Jeremiah Chapter 2 verse 22 Holy Bible
For though thou wash thee with lye, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord Jehovah.
read chapter 2 in ASV
For even if you are washed with soda and take much soap, still your evil-doing is marked before me, says the Lord God.
read chapter 2 in BBE
For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much potash, thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord Jehovah.
read chapter 2 in DARBY
For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.
read chapter 2 in KJV
read chapter 2 in WBT
For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord Yahweh.
read chapter 2 in WEB
But though thou dost wash with nitre, And dost multiply to thyself soap, Marked is thine iniquity before Me, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah.
read chapter 2 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 22. - Nitre does not mean the substance which now bears that name, but "natron," a mineral alkali, deposited on the shores and on the bed of certain lakes in Egypt, especially those in the Wady Nat-run (the ancient Nitria, whence came so large a store of precious Syriac manuscripts). In ancient times, this natron was collected to make lye from for washing purposes (comp. Proverbs 25:20). Sope; rather, potash; the corresponding vegetable alkali (comp. Isaiah 1:25). Thine iniquity is marked. So Kimchi and Gesenius (through a doubtful etymology); but the Aramaic use of the word favors the rendering stained, i.e. filthy. The word is in the participle, to indicate the permanence of the state (comp. "Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood," etc.? 'Macbeth').
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(22) Nitre.--The mineral alkali found in the natron lakes of Egypt that took their name from it. The Hebrew word nether is the origin of the Greek and English words. (Comp. Proverbs 25:20.)Sope.--Not the compounds of alkali and oil or fat now known by the name, but the potash or alkali, obtained from the ashes of plants, which was used by itself as a powerful detergent. The thought is the same as that of Job 9:30, and, we may add, as that of Macbeth, Acts 2, sc. 2 :--"Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this bloodClean from my hand? No; this my hand will ratherThe multitudinous seas incarnadine,Making the green one red."The guilt was too strongly "marked," too "deep-dyed in grain" to be removed by any outward palliatives.
