Nitre and soap cannot wash every stain
After this let us look at: 'If you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soap for yourself, you are stained in your injustices before me, says the Lord.' Did some sinning soul suppose that, taking nitre and washing with ordinary nitre, it ceases from the stain and ceases from the sin? Did someone assume that, taking this herb that springs from the earth and washing and scouring, the soul is cleansed, because the Word says here to the one who has turned into bitterness and become an alien vine, 'If you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soap for yourself, you are stained in your injustices before me, says the Lord'?
But one must know that the Word has all power. And as he has the power of all Scripture, so the Word has the power of every medicine, and is the power of everything that cleanses, and is most scouring. 'For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword.' And whatever you name, of which there is need, that is in the power of the Word. So there is a word that is nitre, and there is a word that is soap, which, when spoken, cleanses such filth. But since not every sin is healed from such a word as is nitre, and from such a word as is soap — there are sins that do not need nitre or soap — it is said to the one who thinks it has sins of a kind that can be washed off in nitre and soap: 'If you wash yourself with nitre and multiply soap for yourself, you are stained before me in your injustices, says the Lord.'
And as of wounds some are healed with a poultice, and others with oil, and others need a bandage and so are made well, and there are other wounds of which it is said, 'There is no poultice to put on, nor oil nor bandages; but your land is desolate, your cities burned with fire' — so there are some sins which soil the soul, and for these sins the man needs a word that is nitre, a word that is soap. And there are some sins which are not healed this way, for they are not even compared to soil. That is why the Lord in Isaiah, knowing the differences of sins, see how he says, 'The Lord will wash the soil of the sons and of the daughters of Zion, and he will cleanse the blood from their midst with a spirit of judgment and a spirit of burning.' Soil and blood: soil with a spirit of judgment, blood with a spirit of burning. If you have sinned, yet not 'unto death,' you have been soiled. So 'the Lord will wash the soil of the sons and of the daughters of Zion, and he will cleanse the blood from their midst.' Then the matching: toward 'the soil,' 'with a spirit of judgment'; toward 'the blood,' 'with a spirit of burning.' And most of us, if we have sinned the worse things, do not need nitre, nor the multiplying of soap, but the spirit of burning.
Greek
Μετὰ ταῦτα ἴδωμεν τὸ «ἐὰν ἀποπλύνῃ ἐν νίτρῳ καὶ πληθύνῃς σεαυτῇ πόαν, κεκηλίδωσαι έν ταῖς ἀδικίαις σου ἐναντίον ἐμοῦ, λέγει κύριος. ἀρα ᾤετό τις ἁμαρτήσασα ψυχὴ νίτρον λαβοῦσα καὶ ἀποπλυναμένη νίτρῳ αἰσθητῷ, ὄτι παύεται τῆς κηλῖδος καὶ παύεται τῆς ἁμαρτίας; ὑπελάμβανε δέ τις πόαν ταύτην τὴν ἀνατέλλουσαν ἀπὸ γῆς λαβὼν καὶ ἀποπλυνάμενος καὶ ἀποσμηξάμενος καθαρθῆναι τὴν ψυχήν, ὅτι λέγει ἐνταῦθα ὁ λόγος τῇ στραφείσῃ εἰς πικρίαν καὶ γενομένῃ ἀλλοτρίᾳ ἀμπέλῳ· «ἐὰν ἀποπλύνῃ ἐν νίτρῳ καὶ πληθύνῃς σεαυτῇ πόαν, κεκηλίδωσαι ἐν ταῖς ἀδικίαις σου ἐναντίον ἐμοῦ, λέγει κύριος((; ἀλλὰ χρὴ εἰδέναι, ὅτι ὁ λόγος πᾶσᾳν δύναμιν ἔχει· καὶ ὥσπερ πάσης γραφῆς δύναμιν ἔχει, οὕτως ὁ λόγος ἔχει παντὸς φαρμάκου δύναμιν καὶ παντὸς τοῦ καθαρίζοντος δύναμίς ἐστι καὶ σμηκτικώτατος· «ζών γὰρ ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ ἐνεργὴς καὶ τομώτερος ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν μάχαιραν δίστομον. καὶ ὃ ἐὰν εἴπῃς, οὖ ἐστι χρεία, τοῦτό ἐστιν ἔν τῇ δυνάμει τοῦ λόγου.
ἔστιν οὖν τις λόγος νίτρον καὶ ἕστι τις λόγος πόα, ὅστις τοὺς τοιούτους ῥύπους καθαίρει λαληθείς.
ἐπεὶ δὲ ἀπὸ τοῦ τοιούτου λόγου ὅστις ἐστὶ νίτρον καὶ ἀπὸ τοῦ τοιούτου δὲ λόγου ὅς ἐστι πόα οὐ πᾶσα ἁμαρτία θεραπεύεται. ἀλλ’ ἔστιν ἁμαρτήματα οὐ δεόμενα νίτρου οὐδὲ πόας, λέγεται πρὸς τὴν οἰομένην ἁμαρτήματα ἔχειν ὡς δυνάμενα ἀποπτῆναι ἐν νίτρῳ καὶ πόᾳ, τὸ «ἐὰν ἀποπλύνῃ ἐν νίτρῳ καὶ πληθύνῃς σεαυτῇ πόαν, κεκηλίδωσαι ἐναντίον ἐμοῦ έν ταῖς ἀδικίαις σου, λέγει κύριος. καὶ ὥσπερ τῶν τραυμάτων τινά ἐστιν ἃ μαλάγματι θεραπεύεται, καὶ ἅλλα ἐλαίῳ θεραπεύεται, καὶ ἄλλα δεῖται καταδέσμου καὶ οὕτως ὑγιάζεται, ἄλλα δέ ἐστι τραύματα ἐφ’ οἶς λέγεται· «οὐκ ἔστι μάλαγμα ἐπιθεῖναι οὔτε ἔλαιον οὔτε καταδέσμους· ἀλλὰ ἡ γῆ ὑμῶν ἕρημος, αἱ πόλεις ὑμῶν πυρίκαυστοι«· οὕτως ἔστι τινὰ ἁμαρτήματα. ἃ ῥυποῖ τὴν ψυχήν, καὶ δεῖται ὁ ἄνθρωπος ἐπὶ τούτοις τοῖς ἁμαρτήμασι λόγου νίτρου, λόγου πόας· ἔστι δέ τινα ἁμαρτήματα, ἅ οὐχ· οὕτως θεραπεύεται, οὑδὲ γὰρ ῥύπῳ παραβάλλεται. διὰ τοῦτο τὰς διαφορὰς τῶν ἁμαρτημάτων ἐπιστάμενος ὁ ἐν τῷ Ἡσαἱᾳ κύριος ὅρα πῶς λέγει τὸ «ἐκπλυνεῖ κύριος τὸν ῥύπον τῶν υἱῶν καὶ τῶν θυγατέρων Σιών, καὶ τὸ αἶμα ἐκκαθαριεῖ ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν πνεύματι κρίσεως καὶ πνεύματι καύσεως‘. ῥύπον καὶ αἶμα· ῥύπον πνεύματι κρίσεως, αἶμα πνεύματι καύσεως. εἰ οὐ «πρὸς θάνατον« πλὴν ἥμαρτες, ῥερύπωσαι. «ἐκπλυνεῖ« οὐν κύριος τὸν ῥύπον τῶν υἱῶν καὶ τῶν θυγατέρων Σιών, καὶ τὸ αἶμα ἐκκαθαριεῖ ἐκ μέσου αὐτῶν. εἶτα ἀνταπόδοσις πρὸς μὲν «τὸν ῤύπον« «πνεύματι κρίσεως« πρὸς δὲ «τὸ αἶμα« «πνεύματι καύσεως· καὶ δεόμεθα οἱ πολλοί, χείρονα ἁμάρτωμεν, οὐ νίτρου οὐδὲ τοῦ πληθῦναι πόαν, ἀλλὰ τοῦ πνευματος της καυσεως.