Mazmur 25:7

25:7 Do not hold against me ¹  the sins of my youth ²  or my rebellious acts!

Because you are faithful to me, extend to me your favor, O Lord! ³ 

Mazmur 130:3

130:3 If you, O Lord, were to keep track of ⁴  sins,

O Lord, who could stand before you? ⁵ 

Keluaran 32:34

32:34 So now go, lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about. See, ⁶  my angel will go before you. But on the day that I punish, I will indeed punish them for their sin.” ⁷ 

Keluaran 32:1

The Sin of the Golden Calf

32:1 ⁸ When the people saw that Moses delayed ⁹  in coming down ¹⁰  from the mountain, they ¹¹  gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Get up, ¹²  make us gods ¹³  that will go before us. As for this fellow Moses, ¹⁴  the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what ¹⁵  has become of him!”

Kisah Para Rasul 17:18

17:18 Also some of the Epicurean ¹⁶  and Stoic ¹⁷  philosophers were conversing ¹⁸  with him, and some were asking, ¹⁹  “What does this foolish babbler ²⁰  want to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods.” ²¹  (They said this because he was proclaiming the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.) ²² 

Yesaya 64:9

64:9 Lord, do not be too angry!

Do not hold our sins against us continually! ²³ 

Take a good look at your people, at all of us! ²⁴ 

Hosea 8:13

8:13 They offer up sacrificial gifts to me,

and eat the meat,

but the Lord does not accept their sacrifices. ²⁵ 

Soon he will remember their wrongdoing,

he will punish their sins,

and they will return to Egypt.

Hosea 9:9

The Best of Times, the Worst of Times

9:9 They have sunk deep into corruption ²⁶ 

as in the days of Gibeah.

He will remember their wrongdoing.

He will repay them for their sins.

Wahyu 18:5

18:5 because her sins have piled ²⁷  up all the way to heaven ²⁸  and God has remembered ²⁹  her crimes. ³⁰ 

[25:7]  ¹ tn Heb “do not remember,” with the intention of punishing.

[25:7]  ² sn That is, the sins characteristic of youths, who lack moral discretion and wisdom.

[25:7]  ³ tn Heb “according to your faithfulness, remember me, you, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.”

[130:3]  ⁴ tn Heb “observe.”

[130:3]  ⁵ tn The words “before you” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The psalmist must be referring to standing before God’s judgment seat. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one.”

[32:34]  ⁶ tn Heb “behold, look.” Moses should take this fact into consideration.

[32:34]  ⁷ sn The Law said that God would not clear the guilty. But here the punishment is postponed to some future date when he would revisit this matter. Others have taken the line to mean that whenever a reckoning was considered necessary, then this sin would be included (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 957). The repetition of the verb traditionally rendered “visit” in both clauses puts emphasis on the certainty – so “indeed.”

[32:1]  ⁸ sn This narrative is an unhappy interlude in the flow of the argument of the book. After the giving of the Law and the instructions for the tabernacle, the people get into idolatry. So this section tells what the people were doing when Moses was on the mountain. Here is an instant violation of the covenant that they had just agreed to uphold. But through it all Moses shines as the great intercessor for the people. So the subject matter is the sin of idolatry, its effects and its remedy. Because of the similarities to Jeroboam’s setting up the calves in Dan and Bethel, modern critics have often said this passage was written at that time. U. Cassuto shows how the language of this chapter would not fit an Iron Age setting in Dan. Rather, he argues, this story was well enough known for Jeroboam to imitate the practice (Exodus, 407-10). This chapter can be divided into four parts for an easier exposition: idolatry (32:1-6), intercession (32:7-14), judgment (32:15-29), intercession again (32:30-33:6). Of course, these sections are far more complex than this, but this gives an overview. Four summary statements for expository points might be: I. Impatience often leads to foolish violations of the faith, II. Violations of the covenant require intercession to escape condemnation, III. Those spared of divine wrath must purge evil from their midst, and IV. Those who purge evil from their midst will find reinstatement through intercession. Several important studies are available for this. See, among others, D. R. Davis, “Rebellion, Presence, and Covenant: A Study in Exodus 32-34,” WTJ 44 (1982): 71-87; M. Greenberg, “Moses’ Intercessory Prayer,” Ecumenical Institute for Advanced Theological Studies (1978): 21-35; R. A. Hamer, “The New Covenant of Moses,” Judaism 27 (1978): 345-50; R. L. Honeycutt, Jr., “Aaron, the Priesthood, and the Golden Calf,” RevExp 74 (1977): 523-35; J. N. Oswalt, “The Golden Calves and the Egyptian Concept of Deity,” EvQ 45 (1973): 13-20.

[32:1]  ⁹ tn The meaning of this verb is properly “caused shame,” meaning cause disappointment because he was not coming back (see also Judg 5:28 for the delay of Sisera’s chariots [S. R. Driver, Exodus, 349]).

[32:1]  ¹⁰ tn The infinitive construct with the lamed (ל) preposition is used here epexegetically, explaining the delay of Moses.

[32:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the people.”

[32:1]  ¹² tn The imperative means “arise.” It could be serving here as an interjection, getting Aaron’s attention. But it might also have the force of prompting him to get busy.

[32:1]  ¹³ tn The plural translation is required here (although the form itself could be singular in meaning) because the verb that follows in the relative clause is a plural verb – that they go before us).

[32:1]  ¹⁴ tn The text has “this Moses.” But this instance may find the demonstrative used in an earlier deictic sense, especially since there is no article with it.

[32:1]  ¹⁵ tn The interrogative is used in an indirect question (see GKC 443-44 §137.c).

[17:18]  ¹⁶ sn An Epicurean was a follower of the philosophy of Epicurus, who founded a school in Athens about 300 b.c. Although the Epicureans saw the aim of life as pleasure, they were not strictly hedonists, because they defined pleasure as the absence of pain. Along with this, they desired the avoidance of trouble and freedom from annoyances. They saw organized religion as evil, especially the belief that the gods punished evildoers in an afterlife. In keeping with this, they were unable to accept Paul’s teaching about the resurrection.

[17:18]  ¹⁷ sn A Stoic was a follower of the philosophy founded by Zeno (342-270 b.c.), a Phoenician who came to Athens and modified the philosophical system of the Cynics he found there. The Stoics rejected the Epicurean ideal of pleasure, stressing virtue instead. The Stoics emphasized responsibility for voluntary actions and believed risks were worth taking, but thought the actual attainment of virtue was difficult. They also believed in providence.

[17:18]  ¹⁸ tn BDAG 956 s.v. συμβάλλω 1 has “converse, confer” here.

[17:18]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “saying.”

[17:18]  ²⁰ tn Or “ignorant show-off.” The traditional English translation of σπερμολόγος (spermologo") is given in L&N 33.381 as “foolish babbler.” However, an alternate view is presented in L&N 27.19, “(a figurative extension of meaning of a term based on the practice of birds in picking up seeds) one who acquires bits and pieces of relatively extraneous information and proceeds to pass them off with pretense and show – ‘ignorant show-off, charlatan.’” A similar view is given in BDAG 937 s.v. σπερμολόγος: “in pejorative imagery of persons whose communication lacks sophistication and seems to pick up scraps of information here and there scrapmonger, scavenger…Engl. synonyms include ‘gossip’, ‘babbler’, chatterer’; but these terms miss the imagery of unsystematic gathering.”

[17:18]  ²¹ tn The meaning of this phrase is not clear. Literally it reads “strange deities” (see BDAG 210 s.v. δαιμόνιον 1). The note of not being customary is important. In the ancient world what was new was suspicious. The plural δαιμονίων (daimoniwn, “deities”) shows the audience grappling with Paul’s teaching that God was working through Jesus.

[17:18]  ²² sn This is a parenthetical note by the author.

[64:9]  ²³ tn Heb “do not remember sin continually.”

[64:9]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Look, gaze at your people, all of us.” Another option is to translate, “Take a good look! We are all your people.”

[8:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “does not accept them”; the referent (their sacrifices) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[9:9]  ²⁶ tn Or more literally, “they are deeply corrupted.” The two verbs הֶעְמִיקוּ־שִׁחֵתוּ (he’miqu-shikhetu; literally, “they have made deep, they act corruptly”) are coordinated without a conjunction vav to form a verbal hendiadys: the second verb represents the main idea, while the first functions adverbially (GKC 386-87 §120.g). Here Gesenius suggests “they are deeply/radically corrupted.” Several translations mirror the syntax of this hendiadys: “They have deeply corrupted themselves” (KJV, ASV, NRSV), “They have been grievously corrupt” (NJPS), and “They are hopelessly evil” (TEV). Others reverse the syntax for the sake of a more graphic English idiom: “They have gone deep in depravity” (NASB) and “They have sunk deep into corruption” (NIV). Some translations fail to represent the hendiadys at all: “You are brutal and corrupt” (CEV). The translation “They are deeply corrupted” mirrors the Hebrew syntax, but “They have sunk deep into corruption” is a more graphic English idiom and is preferred here (cf. NAB “They have sunk to the depths of corruption”).

[18:5]  ²⁷ tn On ἐκολλήθησαν (ekollhqhsan) BDAG 556 s.v. κολλάω 2.a.β states, “fig. cling to = come in close contact with (cp. Ps 21:16; 43:26 ἐκολλήθη εἰς γῆν ἡ γαστὴρ ἡμῶν. The act.=‘bring into contact’ PGM 5, 457 κολλήσας τ. λίθον τῷ ὠτίῳ) ἐκολλήθησαν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ἄχρι τ. οὐρανοῦ the sins have touched the heaven = reached the sky (two exprs. are telescoped) Rv 18:5.”

[18:5]  ²⁸ tn Or “up to the sky” (the same Greek word means both “heaven” and “sky”).

[18:5]  ²⁹ tn That is, remembered her sins to execute judgment on them.

[18:5]  ³⁰ tn Or “her sins.”