2 Samuel 12:13

12:13 Then David exclaimed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Nathan replied to David, “Yes, and the Lord has forgiven ¹  your sin. You are not going to die.

2 Samuel 24:10

24:10 David felt guilty ²  after he had numbered the army. David said to the Lord, “I have sinned greatly by doing this! Now, O Lord, please remove the guilt of your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.”

Ayub 7:21

7:21 And why do you not pardon my transgression,

and take away my iniquity?

For now I will lie down in the dust, ³ 

and you will seek me diligently, ⁴ 

but I will be gone.”

Mazmur 51:2-10

51:2 Wash away my wrongdoing! ⁵ 

Cleanse me of my sin! ⁶ 

51:3 For I am aware of ⁷  my rebellious acts;

I am forever conscious of my sin. ⁸ 

51:4 Against you – you above all ⁹  – I have sinned;

I have done what is evil in your sight.

So ¹⁰  you are just when you confront me; ¹¹ 

you are right when you condemn me. ¹² 

51:5 Look, I was guilty of sin from birth,

a sinner the moment my mother conceived me. ¹³ 

51:6 Look, ¹⁴  you desire ¹⁵  integrity in the inner man; ¹⁶ 

you want me to possess wisdom. ¹⁷ 

51:7 Sprinkle me ¹⁸  with water ¹⁹  and I will be pure; ²⁰ 

wash me ²¹  and I will be whiter than snow. ²² 

51:8 Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven! ²³ 

May the bones ²⁴  you crushed rejoice! ²⁵ 

51:9 Hide your face ²⁶  from my sins!

Wipe away ²⁷  all my guilt!

51:10 Create for me a pure heart, O God! ²⁸ 

Renew a resolute spirit within me! ²⁹ 

Yesaya 6:7

6:7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Look, this coal has touched your lips. Your evil is removed; your sin is forgiven.” ³⁰ 

Yehezkiel 36:25-26

36:25 I will sprinkle you with pure water ³¹  and you will be clean from all your impurities. I will purify you from all your idols. 36:26 I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone ³²  from your body and give you a heart of flesh. ³³ 

Mikha 7:19

7:19 You will once again ³⁴  have mercy on us;

you will conquer ³⁵  our evil deeds;

you will hurl our ³⁶  sins into the depths of the sea. ³⁷ 

Zakharia 3:4

3:4 The angel ³⁸  spoke up to those standing all around, “Remove his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “I have freely forgiven your iniquity and will dress you ³⁹  in fine clothing.”

Yohanes 1:29

1:29 On the next day John ⁴⁰  saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God ⁴¹  who takes away the sin of the world!

Roma 11:27

11:27 And this is my covenant with them, ⁴² 

when I take away their sins.” ⁴³ 

Titus 2:14

2:14 He ⁴⁴  gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, ⁴⁵  who are eager to do good. ⁴⁶ 

Ibrani 10:4

10:4 For the blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sins. ⁴⁷ 

Ibrani 10:1

Concluding Exposition: Old and New Sacrifices Contrasted

10:1 For the law possesses a shadow of the good things to come but not the reality itself, and is therefore completely unable, by the same sacrifices offered continually, year after year, to perfect those who come to worship. ⁴⁸ 

Yohanes 1:7

1:7 He came as a witness ⁴⁹  to testify ⁵⁰  about the light, so that everyone ⁵¹  might believe through him.

Yohanes 3:5

3:5 Jesus answered, “I tell you the solemn truth, ⁵²  unless a person is born of water and spirit, ⁵³  he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

[12:13]  ¹ tn Heb “removed.”

[24:10]  ² tn Heb “and the heart of David struck him.”

[7:21]  ³ tn The LXX has, “for now I will depart to the earth.”

[7:21]  ⁴ tn The verb שָׁחַר (shakhar) in the Piel has been translated “to seek early in the morning” because of the possible link with the word “dawn.” But the verb more properly means “to seek diligently” (by implication).

[51:2]  ⁵ tn Heb “Thoroughly wash me from my wrongdoing.”

[51:2]  ⁶ sn In vv. 1b-2 the psalmist uses three different words to emphasize the multifaceted character and degree of his sin. Whatever one wants to call it (“rebellious acts,” “wrongdoing,” “sin”), he has done it and stands morally polluted in God’s sight. The same three words appear in Exod 34:7, which emphasizes that God is willing to forgive sin in all of its many dimensions. In v. 2 the psalmist compares forgiveness and restoration to physical cleansing. Perhaps he likens spiritual cleansing to the purification rites of priestly law.

[51:3]  ⁷ tn Heb “know.”

[51:3]  ⁸ tn Heb “and my sin [is] in front of me continually.”

[51:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “only you,” as if the psalmist had sinned exclusively against God and no other. Since the Hebrew verb חָטָא (hata’, “to sin”) is used elsewhere of sinful acts against people (see BDB 306 s.v. 2.a) and David (the presumed author) certainly sinned when he murdered Uriah (2 Sam 12:9), it is likely that the psalmist is overstating the case to suggest that the attack on Uriah was ultimately an attack on God himself. To clarify the point of the hyperbole, the translation uses “especially,” rather than the potentially confusing “only.”

[51:4]  ¹⁰ tn The Hebrew term לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) normally indicates purpose (“in order that”), but here it introduces a logical consequence of the preceding statement. (Taking the clause as indicating purpose here would yield a theologically preposterous idea – the psalmist purposely sinned so that God’s justice might be vindicated!) For other examples of לְמַעַן indicating result, see 2 Kgs 22:17; Jer 27:15; Amos 2:7, as well as IBHS 638-40 §38.3.

[51:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “when you speak.” In this context the psalmist refers to God’s word of condemnation against his sin delivered through Nathan (cf. 2 Sam 12:7-12).

[51:4]  ¹² tn Heb “when you judge.”

[51:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “Look, in wrongdoing I was brought forth, and in sin my mother conceived me.” The prefixed verbal form in the second line is probably a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive), stating a simple historical fact. The psalmist is not suggesting that he was conceived through an inappropriate sexual relationship (although the verse has sometimes been understood to mean that, or even that all sexual relationships are sinful). The psalmist’s point is that he has been a sinner from the very moment his personal existence began. By going back beyond the time of birth to the moment of conception, the psalmist makes his point more emphatically in the second line than in the first.

[51:6]  ¹⁴ sn The juxtaposition of two occurrences of “look” in vv. 5-6 draws attention to the sharp contrast between the sinful reality of the psalmist’s condition and the lofty ideal God has for him.

[51:6]  ¹⁵ tn The perfect is used in a generalizing sense here.

[51:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “in the covered [places],” i.e., in the inner man.

[51:6]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “in the secret [place] wisdom you cause me to know.” The Hiphil verbal form is causative, while the imperfect is used in a modal sense to indicate God’s desire (note the parallel verb “desire”).

[51:6]  sn You want me to possess wisdom. Here “wisdom” does not mean “intelligence” or “learning,” but refers to moral insight and skill.

[51:7]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “cleanse me with hyssop.” “Hyssop” was a small plant (see 1 Kgs 4:33) used to apply water (or blood) in purification rites (see Exod 12:22; Lev 14:4-6, 49-52; Num 19:6-18. The psalmist uses the language and imagery of such rites to describe spiritual cleansing through forgiveness.

[51:7]  ²⁰ tn After the preceding imperfect, the imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates result.

[51:7]  ²¹ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ²² sn I will be whiter than snow. Whiteness here symbolizes the moral purity resulting from forgiveness (see Isa 1:18).

[51:8]  ²³ tn Heb “cause me to hear happiness and joy.” The language is metonymic: the effect of forgiveness (joy) has been substituted for its cause. The psalmist probably alludes here to an assuring word from God announcing that his sins are forgiven (a so-called oracle of forgiveness). The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request. The synonyms “happiness” and “joy” are joined together as a hendiadys to emphasize the degree of joy he anticipates.

[51:8]  ²⁴ sn May the bones you crushed rejoice. The psalmist compares his sinful condition to that of a person who has been physically battered and crushed. Within this metaphorical framework, his “bones” are the seat of his emotional strength.

[51:8]  ²⁵ tn In this context of petitionary prayer, the prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive, expressing the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:9]  ²⁶ sn In this context Hide your face from my sins means “Do not hold me accountable for my sins.”

[51:9]  ²⁷ tn See the note on the similar expression “wipe away my rebellious acts” in v. 1.

[51:10]  ²⁸ sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s motives and moral character.

[51:10]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and a reliable spirit renew in my inner being.”

[6:7]  ³⁰ tn Or “ritually cleansed,” or “atoned for” (NIV).

[36:25]  ³¹ sn The Lord here uses a metaphor from the realm of ritual purification. For the use of water in ritual cleansing, see Exod 30:19-20; Lev 14:51; Num 19:18; Heb 10:22.

[36:26]  ³² sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is stubborn and unresponsive (see 1 Sam 25:37). In Rabbinic literature a “stone” was associated with an evil inclination (b. Sukkah 52a).

[36:26]  ³³ sn That is, a heart which symbolizes a will that is responsive and obedient to God.

[7:19]  ³⁴ tn The verb יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he will return”) is here used adverbially in relation to the following verb, indicating that the Lord will again show mercy.

[7:19]  ³⁵ tn Some prefer to read יִכְבֹּס (yikhbos, “he will cleanse”; see HALOT 459 s.v. כבס pi). If the MT is taken as it stands, sin is personified as an enemy that the Lord subdues.

[7:19]  ³⁶ tn Heb “their sins,” but the final mem (ם) may be enclitic rather than a pronominal suffix. In this case the suffix from the preceding line (“our”) may be understood as doing double duty.

[7:19]  ³⁷ sn In this metaphor the Lord disposes of Israel’s sins by throwing them into the waters of the sea (here symbolic of chaos).

[3:4]  ³⁸ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (the angel, cf. v. 1) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:4]  ³⁹ tn The occurrence of the infinitive absolute here for an expected imperfect 1st person common singular (or even imperative 2nd person masculine plural or preterite 3rd person masculine plural) is well-attested elsewhere. Most English translations render this as 1st person singular (“and I will clothe”), but cf. NAB “Take off…and clothe him.”

[1:29]  ⁴⁰ tn Grk “he”; the referent (John) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:29]  ⁴¹ sn Gen 22:8 is an important passage in the background of the title Lamb of God as applied to Jesus. In Jewish thought this was held to be a supremely important sacrifice. G. Vermès stated: “For the Palestinian Jew, all lamb sacrifice, and especially the Passover lamb and the Tamid offering, was a memorial of the Akedah with its effects of deliverance, forgiveness of sin and messianic salvation” (Scripture and Tradition in Judaism [StPB], 225).

[11:27]  ⁴² sn A quotation from Isa 59:20-21.

[11:27]  ⁴³ sn A quotation from Isa 27:9; Jer 31:33-34.

[2:14]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “who” (as a continuation of the previous clause).

[2:14]  ⁴⁵ tn Or “a people who are his very own.”

[2:14]  ⁴⁶ tn Grk “for good works.”

[10:4]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”

[10:1]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “those who approach.”

[1:7]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “came for a testimony.”

[1:7]  sn Witness is also one of the major themes of John’s Gospel. The Greek verb μαρτυρέω (marturew) occurs 33 times (compare to once in Matthew, once in Luke, 0 in Mark) and the noun μαρτυρία (marturia) 14 times (0 in Matthew, once in Luke, 3 times in Mark).

[1:7]  ⁵⁰ tn Or “to bear witness.”

[1:7]  ⁵¹ tn Grk “all.”

[3:5]  ⁵² tn Grk “Truly, truly, I say to you.”

[3:5]  ⁵³ tn Or “born of water and wind” (the same Greek word, πνεύματος [pneumatos], may be translated either “spirit/Spirit” or “wind”).

[3:5]  sn Jesus’ somewhat enigmatic statement points to the necessity of being born “from above,” because water and wind/spirit/Spirit come from above. Isaiah 44:3-5 and Ezek 37:9-10 are pertinent examples of water and wind as life-giving symbols of the Spirit of God in his work among people. Both occur in contexts that deal with the future restoration of Israel as a nation prior to the establishment of the messianic kingdom. It is therefore particularly appropriate that Jesus should introduce them in a conversation about entering the kingdom of God. Note that the Greek word πνεύματος is anarthrous (has no article) in v. 5. This does not mean that spirit in the verse should be read as a direct reference to the Holy Spirit, but that both water and wind are figures (based on passages in the OT, which Nicodemus, the teacher of Israel should have known) that represent the regenerating work of the Spirit in the lives of men and women.