To lave (the whole or a part of a thing)
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H7364 is a Hebrew verb for washing a whole body or part of it, bathing, or rinsing an object with water. Genesis 18:4 offers travelers water to wash their feet and rest, making ordinary bodily care part of Abraham's hospitality.
Reader summary
Full entry for רָחַץ (H7364) · Open the biblical lexicon
H7364 is a Hebrew verb for washing a whole body or part of it, bathing, or rinsing an object with water. Genesis 18:4 offers travelers water to wash their feet and rest, making ordinary bodily care part of Abraham's hospitality.
The BSB source-word alignment has 72 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include and bathe (18), for washing (4), wash (4), and wash (3), bathed (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Genesis 18:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Leviticus (26), Exodus (11), Genesis (5), 2 Kings (3).
H7364 is a Hebrew verb for washing a whole body or part of it, bathing, or rinsing an object with water. Genesis 18:4 offers travelers water to wash their feet and rest, making ordinary bodily care part of Abraham's hospitality. Exodus 30:19 requires Aaron and his sons to wash their hands and feet at the bronze basin before sanctuary service, locating the action within priestly holiness and covenant order.
Isaiah 1:16 uses washing as a moral summons: the people must remove evil deeds from God's sight, stop doing evil, learn good, and seek justice. Other passages describe bathing, washing sacrificial portions, recovery from impurity, grief routines, and Naaman's commanded washing in the Jordan. H7364 opens teaching on embodied care, hospitality, ritual preparation, obedience, and repentance.
It corrects both contempt for bodily needs and the idea that water, repeated washing, or an outward purity practice can by itself erase guilt, trauma, disease, or injustice.
H7364 describes literal washing of bodies, hands, feet, garments, or sacrificial parts. Ritual settings prescribe washing for priestly service or restoration, narratives use it in hospitality and daily life, and poetry or prophecy can extend it metaphorically to moral cleansing.
Let a little water be brought, that you may wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree.
Abraham offers his visitors water for their feet and a place to rest before providing a meal.
With which Aaron and his sons are to wash their hands and feet.
Aaron and his sons are required to wash hands and feet from the sanctuary basin as they approach priestly service.
Wash and cleanse yourselves. Remove your evil deeds from My sight. Stop doing evil!
The prophetic command to wash and cleanse is immediately explained through ending evil and learning justice.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Ritual cleansing of the body or its parts, often signifying removal of impurity or preparation for sacred service
Ritual cleansing of the body or its parts, often signifying removal of impurity or preparation for sacred service
to lave (the whole or a part of a thing) BDB: wash Usage: bathe (self), wash (self).
How the stem changes the meaning of this verb across the biblical text.
This verb appears through different tense, voice, mood, or stem patterns. Those forms help readers see how the action is presented in context.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 1 selected witness from 72 lexical occurrence verses.
רָחַץ is a primitive root - no further derivation.
This command picks up ritual language but presses toward inward renewal, anticipating the fuller cleansing accomplished by Christ’s blood and applied by the Spirit.Isaiah 1:10-20
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
H7364 keeps bodily action and theological meaning in careful relationship. Abraham's water for dusty feet meets an ordinary need and allows travelers to rest. Hospitality is spiritual in its love, but the washing remains genuinely physical. At the sanctuary basin, Aaron and his sons wash because God has ordered their approach to priestly service. The practice teaches consecrated attention; it is not a general claim that water has automatic moral power.
Isaiah then uses washing language to confront rebellion. The following commands define cleansing through changed conduct: stop evil, learn good, seek justice, correct oppression, and defend vulnerable people. Repeated external rinsing could not replace that repentance. Naaman's story adds humble obedience, since his restoration comes through God's word rather than the river's prestige or a costly performance.
Other narratives include bathing observed without consent, grief after loss, and washing connected with ceremonial status, so pastoral teaching should respect privacy and avoid sexualizing bodies. H7364 invites practical care, clean water, dignified hospitality, and responsive obedience. It must not be used to intensify contamination fears, blame sick people, or promise that a ritual will remove memories and consequences that require truthful care.
God can attach meaning to washing, but the passage names that meaning.
Isa.1.16
H7364 is the common Hebrew verb for washing or bathing, with direct objects naming bodies, hands, feet, clothes, or sacrificial parts. Reflexive and causative contexts affect whether someone washes, is washed, or washes an object, while figurative uses are signaled by moral discourse.
The New Testament uses washing language in discussions of baptism, hospitality, purification, discipleship, and Christ's cleansing work. Those themes develop the canonical pattern, but each later washing text must be interpreted on its own terms rather than treated as a direct use of H7364.