purge

To cleanse of impurities. The term appears in a variety of contexts: to cleanse a land of idolatry (2Chr 34:3; 2Chr 34:8); to atone for sin or purify from iniquity (1Sam 3:14; Ps 65:3; Ps 79:9; Isa 6:7; Heb 1:3; Heb 10:2; 2Tim 2:21); and to prepare a new altar for use in Temple sacrifice (Ezek 43:20; Ezek 43:26). The purging or refining of metal was used as a metaphor for expiating sin (Isa 1:25; Mal 3:3). The removal of undesirable persons could be expressed as an explicit purging of rebels from the land (Ezek 20:38) or metaphorically as the purging of a threshing floor (Matt 3:12; Luke 3:17) or the purging of a lump of leaven (1Cor 5:7).