Psalms 51:7
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Study Note
Study Note
The prayer 'purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow' draws the purification ritual of Numbers 19 — where hyssop branches were used to sprinkle water mixed with the ashes of a red heifer for cleansing from corpse-defilement — into the domain of moral and spiritual cleansing. Hyssop was also used to apply the Passover blood in Exodus 12:22, and in John 19:29 a hyssop stalk is used to offer Jesus vinegar at the cross, suggesting that the evangelist links the crucifixion to these purification rituals. The intensifier 'whiter than snow' reaches beyond any priestly ritual to an absolute purification that only divine action can achieve. The verse became central in Christian baptismal and penitential theology, and the entire psalm is appointed in Lenten liturgies across traditions.
Other Translations
Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Thou cleansest me with hyssop and I am clean, Washest me, and than snow I am whiter.
Make me free from sin with hyssop: let me be washed whiter than snow.
Cross References
And ye shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the bason, and …
Then shall the priest command to take for him that is to be cleansed two birds alive and clean, and …
And he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleansed from the leprosy seven times, and shall pronounce him …
And he shall take to cleanse the house two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop:
And he shall cleanse the house with the blood of the bird, and with the running water, and with the …
And a clean person shall take hyssop, and dip it in the water, and sprinkle it upon the tent, and …
But the man that shall be unclean, and shall not purify himself, that soul shall be cut off from among …
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as …
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but …