Job 9:30
If I should wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,
BSB
ASV
If I wash myself with snow water, And make my hands never so clean;
KJV
If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;
If I wash myself with snow water, and if my hands shine as if never so clean; yet shalt Thou stain me with filthiness, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. For 'snow water' is the weeping of humility; which same, in that it excels all other virtues in the eyes of the strict Judge, is as it were white by the colour of preeminent merit.
If I wash myself with snow water - Supposed to have a more detergent quality than common water; and it was certainly preferred to common water by the ancients. Of this we find an example in an elegant but licentious author: Tandem ergo discubuimus, pueris Alexandrinis Aquam in manus Nivatam infundentibus, aliisque insequentibus ad pedes - Petr. Satyr., cap. xxxi. “At length we sat down, and had snow water poured on our hands by lads of Alexandria,” etc. Mr. Good supposes that there is an allusion here to the ancient rite of washing the hands in token of innocence.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
1 John 1:8If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
leads to
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins.
We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to control his whole body.
We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all.
If anyone says, “I know Him,” but does not keep His commandments, he is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
Through
Jeremiah 4:14Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you?
leads to
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely…
Through
Jeremiah 2:22Although you wash with lye and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before Me,” declares the Lord GOD.
leads to
“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.
