כָּבַס kāḇas*

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I. Etymology, Semantic Field, Occurrences. The root kbs, “wash,” “full (cloth),” appears with the same meaning in Ugaritic: kbs/śm, “fullers guild.” It has a similar meaning in Akk. kabāsu, “tread (out),” and Arab. kabasa, “press.” Its semantic field includes → רחץ rāḥaṣ, “wash”; → טהר ṭhr, “be clean”; → טמא ṭmʾ, “be unclean”; and → קדשׁ qdš piel, “sanctify.”

The qal occurs 3 times in the OT, the piel 44 times (once in Genesis, twice in Exodus, 27 times in Leviticus, 8 times in Numbers, once in 2 Samuel, twice in Jeremiah, once in Malachi, and twice in Psalms), and the pual and hothpael twice each (all in Leviticus).

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V. Dead Sea Scrolls. In the Dead Sea scrolls, kbs appears 3 times. The soldiers are to purify their clothing on the morning before they return to camp, cleansing it of the blood of the iniquitous corpses (1QM 14:2; cf. Nu. 31:24: “on the seventh day”). On the Sabbath, no one is to wear dirty (ṣôʾîm) clothes or garments that have been stored in their chamber unless they have been washed (kbs pual) with water or scoured with incense (CD 11:4). No one in a state of uncleanness that requires washing (ṭemēʾ kibbûs) may enter a house of prayer (CD 11:22).