Clean

The term 'clean' is used here in a contemporary sense to contrast with the genealogy's actual content — Matthew's list is notably not sanitized or polished, but full of morally complex figures.

Clean is used here in its ritual purity sense — the house is swept and put in order, but its cleanliness without God's presence makes it an inviting vacancy for something far worse.

Jesus redefines "clean" here entirely — not as ritual purity achieved through food laws and washings, but as a condition of the heart, shifting the entire framework from external performance to internal transformation.

Ritual cleanliness is invoked here as the ultimate irony of the Pharisees' position — they were the guardians of purity standards, yet Jesus declares that contact with them produces the very defilement they claimed to prevent.

Clean linen is the material Joseph uses to wrap Jesus' body — the ritual purity of the burial cloth underscoring the honor and care Joseph brings to a burial that most would have considered a shameful task.

Used colloquially here to describe the completeness of Joab's victory — the Syrians fled, the Ammonites retreated, and Joab returned without overreaching, a textbook decisive win.

Clean is used here in the context of David's scheme — if Uriah went home and slept with his wife, the pregnancy would appear legitimate, giving David a socially 'clean' cover for his sin.

Clean is used here in its ritual purity sense — the concubines exist in a permanently unresolved state, neither fully wives nor free women, without a clear path to ritual or relational restoration.

Clean here signals the desired outcome of atonement — a restored state in which God's blessing can flow again and the people can function before the Lord without the stain of unaddressed injustice.

Clean is introduced here as the governing category for determining which land animals Israel may eat — split hoof plus cud-chewing together qualify an animal as ritually permitted.

Ritual cleanliness is at stake here as the organizing concern of the whole chapter — keeping the land undefiled before the Lord is precisely why each of these laws exists.

Clean is invoked here as the standard God demands for offerings and worship — earnings from prostitution are ritually impure and cannot cross the threshold of the Lord's house, regardless of the vow they're meant to fulfill.

Clean here signals ethical uprightness in business dealings — keeping transactions honest and free from fraud or exploitation.

Clean is used here to highlight what the Dumah oracle lacks — there is no clean resolution, no ritual clarity, only the uncomfortable tension of a partially-answered cry in the darkness.

Clean describes the end state God is working toward in verse 4 — washing away filth and bloodstains so that Jerusalem's people can stand in His presence without shame.

Clean is used here to describe the radical outcome of God's unilateral forgiveness — the record isn't just partially addressed but fully wiped, contrasting sharply with how human justice or religious systems would handle the same debt.

Isaiah is declared clean through the coal's touch — his ritual and moral impurity is removed not by his own effort but by a direct act of God, making him fit to stand in the divine presence and receive his commission.

Clean is used here ironically — an empty, spotless barn looks orderly but signals unproductivity, exposing how ritual tidiness can mask the absence of real fruitfulness.

Clean refers here to the self-assessed purity of one's motives — the text warns that God's evaluation of our inner life goes far deeper than our own flattering self-appraisal.

A clean conscience is the source of the lion-bold confidence in verse 1 — having nothing to hide means having nothing to fear.

Clean is invoked here to describe Samuel's unblemished public record — after a lifetime of leadership, not one person could bring a single credible charge of corruption or injustice against him.

Saul's initial assumption that David was unclean reflects how ritual purity status governed who could participate in sacred communal meals — David's absence had to have some explanation.

Ceremonial cleanness is the condition Ahimelech sets before handing over the sacred bread — the ritual requirement David claims his men have met in order to receive it.

Clean is used here in its most drastic sense — God says He will wipe Jerusalem clean the way you wipe a dish, flipping it upside down, meaning total removal rather than ceremonial purification.

The term is used here ironically — the Babylonians stripped the Temple completely clean, but in the worst possible sense: every sacred vessel, every consecrated object taken away for pagan repurposing.

Clean marks the miraculous outcome of Naaman's act of humble obedience — after seven dips in the Jordan, his skin is fully restored, signaling not just physical healing but ritual restoration to full community life.

Clean is used here to underscore that restoration is rarely tidy — the chapter closes by acknowledging that God's redemptive work often looks messy, mixed with tears and shouts at once.

Ritual cleanliness is highlighted here because the priests and Levites had all purified themselves — their collective purity is what enables them to lead the Passover celebration on behalf of the whole community.

Ritual cleanness is implicitly at stake here — Ezra's careful documentation ensures the returning community is properly accounted for and qualified to participate in Temple worship upon arrival in Jerusalem.

The loincloth's ritual purity at the outset mirrors Israel's original, unblemished covenant relationship with God — its coming ruin makes the contrast all the more devastating.

Clean is used here in the sense of sanitizing or filtering — the text notes that Jeremiah does not 'clean up' his feelings before bringing them to God, presenting his prayer as a case study in unvarnished honesty.

Clean is invoked here in its moral-legal sense — Babylon cannot claim innocence or walk away unpunished after what she has done to God's people and the nations.

Clean is used here colloquially to describe how Manasseh's borders were anything but tidy — the tribe had pockets of land inside other territories, making their property lines messy and overlapping.

Clean is used here to acknowledge the people still have foreign gods among them — their starting point isn't purity but intention, and the real work of covenant faithfulness begins now.

Joshua's appeal for Achan to 'come clean' invokes the concept of moral and ritual transparency before God — honest confession as the only path to restored standing. At this point cleansing is still possible through truth-telling, even if consequences remain.

The phrase 'wipe the slate clean' is used here metaphorically — God is proposing to start completely over with Moses, treating Israel's rebellion as grounds for their total replacement as a nation.

Clean here describes the designated storage condition for the heifer's ashes — they must be kept in a ritually pure place, preserving their purifying potency for future use by the whole congregation.

Clean is identified here as the threshold requirement for remaining inside the camp — those with skin diseases, discharges, or corpse contamination must leave until their ritual status is restored.

Clean here describes the completeness of Joab's victory — he returns to Jerusalem having fully routed both enemy fronts with no loose ends, a decisive W rather than a partial engagement.

Clean is used here in its technical ritual sense — the summary of the high priestly line is described as a clean recapitulation, meaning a clear and orderly record of who held consecrated responsibility.

Clean is invoked here as a closet-purge metaphor — Peter calls believers to a spiritual clean-out, removing the attitudes and behaviors that block growth before craving what nourishes.

Clean is used here to draw a contrast — Peter explicitly clarifies that baptism is not about removing physical dirt, redirecting the concept toward the inner conscience made pure through Christ.

Clean is the operative reversal at the heart of this passage — what God declares clean, Peter is learning he cannot call common, and that principle is about to apply to people, not just food.

Coming clean is used here in its moral sense — Peter is giving Sapphira the chance to confess honestly, but she refuses and doubles down instead.

The term is used here thematically — God's deliverance through Samson is anything but clean, raising the question of whether a messy, morally tangled process can still be the work of a holy God.

Used colloquially here to emphasize total devastation — the raiders left the land absolutely stripped, with no food, livestock, or resources of any kind remaining.

Clean here describes a spiritually swept house — the danger Jesus is warning against is that moral tidying without filling that space with God leaves a person more vulnerable than before.

Referenced here in contrast to Jesus's approach — the Pharisees waited for people to become ritually and morally clean before welcoming them, while Jesus actively goes out to find the lost before they've cleaned up.

Used here informally to describe the elegance of Jesus' answer — His response was so precise and unassailable that it left the questioners with nothing to counter.

Clean appears here in Mark's editorial note as the new status Jesus pronounces over all foods — a single parenthetical that would reshape early Christian practice around dietary law.

Clean is used here to describe the church's already-established status through Christ's sacrifice — the call to deal with sin flows from who they already are, not from earning that status.

Clean is used here in the context of God's promise to those who confess — when sin is acknowledged, God doesn't just forgive the record, He actively purifies the person from all unrighteousness.

Clean is the status the Temple has now achieved after sixteen days of work — the priests and Levites have restored its ritual purity, making it legally ready for sacrifice and worship.

Clean here carries the sense of an unblemished financial and ethical record — Paul is inviting the Corinthians to audit every transaction and find zero evidence of manipulation or hidden gain.

Clean appears here in reference to people who had been washed — those who experienced genuine cleansing from sin but returned to their old life, making their final state worse than their starting point.

Clean describes the wiped record believers now possess in Christ — through redemption, the forgiveness of sins leaves no outstanding charges, giving them full standing before God.

Clean describes Daniel's spotless record after a thorough investigation by enemies motivated to destroy him — every charge they could imagine came up empty.

Ritual cleanliness is contrasted with inner transformation here — the old system could restore a person's external worship status, but it couldn't touch the underlying guilt and moral corruption that needed purifying.

Clean is used here in the closing verse to describe the ethical purity James calls believers to — staying unstained by worldly values as the third pillar of genuine religion alongside speech and service.

Clean is used here in a colloquial sense to describe the healed man's straightforward, unembellished testimony — he doesn't have theological answers yet, just a simple honest account of what happened to him.

Used colloquially here to mean Jonah came fully clean — he told the sailors the whole truth about who he was and which God he served, omitting nothing.

Clean here captures the agricultural metaphor — the orchard has been picked completely bare, leaving nothing good behind, mirroring the moral emptiness Micah sees in the community.

Clean is used here to describe the ritual state required before the dedication could begin — the priests and Levites purified themselves and everything else first, establishing that how you approach celebration matters as much as the celebration itself.

Clean is invoked to contrast two kinds of standing before God — the ritual purity achievable through law-keeping versus the true cleansing that comes through being found in Christ.