And the LORD said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and sanctify them to day and to morrow, and let them wash their clothes, Sanctify them - See the meaning of this term, Exodus 13:2.
Let them wash their clothes - And consequently bathe their bodies; for, according to the testimony of the Jews, these always went together.
It was necessary that, as they were about to appear in the presence of God, every thing should be clean and pure about them; that they might be admonished by this of the necessity of inward purity, of which the outward washing was the emblem.
From these institutions the heathens appear to have borrowed their precepts relative to washings and purifications previously to their offering sacrifice to their gods, examples of which abound in the Greek and Latin writers. They washed their hands and clothes, and bathed their bodies in pure water, before they performed any act of religious worship; and in a variety of cases, abstinence from all matrimonial connections was positively required, before a person was permitted to perform any religious rite, or assist at the performance.