Jeremiah 2:22
in Jeremiah 2Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For though thou wash thee with lye, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord Jehovah.
KJV
For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God.
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This verse in Jeremiah 2
Commentary
5 notes on this verse(Verse 22) If you wash yourself with niter, you will multiply for yourself the herb borith, you are stained in your iniquity before me, says the Lord God. As for the herb borith, which we render in Hebrew, the LXX translated it as 'poan' to signify the herb of fullers, which grows in green and moist places according to the custom of the province of Palestine; and it has the same power for washing away stains as niter. But our niter and the herb of the fuller is repentance.
This site's exposition
For of old time I have broken thy yoke
on Jeremiah 2:20-25
The broken yoke and burst bands were meant as liberty, and Israel answered, I will not transgress, before turning to worship on every high hill and under every green tree, the standing formula for Canaanite fertility worship the book repeats through its opening chapters. The noble vine planted wholly a right seed becomes a degenerate plant of a strange vine, and no washing removes the stain, thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God, however much nitre and soap is used. The imagery turns to animals in heat, a wild ass that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure, whom none need pursue since she seeks the encounter herself, the bench reading the figure as addiction rather than plain sin, a craving that outruns its own shame.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
For though thou wash thee with nitre,.... The word נתר, "nitre", is only used in this place and in Pro 25:20 and it is hard to say what it is.
The blot of this people is by no art to be taken out; nor expiated by sacrifices; it is beyond the power of all natural and artificial ways of cleansing. Marked - Thy filthiness is so foul that it leaves a brand behind which cannot be hid or washed out, but will abide, chap. xvii, 1.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
For though thou wash thee with nitre - It should be rendered natar or natron, a substance totally different from our nitre. It comes from the root נתר nathar, to dissolve, loosen, because a solution of it in water is abstersive, taking out spots, etc., from clothes. It is still used in the east for the purpose of washing.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּ֤י | ki | that | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| אִם־ | ʾim- | though | H518 → | 1069 times |
| תְּכַבְּסִי֙ | tekhabesi | you will wash | H3526 → | |
| בַּנֶּ֔תֶר | baneter | with <the> soda | H5427 → | |
| וְתַרְבִּי־ | vetarbi- | so you may increase | H7235 → | 227 times |
| לָ֖ךְ | lakh | for <the> yourself | ||
| בֹּרִ֑ית | borit | soap | H1287 → | |
| נִכְתָּ֤ם | nikhtam | [is] stained | H3799 → | |
| עֲוֹנֵךְ֙ | ʾavonekh | iniquity your | H5771 → | 233 times |
| לְפָנַ֔י | lefanai | <to> before me | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| נְאֻ֖ם | neum | [the] utterance of | H5002 → | 376 times |
| אֲדֹנָ֥י | ʾadonai | [the] Lord | H136 → | 440 times |
| יְהוִֽה׃ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3069 → | 306 times |
כִּ֤יthat
kiH3588 →4482 times
אִם־though
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
תְּכַבְּסִי֙you will wash
tekhabesiH3526 →
בַּנֶּ֔תֶרwith <the> soda
baneterH5427 →
וְתַרְבִּי־so you may increase
vetarbi-H7235 →227 times
לָ֖ךְfor <the> yourself
lakh
בֹּרִ֑יתsoap
boritH1287 →
נִכְתָּ֤ם[is] stained
nikhtamH3799 →
עֲוֹנֵךְ֙iniquity your
ʾavonekhH5771 →233 times
לְפָנַ֔י<to> before me
lefanaiH6440 →2123 times
נְאֻ֖ם[the] utterance of
neumH5002 →376 times
אֲדֹנָ֥י[the] Lord
ʾadonaiH136 →440 times
יְהוִֽה׃Yahweh
yahwehH3069 →306 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Psalms 130:3If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
it leads to
- Psalms 143:2
Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
- Psalms 76:7
You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You?
- Romans 3:20–24
Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
- John 8:7–9
When they continued to question Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.”
- Job 10:14
If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
- Psalms 143:2
Through
Jeremiah 17:1“The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus, engraved with a diamond point on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
it leads to
- Proverbs 3:3
Never let loving devotion or faithfulness leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
- 2 Corinthians 3:3
It is clear that you are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on…
- Proverbs 7:3
Tie them to your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
- Proverbs 3:3
Where this verse is studied
No study on the site is anchored to this verse yet.
Also on Jeremiah 2: 3 studies that walk through this chapter ▾
About Jeremiah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament.