- ABISHUR father of the wall; i.e., “mason”, one of the two sons of
Shammai of the tribe of Judah (1 Chronicles 2:28,29). - ABITAL father of dew; i.e., “fresh”, David’s fifth wife (2 Samuel 3:4).
- ABITUB father of goodness, a Benjamite (1 Chronicles 8:11).
- ABJECTS (Psalm 35:15), the translation of a Hebrew word meaning
smiters; probably, in allusion to the tongue, slanderers. (Comp. Jeremiah
18:18.) - ABLUTION or washing, was practised, (1.) When a person was initiated
into a higher state: e.g., when Aaron and his sons were set apart to the
priest’s office, they were washed with water previous to their investiture
with the priestly robes (Leviticus 8:6).
(2.) Before the priests approached the altar of God, they were required, on
pain of death, to wash their hands and their feet to cleanse them from the
soil of common life (Exodus 30:17-21). To this practice the Psalmist
alludes, Psalm 26:6.
(3.) There were washings prescribed for the purpose of cleansing from
positive defilement contracted by particular acts. Of such washings eleven
different species are prescribed in the Levitical law (Leviticus 12-15).
(4.) A fourth class of ablutions is mentioned, by which a person purified
or absolved himself from the guilt of some particular act. For example, the
elders of the nearest village where some murder was committed were
required, when the murderer was unknown, to wash their hands over the
expiatory heifer which was beheaded, and in doing so to say, “Our hands
have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it” (Deuteronomy
21:1-9). So also Pilate declared himself innocent of the blood of Jesus by
washing his hands (Matthew 27:24). This act of Pilate may not, however,
have been borrowed from the custom of the Jews. The same practice was
common among the Greeks and Romans.
The Pharisees carried the practice of ablution to great excess, thereby
claiming extraordinary purity (Matthew 23:25). Mark (7:1-5) refers to the
ceremonial ablutions. The Pharisees washed their hands “oft,” more
correctly, “with the fist” (R.V., “diligently”), or as an old father,
Theophylact, explains it, “up to the elbow.” (Compare also Mark 7:4;
Leviticus 6:28; 11: 32-36; 15:22) (See WASHING.)