Bible Lexicons

Girdlestone's Synonyms of the Old TestamentGirdlestone's OT Synonyms

Washing

The Hebrew words for washing deserve attention from the fact that they too are used ceremonially and morally as well as literally.

Duach (דוח ), to cast off, and hence to purge from impurity, is used only four times in the O.T. Twice it is rendered wash, viz in 2 Chronicles 4:6, and Ezekiel 40:38; in each of these places reference is made to the putting off the pollution contracted by the priests and Levites while preparing the animals for offering. The first of these passages may be thus understood: 'He made also ten lavers, and put five on the right hand, and five on the left, to wash in them; the defilement contracted by the operations connected with the burnt offering they cleansed in them; and the sea was for the priests to wash in.' The Levites washed in the lavers, and the priests in the larger vessel called the sea. The R. V. has failed to draw out the distinction.

Duach is used in a spiritual sense in Isaiah 4:4, 'When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst there of by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning.' The other passage where the word occurs is Jeremiah 51:34. Here the Lord, identifying Himself with his people, says, 'Nebuchadnezzar hath devoured me, . he hath cast me out,' i.e. hath treated me as if I were the 'offscouring' of the earth.

Shathaph (שׁטף ), to flood, overflow, or pour copiously, is used, in 1 Kings 22:38, of the cleansing of Ahab's chariot; [Different Hebrew words are used for the washing of Ahab's chariot and for the cleansing of his armour. Were the two washed at the some place? The chariot was washed in the pool of Samaria; but probably his armour was taken to be cleaned at his palace at Jezreel, and doubtless the dogs licked the blood that was rinsed from it at or near the pool of Jezreel, according to the prophecy of Elijah, which otherwise would not have been literally fulfilled. But see R.V.] in Job 14:19, of the destruction of the surface of the l and by floods of water; and in Ezekiel 16:9, of the 'thorough washing' which represented the care with which God dealt with his people Israel at their first beginning.

We now come to the two words which were in most ordinary use among the Jews, namely, cav as (כבס ), for which the LXX has πλύνω or ἀποπλύνω, which was applied to the washing of garments; and rachats (רחץ , Ass. rahatsu), generally rendered νίπτω or λούω, but in seven passages πλύνω, which represented the bathing or washing of the body.

Cav as is the term applied to the 'fuller,' and is supposed to refer in the first place to the treading whereby clothes were cleaned. this cleansing of garments was an important ceremonial action. We have already seen its meaning under a slightly different form in Genesis 35:2, where Jacob told his household to put away their false gods, and to change their garments; evidently the latter action was taken as the external symbol of the former. of the 'divers washings' of the Levitical dispensation, some had to do with the garments, and are described under the word cavas; while others had to do with the flesh, and are represented by rachats. The following come under the first head: the ceremonial cleansing of the garments before the people were allowed to approach Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:10; Exodus 19:14); the cleansing of the garment sprinkled with the blood of the offering (Leviticus 6:27); the cleansing of men's clothing after leprosy or after contact with that which was pronounced unclean (Leviticus 17:15); the cleansing of the Levites' clothing for their service (Numbers 8:7), where it was connected with the sprinkling of 'holy water' over their flesh.

Under the second head (rachats, the washing of the flesh) come the washing or bathing of the body, the hands, and the feet generally; the washing of the sacrifices (Exodus 29:17); of the priests before their consecration, and also before their daily ministration (Exodus 29:4; Exodus 30:19; Exodus 30:21); and the washing of the elders' hands over the beheaded heifer (Deuteronomy 21:6). this word is also used figuratively in Job 29:6, and Psalms 58:10 in the triumphant expression, 'Moab is my washpot' (Psalms 60:8; Psalms 108:9), the image is taken from the laver for the cleansing of the body, not from the trough for the washing of garments.

Each of these expressions is applied to spiritual washing. The word cavas, which implies the cleansing of garments, is found in the four following passages - Psalms 51:2, 'Wash me throughly from my sin ;' Psalms 51:7, 'Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow;' Jeremiah 2:22, 'Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God;' Jeremiah 4:14, 'O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.'

The word rachats, which signifies the washing of the body, is used in a spiritual sense in Psalms 26:6, 'I will wash my hands in innocency;' Psalms 73:13, 'I have washed my hands in innocency;' Proverbs 30:12, 'There is a generation that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness;' Isaiah 1:16, 'Wash you, make you clean;' Isaiah 4:4, 'When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughter of Zion.'

The word wash, whether applied to the body or to its clothing, is never used except with reference to water, and it appears to symbolise the purgation of the inclinations, the character and the external life, from moral pollution. Compare Hebrews 10:22, 'having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.'

In the N.T., νίπτω is used of washing the face (Matthew 6:17); the hands (Matthew 15:2); the eyes (John 9:7; John 9:11; John 9:15); and the feet (John 13:5-6; John 13:8; John 13:10; John 13:12; John 13:14; 1 Timothy 5:10). The word λούω is used of the bathing of the body in Acts 9:37; Acts 16:33, and 2 Peter 2:22 in John 13:10 we read, 'He that is bathed (λελουμένος) needeth not save to wash (νίψασθαι) his feet, but is clean every whit' (καθαρὸς ὅλος). It is evident that our Lord here referred, in the first instance, to the well-known fact that after a complete bath a man needed only to cleanse away the impurity which he contracted in walking from it if he wished to be accounted entirely clean; the significance of the act to the disciples seems to have been that where as they were in a measure clean through the word which He had spoken unto them, there was yet need that He should humble Himself still lower in their behalf, in order to cleanse them in the sight of God. The act of washing their feet symbolised the humiliation of Him who took the form of a servant, and it set forth the necessity of yielding to his cleansing work as the only means of having part with Him in his future kingdom. Washing with water is also connected with the Word in Ephesians 5:26. Here we read that Christ gave Himself (i.e. died) for his Church, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing [The laver (כיור ) is rendered λουτήρ in the LXX. The word λουτρονonly occurs in ; for רחצה the washing of sheep.] of the water in the word (τῳ̂ λουτρῳ̂ το̂υ ὕδατος ἐν ῥήματι). Washing (λου̂τρον) is also used as a symbol of regeneration in Titus 3:5. With these passages we may connect Acts 22:16, 'Arise, and be baptized, and wash away (ἀπόλουσαι) thy sins;' and 1 Corinthians 6:11, 'Such were some of you, but ye are washed' (ἀπελούσασθε) in the Received Text of Revelation 1:5 we read, 'Who washed us from our sins in his own blood.' Others here read λύσαντι (liberated) for λούσαντι (washed).

The word πλύνω, which is applied to the washing of garments, is used symbolically in Revelation 7:14; also in the oldest MSS; together with the Vulgate and the versions made from it, in Revelation 22:14, 'Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have a right to the tree of life.'