and all the elders of that city, who are near unto the slain one, do wash their hands over the heifer which is beheaded in the valley,
it doth stay on the head of Joab, and on all the house of his father, and there is not cut off from the house of Joab one having an issue, and leprous, and laying hold on a staff, and falling by a sword, and lacking bread.'
If I have washed myself with snow-water, And purified with soap my hands,
Errors! who doth understand? From hidden ones declare me innocent,
I wash in innocency my hands, And I compass Thine altar, O Jehovah.
Deliver me from blood, O God, God of my salvation, My tongue singeth of Thy righteousness.
Thoroughly wash me from mine iniquity, And from my sin cleanse me,
Thou cleansest me with hyssop and I am clean, Washest me, and than snow I am whiter.
Only -- a vain thing! I have purified my heart, And I wash in innocency my hands,
But though thou dost wash with nitre, And dost multiply to thyself soap, Marked is thine iniquity before Me, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.
and they have answered and said, Our hands have not shed this blood, and our eyes have not seen --
only in victuals, and drinks, and different baptisms, and fleshly ordinances -- till the time of reformation imposed upon `them'.