If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;
Snow water - thought to be more cleansing than common water, owing to the whiteness of snow. "I shall be whiter than snow" (Psalms 51:7; Isaiah 1:18).
Never so clean - better to answer to the parallelism of the first clause, which expresses the cleansing material. "If I cleanse my hands with lye:" the Arabs used alkali mixed with oil, as soap. "Though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God" (Jeremiah 2:22; Psalms 73:13).