1324 verses about Purification

They broke down the altars of the Baals in his presence; and he cut down the incense altars that were on high above them. He broke the Asherah poles, the engraved images, and the molten images in pieces, made dust of them, and scattered it on the graves of those who had sacrificed to them.

He burned the bones of the priests on their altars, and purged Judah and Jerusalem.

He broke down the altars, and beat the Asherah poles and the engraved images into powder, and cut down all the incense altars throughout all the land of Israel, then returned to Jerusalem.

Now in the eighteenth year of his reign, when he had purged the land and the house, he sent Shaphan the son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah the governor of the city, and Joah the son of Joahaz the recorder, to repair Yahweh his God’s house.

Kill the Passover, sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to Yahweh’s word by Moses.”

They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance. They boiled the holy offerings in pots, in cauldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people.

So all the service of Yahweh was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on Yahweh’s altar, according to the commandment of king Josiah.

There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, nor did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, with the priests, the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

The governor told them that they should not eat of the most holy things until a priest stood up to serve with Urim and with Thummim.

Now in the second year of their coming to God’s house at Jerusalem, in the second month, Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the rest of their brothers the priests and the Levites, and all those who had come out of the captivity to Jerusalem, began the work and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to have the oversight of the work of Yahweh’s house.

They offered at the dedication of this house of God one hundred bulls, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs; and for a sin offering for all Israel, twelve male goats, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.

Because the priests and the Levites had purified themselves together, all of them were pure. They killed the Passover for all the children of the captivity, for their brothers the priests, and for themselves.

The children of Israel who had returned out of the captivity, and all who had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land, to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, ate,

therefore you shall with all diligence buy with this money bulls, rams, lambs, with their meal offerings and their drink offerings, and shall offer them on the altar of the house of your God which is in Jerusalem.

I said to them, “You are holy to Yahweh, and the vessels are holy. The silver and the gold are a freewill offering to Yahweh, the God of your fathers.

Now when these things were done, the princes came near to me, saying, “The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, following their abominations, even those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land, to which you go to possess it, is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their filthiness.

Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “As you have said concerning us, so must we do.

The children of the captivity did so. Ezra the priest, with certain heads of fathers’ households, after their fathers’ houses, and all of them by their names, were set apart; and they sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter.

They finished with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month.

Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi,

Then Eliashib the high priest rose up with his brothers the priests, and they built the sheep gate. They sanctified it, and set up its doors. They sanctified it even to the tower of Hammeah, to the tower of Hananel.

These searched for their genealogical records, but couldn’t find them. Therefore were they deemed disqualified and removed from the priesthood.

The governor told that they should not eat of the most holy things until a priest stood up to minister with Urim and Thummim.

The offspring of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.

The priests and the Levites purified themselves; and they purified the people, and the gates, and the wall.

They performed the duty of their God, and the duty of the purification, and so did the singers and the gatekeepers, according to the commandment of David, and of Solomon his son.

It came to pass, when they had heard the law, that they separated all the mixed multitude from Israel.

Then I commanded, and they cleansed the rooms. I brought into them the vessels of God’s house, with the meal offerings and the frankincense again.

I commanded the Levites that they should purify themselves, and that they should come and keep the gates, to sanctify the Sabbath day. Remember to me, my God, this also, and spare me according to the greatness of your loving kindness.

Thus I cleansed them from all foreigners, and appointed duties for the priests and for the Levites, everyone in his work;

Each young woman’s turn came to go in to King Ahasuerus after her purification for twelve months (for so were the days of their purification accomplished, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet fragrances and with preparations for beautifying women).

It was so, when the days of their feasting had run their course, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned, and renounced God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.

‘Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?

If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye,

For you say, ‘My doctrine is pure. I am clean in your eyes.’

If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away. Don’t let unrighteousness dwell in your tents.

Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.

What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?

Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.

Yet shall the righteous hold on his way. He who has clean hands shall grow stronger and stronger.

If you return to the Almighty, you shall be built up, if you put away unrighteousness far from your tents.

But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come out like gold.

How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?

Yahweh’s words are flawless words, as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times.

You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not disobey.

Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands has he recompensed me.

I was also blameless with him. I kept myself from my iniquity.

Therefore Yahweh has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then I will be upright. I will be blameless and innocent of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Yahweh, my rock, and my redeemer.

Who may ascend to Yahweh’s hill? Who may stand in his holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to falsehood, and has not sworn deceitfully.

Examine me, Yahweh, and prove me. Try my heart and my mind.

I will wash my hands in innocence, so I will go about your altar, Yahweh;

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.

Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation. My tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

For you don’t delight in sacrifice, or else I would give it. You have no pleasure in burnt offering.

For you, God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined.

Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

Surely I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocence,

You have forgiven the iniquity of your people. You have covered all their sin. Selah.

Turn us, God of our salvation, and cause your indignation toward us to cease.

I will set no vile thing before my eyes. I hate the deeds of faithless men. They will not cling to me.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.

Turn my eyes away from looking at worthless things. Revive me in your ways.

The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but Yahweh tests the hearts.

Who can say, “I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin?”

Wounding blows cleanse away evil, and beatings purge the innermost parts.

He who loves purity of heart and speaks gracefully is the king’s friend.

Take away the dross from the silver, and material comes out for the refiner;

The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but man is refined by his praise.

There is a generation that is pure in their own eyes, yet are not washed from their filthiness.

You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you.

Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil.

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

Your silver has become dross, your wine mixed with water.

and I will turn my hand on you, thoroughly purge away your dross, and will take away all your tin.

It will happen, that he who is left in Zion, and he who remains in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem;

when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from within it, by the spirit of justice, and by the spirit of burning.

The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.

He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”

The light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.

There shall be brooks and streams of water on every lofty mountain and on every high hill in the day of the great slaughter, when the towers fall.

A highway will be there, a road, and it will be called The Holy Way. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it will be for those who walk in the Way. Wicked fools will not go there.

I, even I, am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake; and I will not remember your sins.

Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver. I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.

Awake, awake! Put on your strength, Zion. Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for from now on the uncircumcised and the unclean will no more come into you.

Depart, depart, go out from there; touch no unclean thing! Go out from among her! Cleanse yourselves, you who carry Yahweh’s vessels.

so he will cleanse many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him: for they will see that which had not been told them; and they will understand that which they had not heard.

He will say, “Build up, build up, prepare the way! Remove the stumbling-block out of the way of my people.”

For we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteousness is like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

“Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, behind one in the middle, eating pig’s meat, abominable things, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together,” says Yahweh.

For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me,” says the Lord Yahweh.