kavas · wash

What it means

kavas (כָּבַס) is a Hebrew word of the Bible that means “wash”.

Clothes (by treading them in water).

How to say it

Approximate pronunciation. Vowels sound as in Spanish (a as in father, e as in bed, i as in machine, o as in note, u as in rule); the syllable in bold is stressed. The voice is your device's.

Its senses in the Bible

1. To wash clothes; or wash from sin.
2. The one who makes a living washing and bleaching cloth and clothes.

From Brown-Driver-Briggs (1906)

Word study

To wash, above all clothing. BDB explains that it was washed by treading it in water. The participle is the launderer. It is distinct from רָחַץ, which is washing the body.

• Washing one’s garments to become clean Leviticus 11:25Leviticus 15:5Numbers 19:19
• Washing garments before Sinai Exodus 19:10Exodus 19:14
• “Wash me”: sin washed away Psalms 51:2Psalms 51:7Jeremiah 4:14
• The launderer Isaiah 7:3Malachi 3:2
• “He washes his garment in wine” Genesis 49:11

Historical and cultural background

In the purity laws, whoever carried the carcass of an unclean animal or touched a discharge had to wash his garments and was unclean “until the evening” (Leviticus 11:25). Mephibosheth, in mourning for the king, had not washed his clothes (2 Samuel 19:24).

How we translate it

“Shall wash” 29 times, almost all in the purity laws of Leviticus and Numbers (“shall wash his garments”). The participle is rendered “Launderer’s” in the name of the field of Jerusalem (“the highway of the Launderer’s Field”, Isaiah 7:3) and “launderers” in Malachi 3:2. In Psalm 51 the same verb is kept for sin: “Wash me”.

How it is translated

The words this translation uses for it, most frequent first.

• shall wash ×29
• wash ×10
• washed ×7
• Launderer’s ×3
• he washes ×1
• launderers ×1

Where it appears

• Genesis×1
• Exodus×2
• Leviticus×31
• Numbers×8
• 2 Samuel×1
• 2 Kings×1
• Psalms×2
• Isaiah×2
• Jeremiah×2
• Malachi×1

• Genesis 49:11

  Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine, he washes his garment in wine and his robe in the blood of grapes.

• Exodus 19:10

  YHWH said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments

• Exodus 19:14

  Moses went down from the mountain to the people and consecrated the people, and they washed their garments.

• Leviticus 6:27

  Whatever touches its flesh will become holy; and when some of its blood spatters on a garment, the part on which it spattered you shall wash in a holy place.

• Leviticus 11:25

  And whoever carries any of their carcasses shall wash his garments and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 11:28

  And whoever carries their carcasses shall wash his garments and be unclean until the evening; they shall be unclean for you.

• Leviticus 11:40

  And whoever eats of its carcass shall wash his garments and be unclean until the evening; and whoever carries its carcass shall wash his garments and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 13:6

  The priest shall examine him on the seventh day a second time, and if the sore has faded and the sore has not spread in the skin, the priest shall declare him clean; it is an eruption; he shall wash his garments and be clean.

• Leviticus 13:34

  The priest shall examine the ringworm on the seventh day, and if the ringworm has not spread in the skin and its appearance is not deeper than the skin, the priest shall declare him clean; he shall wash his garments and be clean.

• Leviticus 13:54

  the priest shall command that they wash that in which the mark is, and he shall isolate it seven days a second time.

• Leviticus 13:55

  The priest shall examine the mark after it has been washed, and if the mark has not changed its appearance —even though the mark has not spread— it is unclean; you shall burn it with fire; it is a corrosion, whether on its back or on its front.

• Leviticus 13:56

  But if the priest examines it and, look, the mark has faded after it has been washed, he shall tear it out of the garment or out of the skin or out of the woven material or out of the knitted material.

• Leviticus 13:58

  But the garment, or the woven material or the knitted material, or any article of skin that you wash, and the mark departs from them, shall be washed a second time and be clean.

• Leviticus 14:8

  The one being purified shall wash his garments, shave off all his hair, and bathe in water, and he will be clean; and after that he may come into the camp, but he shall remain outside his tent seven days.

• Leviticus 14:9

  On the seventh day he shall shave off all his hair: his head, his beard, and the brows of his eyes; all his hair he shall shave off; he shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water, and he will be clean.

• Leviticus 14:47

  And whoever lies down in the house shall wash his garments, and whoever eats in the house shall wash his garments.

• Leviticus 15:5

  And anyone who touches his bed shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:6

  And whoever sits on the object on which the man with the discharge sat shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:7

  And whoever touches the body of the man with the discharge shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:8

  And if the man with the discharge spits on one who is clean, he shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:10

  And whoever touches anything that was under him shall be unclean until the evening; and whoever carries those things shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:11

  And anyone whom the man with the discharge touches without having rinsed his hands in water shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:13

  And when the man with the discharge becomes clean from his discharge, he shall count for himself seven days for his cleansing, and wash his garments and bathe his body in living water, and he shall be clean.

• Leviticus 15:17

  And every garment and every skin on which there is an emission of semen shall be washed in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:21

  And anyone who touches her bed shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:22

  And anyone who touches any object on which she sits shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 15:27

  And anyone who touches them shall be unclean, and he shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening.

• Leviticus 16:26

  And the one who sends away the goat to Azazel shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water, and after that he may come into the camp.

• Leviticus 16:28

  And the one who burns them shall wash his garments and bathe his body in water, and after that he may come into the camp.

• Leviticus 17:15

  And any person who eats an animal that died or one torn by beasts, whether native or resident alien, shall wash his garments and bathe in water and be unclean until the evening; then he shall be clean.

• Leviticus 17:16

  But if he does not wash them or bathe his body, he shall bear his iniquity.”

• Numbers 8:7

  And thus you shall do to them to cleanse them: sprinkle on them the water of purification, and they shall pass a razor over their whole body, and wash their clothes, and cleanse themselves.

• Numbers 8:21

  And the Levites purified themselves from sin and washed their clothes, and Aaron waved them as a wave offering before YHWH, and Aaron made expiation for them to cleanse them.

• Numbers 19:7

  Then the priest shall wash his clothes and bathe his body in water, and afterward he may come into the camp; and the priest shall be unclean until the evening.

• Numbers 19:8

  And the one who burns her shall wash his clothes in water and bathe his body in water, and he shall be unclean until the evening.

• Numbers 19:10

  And the one who gathers the ash of the cow shall wash his clothes and be unclean until the evening. And it shall be for the sons of Israel and for the resident alien who resides among them a statute forever.

• Numbers 19:19

  And the clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day, and he shall purify him on the seventh day; and he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and he shall be clean in the evening.

• Numbers 19:21

  And it shall be for them a statute forever. And the one who sprinkles the water of impurity shall wash his clothes, and the one who touches the water of impurity shall be unclean until the evening.

• Numbers 31:24

  And you shall wash your clothes on the seventh day and be clean, and afterward you may come into the camp.”

• 2 Samuel 19:24

  Mephibosheth, son of Saul, came down to meet the king. He had not cared for his feet or trimmed his mustache, and his clothes he had not washed from the day the king went away until the day that he came in peace.

And 11 more times.