Reference: Bath, Bathing
Hastings
The latter term is most frequently used in our English Version in connexion with purification from ceremonial defilement
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And the daughter of Pharaoh came down to wash herself at the river; and her maidens walked along by the river's side; and when she saw the ark among the reeds, she sent her maid to get it.
And it came to pass in an evening, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king's house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.
And someone washed the chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood; and they washed his armor; according unto the word of the LORD which he spoke.
Have you not brought this unto yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?
For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord GOD.
Smith
Bath, Bathing.
This was a prescribed part of the Jewish ritual of purification in cases of accident, or of leprous or ordinary uncleanness,
Le 15; 16:28; 22:6; 19/7/type/kj2000'>Nu 19:7,19; 2Sa 11:2,4; 2Ki 5:10
as also after mourning, which always implied defilement.
The eastern climate made bathing essential alike to health and pleasure, to which luxury added the use of perfumes.
Judith 10:3; Susan 17. The "pools," such as that of Siloam and Hezekiah,
2Ki 20:20; Ne 3:15-16; Isa 22:11; Joh 9:7
often sheltered by porticos,
Joh 5:2
are the first indications we have of public bathing accommodation.
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Then the priest shall wash his clothes, and he shall bathe his flesh in water, and afterward he shall come into the camp, and the priest shall be unclean until the evening.
And the clean person shall sprinkle upon the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day: and on the seventh day he shall purify himself, and wash his clothes, and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening.
Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself, and put your best clothes upon you, and get down to the floor: but make not yourself known unto the man, until he shall have finished eating and drinking.
And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and an aqueduct, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
But the gate of the fountain repaired Shallun the son of Col-hozeh, the ruler of the district of Mizpah; he built it, and covered it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars thereof, and the wall of the pool of Shelah by the king's garden, and unto the stairs that go down from the city of David. After him repaired Nehemiah the son of Azbuk, the ruler of the half district of Beth-zur, unto the place opposite the sepulchers of David, and to the pool that was man made, and unto the house of the mighty men.
Now when every maiden's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after she had been there twelve months, according to the regulations for the women, (for so were the days of their beautification accomplished, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfumes, and with other preparations for beautifying women;)
You made also a ditch between the two walls for the water of the old pool: but you have not looked unto its maker, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago.
Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.