BATHROOM
The hot eastern climate requires frequent bathing. Pharaoh’s daughter bathed in the Nile (Ex. 2:5). The Egyptians wore linen clothes, always freshly washed, and their priests took two cold baths during the day, and another two at night (Herodotus 2:37).
The Egyptians, Hebrews, and Syrians washed the dust from their feet when they entered a house (Gen. 18:4; 19:2; 24:32; 43:24; John 13:10).
If the Israelites were defiled, they washed their entire bodies and clothes (Lev. 14:8; 15:5; 17:15; Num. 19:7, 8),
in running water (Lev. 15:13), in a river (2 Kings 5:10), within an inner courtyard or in a garden (2 Sam. 11:2, 4).
They washed, anointed themselves, and put on their best clothing for festivals, court ceremonies, and removing mourning (Ex. 40:12, 13; Rot. 3:3; 2 Sam. 12:20; Mt. 6:17).
The priests washed their hands and feet before entering the sanctuary or before burning the burnt offering on the altar (Ex. 30:19-21). The high priest bathed at the beginning of his office, and on the Great Day of Atonement, before carrying out each of the acts of propitiation (Lev. 8:6; 16:4, 24).
In the time of Christ, the Jews washed or sprinkled themselves upon returning from the market (Mark 7:3, 4). At the same time, there were public baths, as the Jews adopted Greek and Roman customs. For therapeutic baths, they went to the baths of Tiberias, Gadara, and Callirroe, near the eastern shore of the Dead Sea (Josephus, Antiquities 17:6, 5; 18:2, 3).