Bor (sometimes bar) means purity or cleanness — both physical and moral. It can refer to lye or soda used for washing, emphasizing the cleansing function. The word captures the idea of something thoroughly washed, bright, and uncontaminated. It appears in contexts of moral vindication and innocence before God.
Bor speaks to a purity that must be demonstrated, not merely claimed. In Job, it is used defensively — "I have kept my hands in bor" (Job 9:30). In the Psalms it is paired with clean hands lifted to God. The concept anticipates the NT call to holiness: only those with "clean hands and pure heart" ascend the hill of God (Psalm 24:4). Purity is not passive but active — a life scrubbed clean of deception and double-mindedness.