Isaiah 52 · a question people ask
"so he will cleanse many nations" (52:15). What does cleanse mean here?
The verse doesn't say how, and its next words are "Kings will shut their mouths at him" (52:15) (tap cleanse). In Hebrew the verb is nazah. Strong's gives it one entry: "to spirt, i.e. besprinkle (especially in expiation)". Brown-Driver-Briggs gives it two. The first is "spurt, spatter", and for the form of the verb this verse has, "sprinkle": it is the verb of the Law's sprinkling, as when "Moses took the anointing oil" (Leviticus 8:10): "He sprinkled it on the altar seven times" (Leviticus 8:11). The second entry reads "(dub.) spring, leap;—hence, acc. to many, Hiph. Is 52:15", and this verse is its only one; the Hebrew text these notes use tags the verse with this second entry. The WEB gives the word as cleanse. The chapter doesn't say more, and these notes don't choose between the lexicons.
The verses
“so he will cleanse many nations. Kings will shut their mouths at him; for they will see that which had not been told them, and they will understand that which they had not heard.”
“Moses took the anointing oil, and anointed the tabernacle and all that was in it, and sanctified them. He sprinkled it on the altar seven times, and anointed the altar and all its vessels, and the basin and its base, to sanctify them.”