If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,
If I wash myself with snow water, And make my hands never so clean;
If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,
If I wash myself with snow, purify my hands with soap,
If I had been washed with snow-like waters, and my hands were shining like the cleanest thing,
If I be washed as it were with snow-waters, and my hands shall shine ever so clean:
if my step has turned aside from the way, and my heart has gone after my eyes, and if any spot has cleaved to my hands;
that you ask, ‘What advantage have I? How am I better off than if I had sinned?’
yet thou wilt plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.
I wash my hands in innocence, and go about thy altar, O Lord,
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.
Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, says the Lord God.
O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?
For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.