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Nov 27, 2009
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Dictionary of Phrase and Fable—H

Hyssop

David says (Ps. li. 7): “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.” The reference is to the custom of someone who was ceremoniously “clean” sprinkling the unclean (when they came to present themselves in the Temple) with a bunch of hyssop dipped in water, in which had been mixed the ashes of a red heifer. This was done as they left the Court of the Gentiles to enter the Court of the women (Numbers xix. 17).

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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