Hope and Water

Μωαβ λέβης τῆς ἐλπίδος μου ἐπὶ τὴν Ιδουμαίαν ἐκτενῶ τὸ ὑπόδημά μου ἐμοὶ ἀλλόφυλοι ὑπετάγησαν  Ὁ Μοὰβ τῆς ἐλπίδος λέβης.  Ἣ, Λέβης, φησὶ, λουτροῦ, ἄλλος τις τῶν ἑρμηνευσάντεων· ἢ, Λὲβης ἀμεριμνίας· τουτέστιν, ὁ ἀπόβλητος ἄνθρωπος, ὁ ἀπειλὴν ἔχων μὴ εἰσελεύσεσθαι εἰς Ἐκκλησίαν Κυρίου. Οὐκ εἰσελεύσεσθαι Μωαβίτης καὶ Ἀμμανίτης ἕως τρίτης καὶ ἕως δεκάτης γενεᾶς, καὶ εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα χρόνον. Ὅμως ἐπειδὴ τὸ βάπτισμα ἄφεσιν ἔχει ἁμαρτημάτων, καὶ ἀμεριμνίας πρόξενον γίνεται τοῖς καταχρέοις, τὴν διὰ τοῦ βαπτίσματος ἀπολύτρωσιν καὶ πρὸς Θεὸν οἰκείωσιν ἐνδεικνύμενος, Μωὰβ, φησὶ, λέβης ἐστὶ λουτροῦ, ἢ, Λέβης ἀμεριμνίας. Πάντες οὖν ἀλλόφυλοι ὑπετάγησαν τῷ ζυγῷ τοῦ Χριστοῦ ὑποκύψαντες· διὰ τοῦτο ἐπὶ τὴν Ἰδουμαίαν ἐπιβαλεῖ τὸ ἑαυτοῦ ὑπόδημα. Ὑπόδημα δὲ τῆς θεότητος ἡ σὰρξ ἡ θεοφόρος, δι' ἤς ἐπέβη τοῖς ἀνθρώποις. Ἅγιος Βασίλειος ὁ Μέγας, Ὁμιλία Ἐις Τους Ψαλμούς, Εἰς Τον ΝΘ'  Ψαλμον Source Migne PG 29.468

'Moab is the pot of my hope and into Idumea I extend my shoe; the foreign peoples are subdued.'  1 'Moab is the pot of my hope,' or as another translation has it 'pot of washing', or 'pot of  confidence,'  that is, the rejected man on whom banishment has been passed that he not enter into the gathering of the Lord. And Moab and the Ammonites were not to enter until the third and until the tenth generation, and even for all eternity. 2 Yet since baptism is forgiveness of sins and brings hope to those deemed foreign, through baptism there is a cleansing by which one is shown to be of the household of God, and so it says 'Moab is my pot of washing,' or 'pot of hope,'  or, 'pot of confidence.' Thus all 'foreign peoples are subdued',  submitting to the yoke of Christ, and so He extends his shoe into Idumea. And the shoe of the Divinity is the bearer of God made flesh, she through whom He came to men. Saint Basil of Caesarea, Homilies on the Psalms, Psalm 59  1 Ps 59. 10  2 Deut 23.3