Job 9:30

9:30 If I wash myself with snow water, ¹ 

and make my hands clean with lye, ² 

Psalms 19:12

19:12 Who can know all his errors? ³ 

Please do not punish me for sins I am unaware of. ⁴ 

Psalms 26:6

26:6 I maintain a pure lifestyle, ⁵ 

so I can appear before your altar, ⁶  O Lord,

Psalms 51:2

51:2 Wash away my wrongdoing! ⁷ 

Cleanse me of my sin! ⁸ 

Psalms 51:7

51:7 Sprinkle me ⁹  with water ¹⁰  and I will be pure; ¹¹ 

wash me ¹²  and I will be whiter than snow. ¹³ 

Psalms 51:14

51:14 Rescue me from the guilt of murder, ¹⁴  O God, the God who delivers me!

Then my tongue will shout for joy because of your deliverance. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 73:13

73:13 I concluded, ¹⁶  “Surely in vain I have kept my motives ¹⁷  pure

and maintained a pure lifestyle. ¹⁸ 

Jeremiah 2:22

2:22 You can try to wash away your guilt with a strong detergent.

You can use as much soap as you want.

But the stain of your guilt is still there for me to see,” ¹⁹ 

says the Lord God. ²⁰ 

Matthew 27:24-25

Jesus is Condemned and Mocked

27:24 When ²¹  Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but that instead a riot was starting, he took some water, washed his hands before the crowd and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. You take care of it yourselves!” ²²  27:25 In ²³  reply all the people said, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!”

Hebrews 9:10

9:10 They served only for matters of food and drink ²⁴  and various washings; they are external regulations ²⁵  imposed until the new order came. ²⁶ 

[9:30]  ¹ tn The Syriac and Targum Job read with the Qere “with water of [בְמֵי, bÿme] snow.” The Kethib simply has “in [בְמוֹ, bÿmo] snow.” In Ps 51:9 and Isa 1:18 snow forms a simile for purification. Some protest that snow water is not necessarily clean; but if fresh melting snow is meant, then the runoff would be very clear. The image would work well here. Nevertheless, others have followed the later Hebrew meaning for שֶׁלֶג (sheleg) – “soap” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT). Even though that makes a nice parallelism, it is uncertain whether that meaning was in use at the time this text was written.

[9:30]  ² tn The word בֹּר (bor, “lye, potash”) does not refer to purity (Syriac, KJV, ASV), but refers to the ingredient used to make the hands pure or clean. It has the same meaning as בֹּרִית (borit), the alkali or soda made from the ashes of certain plants.

[19:12]  ³ tn Heb “Errors who can discern?” This rhetorical question makes the point that perfect moral discernment is impossible to achieve. Consequently it is inevitable that even those with good intentions will sin on occasion.

[19:12]  ⁴ tn Heb “declare me innocent from hidden [things],” i.e., sins. In this context (see the preceding line) “hidden” sins are not sins committed in secret, but sins which are not recognized as such by the psalmist.

[26:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “I wash my hands in innocence.” The psalmist uses an image from cultic ritual to picture his moral lifestyle. The imperfect verbal emphasizes that this is his habit.

[26:6]  ⁶ tn Heb “so I can go around your altar” (probably in ritual procession). Following the imperfect of the preceding line, the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.

[51:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “Thoroughly wash me from my wrongdoing.”

[51:2]  ⁸ sn In vv. 1b-2 the psalmist uses three different words to emphasize the multifaceted character and degree of his sin. Whatever one wants to call it (“rebellious acts,” “wrongdoing,” “sin”), he has done it and stands morally polluted in God’s sight. The same three words appear in Exod 34:7, which emphasizes that God is willing to forgive sin in all of its many dimensions. In v. 2 the psalmist compares forgiveness and restoration to physical cleansing. Perhaps he likens spiritual cleansing to the purification rites of priestly law.

[51:7]  ⁹ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “cleanse me with hyssop.” “Hyssop” was a small plant (see 1 Kgs 4:33) used to apply water (or blood) in purification rites (see Exod 12:22; Lev 14:4-6, 49-52; Num 19:6-18. The psalmist uses the language and imagery of such rites to describe spiritual cleansing through forgiveness.

[51:7]  ¹¹ tn After the preceding imperfect, the imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates result.

[51:7]  ¹² tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ¹³ sn I will be whiter than snow. Whiteness here symbolizes the moral purity resulting from forgiveness (see Isa 1:18).

[51:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “from bloodshed.” “Bloodshed” here stands by metonymy for the guilt which it produces.

[51:14]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “my tongue will shout for joy your deliverance.” Another option is to take the prefixed verbal form as a jussive, “may my tongue shout for joy.” However, the pattern in vv. 12-15 appears to be prayer/request (see vv. 12, 14a, 15a) followed by promise/vow (see vv. 13, 14b, 15b).

[73:13]  ¹⁶ tn The words “I concluded” are supplied in the translation. It is apparent that vv. 13-14 reflect the psalmist’s thoughts at an earlier time (see vv. 2-3), prior to the spiritual awakening he describes in vv. 17-28.

[73:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “heart,” viewed here as the seat of one’s thoughts and motives.

[73:13]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and washed my hands in innocence.” The psalmist uses an image from cultic ritual to picture his moral lifestyle. The reference to “hands” suggests actions.

[2:22]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Even if you wash with natron/lye, and use much soap, your sin is a stain before me.”

[2:22]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Lord Yahweh.” For an explanation of this title see the study notes on 1:6.

[27:24]  ²¹ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[27:24]  ²² sn You take care of it yourselves! Compare the response of the chief priests and elders to Judas in 27:4. The expression is identical except that in 27:4 it is singular and here it is plural.

[27:25]  ²³ tn Grk “answering, all the people said.” This construction is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation.

[9:10]  ²⁴ tn Grk “only for foods and drinks.”

[9:10]  ²⁵ tc Most witnesses (D¹ Ï) have “various washings, and external regulations” (βαπτισμοῖς καὶ δικαιώμασιν, baptismoi" kai dikaiwmasin), with both nouns in the dative. The translation “washings; they are… regulations” renders βαπτισμοῖς, δικαιώματα (baptismoi", dikaiwmata; found in such important mss as Ì⁴⁶ א* A I P 0278 33 1739 1881 al sa) in which case δικαιώματα is taken as the nominative subject of the participle ἐπικείμενα (epikeimena). It seems far more likely that scribes would conform δικαιώματα to the immediately preceding datives and join it to them by καί than they would to the following nominative participle. Both on external and internal evidence the text is thus secure as reading βαπτισμοῖς, δικαιώματα.

[9:10]  ²⁶ tn Grk “until the time of setting things right.”