it: וּמַזֵּה (umazzeh). The conjunction subordinates the following as the special law. It could literally be translated “and this shall be…that the one who sprinkles.”

[19:21]  ⁵⁷ sn This gives the indication of the weight of the matter, for “until the evening” is the shortest period of ritual uncleanness in the Law. The problem of contamination had to be taken seriously, but this was a relatively simple matter to deal with – if one were willing to obey the Law.

[21:6]  ⁵⁸ tn Heb “slain [one].”

[21:6]  ⁵⁹ tn Heb “wadi,” a seasonal watercourse through a valley.