Mazmur 19:12-13

19:12 Who can know all his errors? ¹ 

Please do not punish me for sins I am unaware of. ² 

19:13 Moreover, keep me from committing flagrant ³  sins;

do not allow such sins to control me. ⁴ 

Then I will be blameless,

and innocent of blatant ⁵  rebellion.

Mazmur 51:1-5

Psalm 51 ⁶ 

For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. ⁷ 

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of ⁸  your loyal love!

Because of ⁹  your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! ¹⁰ 

51:2 Wash away my wrongdoing! ¹¹ 

Cleanse me of my sin! ¹² 

51:3 For I am aware of ¹³  my rebellious acts;

I am forever conscious of my sin. ¹⁴ 

51:4 Against you – you above all ¹⁵  – I have sinned;

I have done what is evil in your sight.

So ¹⁶  you are just when you confront me; ¹⁷ 

you are right when you condemn me. ¹⁸ 

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

a sinner the moment my mother conceived me. ¹⁹ 

Mazmur 51:10-12

51:10 Create for me a pure heart, O God! ²⁰ 

Renew a resolute spirit within me! ²¹ 

51:11 Do not reject me! ²² 

Do not take your Holy Spirit ²³  away from me! ²⁴ 

51:12 Let me again experience the joy of your deliverance!

Sustain me by giving me the desire to obey! ²⁵ 

Mazmur 65:3

65:3 Our record of sins overwhelms me, ²⁶ 

but you forgive ²⁷  our acts of rebellion.

Mazmur 119:5

119:5 If only I were predisposed ²⁸ 

to keep your statutes!

Mazmur 119:20

119:20 I desperately long to know ²⁹ 

your regulations at all times.

Mazmur 119:24-25

119:24 Yes, I find delight in your rules;

they give me guidance. ³⁰ 

ד (Dalet)

119:25 I collapse in the dirt. ³¹ 

Revive me with your word! ³² 

Mazmur 119:32

119:32 I run along the path of your commands,

for you enable me to do so. ³³ 

Mazmur 119:35

119:35 Guide me ³⁴  in the path of your commands,

for I delight to walk in it. ³⁵ 

Mazmur 119:40

119:40 Look, I long for your precepts.

Revive me with your deliverance! ³⁶ 

Mazmur 119:133

119:133 Direct my steps by your word! ³⁷ 

Do not let any sin dominate me!

Mazmur 119:159

119:159 See how I love your precepts!

O Lord, revive me with your loyal love!

Mazmur 119:176

119:176 I have wandered off like a lost sheep. ³⁸ 

Come looking for your servant,

for I do not forget your commands.

Pengkhotbah 7:20

7:20 For ³⁹  there is not one truly ⁴⁰  righteous person on the earth

who continually does good and never sins.

Yesaya 6:5

6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ⁴¹  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ⁴²  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ⁴³  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ⁴⁴ 

Matius 16:17

16:17 And Jesus answered him, ⁴⁵  “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood ⁴⁶  did not reveal this to you, but my Father in heaven!

Matius 16:23

16:23 But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.” ⁴⁷ 

Matius 26:41

26:41 Stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Yohanes 3:6

3:6 What is born of the flesh is flesh, ⁴⁸  and what is born of the Spirit is spirit.

Roma 7:18

7:18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it. ⁴⁹ 

Roma 7:21-25

7:21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 7:22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. 7:23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 7:25 Thanks be ⁵⁰  to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, ⁵¹  I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but ⁵²  with my flesh I serve ⁵³  the law of sin.

Roma 8:5-6

8:5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by ⁵⁴  the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 8:6 For the outlook ⁵⁵  of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace,

Roma 8:13

8:13 (for if you live according to the flesh, you will ⁵⁶  die), ⁵⁷  but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live.

Yakobus 4:5-6

4:5 Or do you think the scripture means nothing when it says, ⁵⁸  “The spirit that God ⁵⁹  caused ⁶⁰  to live within us has an envious yearning”? ⁶¹  4:6 But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.” ⁶² 

[19:12]  ¹ tn Heb “Errors who can discern?” This rhetorical question makes the point that perfect moral discernment is impossible to achieve. Consequently it is inevitable that even those with good intentions will sin on occasion.

[19:12]  ² tn Heb “declare me innocent from hidden [things],” i.e., sins. In this context (see the preceding line) “hidden” sins are not sins committed in secret, but sins which are not recognized as such by the psalmist.

[19:13]  ³ tn Or “presumptuous.”

[19:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “let them not rule over me.”

[19:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “great.”

[51:1]  ⁶ sn Psalm 51. The psalmist confesses his sinfulness to God and begs for forgiveness and a transformation of his inner character. According to the psalm superscription, David offered this prayer when Nathan confronted him with his sin following the king’s affair with Bathsheba (see 2 Sam 11-12). However, the final two verses of the psalm hardly fit this situation, for they assume the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed and that the sacrificial system has been temporarily suspended. These verses are probably an addition to the psalm made during the period of exile following the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. The exiles could relate to David’s experience, for they, like him, and had been forced to confront their sin. They appropriated David’s ancient prayer and applied it to their own circumstances.

[51:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “a psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him when he had gone to Bathsheba.”

[51:1]  ⁸ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ⁹ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ¹⁰ tn Traditionally “blot out my transgressions.” Because of the reference to washing and cleansing in the following verse, it is likely that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to wiping an object clean (note the use of the verb מָחָה (makhah) in the sense of “wipe clean; dry” in 2 Kgs 21:13; Prov 30:20; Isa 25:8). Another option is that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to erasing or blotting out names from a register (see Exod 32:32-33). In this case one might translate, “erase all record of my rebellious acts.”

[51:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Thoroughly wash me from my wrongdoing.”

[51:2]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ tn Heb “know.”

[51:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and my sin [is] in front of me continually.”

[51:4]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “when you judge.”

[51:5]  ¹⁹ 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.

[51:10]  ²⁰ sn The heart is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s motives and moral character.

[51:10]  ²¹ tn Heb “and a reliable spirit renew in my inner being.”

[51:11]  ²² tn Heb “do not cast me away from before you.”

[51:11]  ²³ sn Your Holy Spirit. The personal Spirit of God is mentioned frequently in the OT, but only here and in Isa 63:10-11 is he called “your/his Holy Spirit.”

[51:11]  ²⁴ sn Do not take…away. The psalmist expresses his fear that, due to his sin, God will take away the Holy Spirit from him. NT believers enjoy the permanent gift of the Holy Spirit and need not make such a request nor fear such a consequence. However, in the OT God’s Spirit empowered certain individuals for special tasks and only temporarily resided in them. For example, when God rejected Saul as king and chose David to replace him, the divine Spirit left Saul and came upon David (1 Sam 16:13-14).

[51:12]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and [with] a willing spirit sustain me.” The psalmist asks that God make him the kind of person who willingly obeys the divine commandments. The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[65:3]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the records of sins are too strong for me.”

[65:3]  ²⁷ tn Or “make atonement for.”

[119:5]  ²⁸ tn Heb “if only my ways were established.”

[119:20]  ²⁹ tn Heb “my soul languishes for longing for.”

[119:24]  ³⁰ tn Heb “men of my counsel.” That is, God’s rules are like advisers to the psalmist, for they teach him how to live in a godly manner that refutes the accusations of his enemies.

[119:25]  ³¹ tn Heb “my soul clings to the dirt.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “being; soul”) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[119:25]  ³² tn Heb “according to your word.” Many medieval Hebrew mss read the plural “your words.”

[119:32]  ³³ tn Heb “for you make wide my heart.” The “heart” is viewed here as the seat of the psalmist’s volition and understanding. The Lord gives the psalmist the desire and moral understanding that are foundational to the willing obedience depicted metaphorically in the preceding line. In Isa 60:5 the expression “your heart will be wide” means “your heart will swell with pride,” but here the nuance appears to be different.

[119:35]  ³⁴ tn Or “make me walk.”

[119:35]  ³⁵ tn Heb “for in it I delight.”

[119:40]  ³⁶ tn Or “righteousness.”

[119:133]  ³⁷ tn God’s “word” refers here to his law (see v. 11).

[119:176]  ³⁸ tn Heb “I stray like a lost sheep.” It is possible that the point of the metaphor is vulnerability: The psalmist, who is threatened by his enemies, feels as vulnerable as a straying, lost sheep. This would not suggest, however, that he has wandered from God’s path (see the second half of the verse, as well as v. 110).

[7:20]  ³⁹ tn The introductory particle כִּי (ki) is rendered variously: “for” (KJV); “indeed” (NASB); not translated (NIV); “for” (NJPS). The particle functions in an explanatory sense, explaining the need for wisdom in v. 19. Righteousness alone cannot always protect a person from calamity (7:15-16); therefore, something additional, such as wisdom, is needed. The need for wisdom as protection from calamity is particularly evident in the light of the fact that no one is truly righteous (7:19-20).

[7:20]  ⁴⁰ tn The term “truly” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity. Qoheleth does not deny the existence of some people who are relatively righteous.

[6:5]  ⁴¹ tn Isaiah uses the suffixed (perfect) form of the verb for rhetorical purposes. In this way his destruction is described as occurring or as already completed. Rather than understanding the verb as derived from דָּמַה (damah, “be destroyed”), some take it from a proposed homonymic root דמה, which would mean “be silent.” In this case, one might translate, “I must be silent.”

[6:5]  ⁴² tn Heb “a man unclean of lips am I.” Isaiah is not qualified to praise the king. His lips (the instruments of praise) are “unclean” because he has been contaminated by sin.

[6:5]  ⁴³ tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”

[6:5]  ⁴⁴ tn Perhaps in this context, the title has a less militaristic connotation and pictures the Lord as the ruler of the heavenly assembly. See the note at 1:9.

[16:17]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “answering, Jesus said to him.” The participle ἀποκριθείς (apokriqeis) is redundant, but the syntax of this phrase has been modified for clarity.

[16:17]  ⁴⁶ tn The expression “flesh and blood” could refer to “any human being” (so TEV, NLT; cf. NIV “man”), but it could also refer to Peter himself (i.e., his own intuition; cf. CEV “You didn’t discover this on your own”). Because of the ambiguity of the referent, the phrase “flesh and blood” has been retained in the translation.

[16:23]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “people.”

[3:6]  ⁴⁸ sn What is born of the flesh is flesh, i.e., what is born of physical heritage is physical. (It is interesting to compare this terminology with that of the dialogue in John 4, especially 4:23, 24.) For John the “flesh” (σάρξ, sarx) emphasizes merely the weakness and mortality of the creature – a neutral term, not necessarily sinful as in Paul. This is confirmed by the reference in John 1:14 to the Logos becoming “flesh.” The author avoids associating sinfulness with the incarnate Christ.

[7:18]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “For to wish is present in/with me, but not to do it.”

[7:25]  ⁵⁰ tc ‡ Most mss (א* A 1739 1881 Ï sy) read “I give thanks to God” rather than “Now thanks be to God” (א¹ [B] Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506 pc), the reading of NA²⁷. The reading with the verb (εὐχαριστῶ τῷ θεῷ, eucaristw tw qew) possibly arose from a transcriptional error in which several letters were doubled (TCGNT 455). The conjunction δέ (de, “now”) is included in some mss as well (א¹ Ψ 33 81 104 365 1506 pc), but it should probably not be considered original. The ms support for the omission of δέ is both excellent and widespread (א* A B D 1739 1881 Ï lat sy), and its addition can be explained as an insertion to smooth out the transition between v. 24 and 25.

[7:25]  ⁵¹ tn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

[7:25]  ⁵² tn Greek emphasizes the contrast between these two clauses more than can be easily expressed in English.

[7:25]  ⁵³ tn The words “I serve” have been repeated here for clarity.

[8:5]  ⁵⁴ tn Grk “think on” or “are intent on” (twice in this verse). What is in view here is not primarily preoccupation, however, but worldview. Translations like “set their mind on” could be misunderstood by the typical English reader to refer exclusively to preoccupation.

[8:6]  ⁵⁵ tn Or “mindset,” “way of thinking” (twice in this verse and once in v. 7). The Greek term φρόνημα does not refer to one’s mind, but to one’s outlook or mindset.

[8:13]  ⁵⁶ tn Grk “are about to, are certainly going to.”

[8:13]  ⁵⁷ sn This remark is parenthetical to Paul’s argument.

[4:5]  ⁵⁸ tn Grk “vainly says.”

[4:5]  ⁵⁹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:5]  ⁶⁰ tc The Byzantine text and a few other mss (P 33 Ï) have the intransitive κατῴκησεν (katwkhsen) here, which turns τὸ πνεῦμα (to pneuma) into the subject of the verb: “The spirit which lives within us.” But the more reliable and older witnesses (Ì⁷⁴ א B Ψ 049 1241 1739 al) have the causative verb, κατῴκισεν (katwkisen), which implies a different subject and τὸ πνεῦμα as the object: “The spirit that he causes to live within us.” Both because of the absence of an explicit subject and the relative scarcity of the causative κατοικίζω (katoikizw, “cause to dwell”) compared to the intransitive κατοικέω (katoikew, “live, dwell”) in biblical Greek (κατοικίζω does not occur in the NT at all, and occurs one twelfth as frequently as κατοικέω in the LXX), it is easy to see why scribes would replace κατῴκισεν with κατῴκησεν. Thus, on internal and external grounds, κατῴκισεν is the preferred reading.

[4:5]  ⁶¹ tn Interpreters debate the referent of the word “spirit” in this verse: (1) The translation takes “spirit” to be the lustful capacity within people that produces a divided mind (1:8, 14) and inward conflicts regarding God (4:1-4). God has allowed it to be in man since the fall, and he provides his grace (v. 6) and the new birth through the gospel message (1:18-25) to counteract its evil effects. (2) On the other hand the word “spirit” may be taken positively as the Holy Spirit and the sense would be, “God yearns jealously for the Spirit he caused to live within us.” But the word for “envious” or “jealous” is generally negative in biblical usage and the context before and after seems to favor the negative interpretation.

[4:5]  sn No OT verse is worded exactly this way. This is either a statement about the general teaching of scripture or a quotation from an ancient translation of the Hebrew text that no longer exists today.

[4:6]  ⁶² sn A quotation from Prov 3:34.