For assuredly, it was not to a bath that Isaiah sent you to wash away murder there and all other sins, which not even the whole water of the sea is sufficient to cleanse, but, as is probable, this was of old that laver of salvation, which he meant, namely, for those who repent and no longer cleanse themselves with the bloodshedding of goats and sheep, or the ashes of an heifer and offerings of meal, but by faith, through the blood of Christ and His death. Who died for this cause, as Isaiah himself said, speaking thus:
The Lord shall uncover His holy arm before all the nations, and all the nations shall see, and the ends of the earth, the salvation that comes from God. Depart, depart, depart, go forth thence and touch no unclean thing; go forth out of the midst of her; separate yourselves, ye who bear the vessels of the Lord; for in no confusion do ye journey; for there shall journey before your face the Lord, and He that is your rearguard is the Lord, the God of Israel. Behold, my servant shall understand, and shall be exalted and shall be greatly glorified.
As many shall be astonished at thee (so inglorious in the sight of men shall be thy form and thy glory) so shall many nations marvel at him, and kings shall close their mouth. Because they to whom it was not announced concerning Him shall see, and they who have not heard shall understand. Lord, who believed the report that came to us? And the arm of the Lord to whom was it revealed? We bore tidings before Him, as a child, as a root in a thirsty land.
He has not form nor glory; and we saw Him, and He had not form nor beauty; but His form was lacking in honour, (and) weak beyond the sons of men. A man long in suffering, and acquainted with bearing sickness, for His face is turned away (from us); He was dishonoured and no count was taken of Him. This man beareth our sins and suffers pain for us, and we accounted Him as being in trouble, in suffering and in distress.
But this man was wounded of our sins, and has suffered sickness because of our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace is on Him; by His stripe were we healed. We all went astray as sheep; each went astray in His way. And the Lord delivered Him up to our sins, and He openeth not His mouth because of being evil entreated. As a sheep was He led unto slaughter, and as a lamb before its shearer is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.
In His humiliation His judgment was taken away, and His generation who shall declare? For His life is taken away from the earth, from the iniquities of My people has He come unto death. And I will give the wicked instead of His burial, and the rich instead of His death, because He did no iniquity and guile was not found in His mouth. And the Lord is willing to cleanse Him from His suffering. If ye give an offering for sin, your soul shall see a long-lived seed.
And the Lord is willing to take (Him) away from the trouble of His soul, to show to Him light, and to form Him with understanding, to justify the just, that serveth many well. And He shall bear our sins. Therefore shall He receive many as His inheritance, and shall divide the spoils of the strong, because His soul was delivered up because of their iniquities.
Rejoice thou barren that bearest not, for many more are the children of her who is desolate than of her who has her husband. For the Lord said: Enlarge the place of thy tent and of thy curtains; fix, spare not; lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy tent-pegs, stretch out right and left; and thy seed shall inherit nations, and thou shalt inhabit deserted cities.
Fear not, because thou wast put to shame; nor dread, because thou wast reproached because thou shalt forget perpetual shame, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood. For the Lord made Himself a name, and He that delivered thee, He, the God of Israel, shall be called so of all the earth. As a woman forsaken and faint-hearted hath the Lord called thee, as a woman hated from her youth.