And all the elders of that city nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley,
All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence.
I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O Lord,
but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.
Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord God.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
Who can discern his errors? Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,
and they shall testify, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it shed.
May it fall upon the head of Joab and upon all his father’s house, and may the house of Joab never be without one who has a discharge or who is leprous or who holds a spindle or who falls by the sword or who lacks bread!”