Mazmur 38:18

38:18 Yes, ¹  I confess my wrongdoing,

and I am concerned about my sins.

Mazmur 51:3-5

51:3 For I am aware of ²  my rebellious acts;

I am forever conscious of my sin. ³ 

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

I have done what is evil in your sight.

So ⁵  you are just when you confront me; ⁶ 

you are right when you condemn me. ⁷ 

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

a sinner the moment my mother conceived me. ⁸ 

Imamat 26:39-40

Restoration through Confession and Repentance

26:39 “‘As for the ones who remain among you, they will rot away because of ⁹  their iniquity in the lands of your enemies, and they will also rot away because of their ancestors’ ¹⁰  iniquities which are with them. 26:40 However, when ¹¹  they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, ¹²  by which they also walked ¹³  in hostility against me ¹⁴ 

Yosua 7:19

7:19 So Joshua said to Achan, “My son, honor ¹⁵  the Lord God of Israel and give him praise! Tell me what you did; don’t hide anything from me!”

Yosua 7:2

7:2 Joshua sent men from Jericho ¹⁶  to Ai (which is located near Beth Aven, east of Bethel ¹⁷ ) and instructed them, “Go up and spy on the land.” So the men went up and spied on Ai.

1 Samuel 12:13

12:13 Now look! Here is the king you have chosen – the one that you asked for! Look, the Lord has given you a king!

1 Samuel 24:10

24:10 Today your own eyes see how the Lord delivered you – this very day – into my hands in the cave. Some told me to kill you, but I had pity ¹⁸  on you and said, ‘I will not extend my hand against my lord, for he is the Lord’s chosen one.’ ¹⁹ 

Ayub 33:27

33:27 That person sings ²⁰  to others, ²¹  saying:

‘I have sinned and falsified what is right,

but I was not punished according to what I deserved. ²² 

Amsal 28:13

28:13 The one who covers ²³  his transgressions will not prosper, ²⁴ 

but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy. ²⁵ 

Yeremia 3:13

3:13 However, you must confess that you have done wrong, ²⁶ 

and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God.

You must confess ²⁷  that you have given yourself to ²⁸  foreign gods under every green tree,

and have not obeyed my commands,’ says the Lord.

Yeremia 3:1

3:1 “If a man divorces his wife

and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife,

he may not take her back again. ²⁹ 

Doing that would utterly defile the land. ³⁰ 

But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods. ³¹ 

So what makes you think you can return to me?” ³² 

says the Lord.

Yohanes 1:8-10

1:8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify ³³  about the light. 1:9 The true light, who gives light to everyone, ³⁴  was coming into the world. ³⁵  1:10 He was in the world, and the world was created ³⁶  by him, but ³⁷  the world did not recognize ³⁸  him.

[38:18]  ¹ tn Or “for.” The translation assumes that כִּי (ki) is asseverative here.

[51:3]  ² tn Heb “know.”

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

[51:4]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ tn Heb “when you judge.”

[51:5]  ⁸ 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.

[26:39]  ⁹ tn Heb “in” (so KJV, ASV; also later in this verse).

[26:39]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “fathers’” (also in the following verse).

[26:40]  ¹¹ tn Heb “And.” Many English versions take this to be a conditional clause (“if…”) though there is no conditional particle (see, e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV; but see the very different rendering in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 190). The temporal translation offered here (“when”) takes into account the particle אָז (’az, “then”), which occurs twice in v. 41. The obvious contextual contrast between vv. 39 and 40 is expressed by “however” in the translation.

[26:40]  ¹² tn Heb “in their trespassing which they trespassed in me.” See the note on Lev 5:15, although the term is used in a more technical sense there in relation to the “guilt offering.”

[26:40]  ¹³ tn Heb “and also which they walked.”

[26:40]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “with me.”

[7:19]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “give glory to.”

[7:2]  ¹⁶ map For location see Map5 B2; Map6 E1; Map7 E1; Map8 E3; Map10 A2; Map11 A1.

[7:2]  ¹⁷ map For the location of Bethel see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[24:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “it had pity,” apparently with the understood subject being “my eye,” in accordance with a common expression.

[24:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “anointed.”

[33:27]  ²⁰ tc The verb יָשֹׁר (yashor) is unusual. The typical view is to change it to יָשִׁיר (yashir, “he sings”), but that may seem out of harmony with a confession. Dhorme suggests a root שׁוּר (shur, “to repeat”), but this is a doubtful root. J. Reider reads it יָשֵׁיר (yasher) and links it to an Arabic word “confesses” (ZAW 24 [1953]: 275).

[33:27]  ²¹ tn Heb “to men.”

[33:27]  ²² tn The verb שָׁוָה (shavah) has the impersonal meaning here, “it has not been requited to me.” The meaning is that the sinner has not been treated in accordance with his deeds: “I was not punished according to what I deserved.”

[28:13]  ²³ tn The Hebrew participles provide the subject matter in this contrast. On the one hand is the person who covers over (מְכַסֶּה, mÿkhasseh) his sins. This means refusing to acknowledge them in confession, and perhaps rationalizing them away. On the other hand there is the one who both “confesses” (מוֹדֶה, modeh) and “forsakes” (עֹזֵב, ’ozev) the sin. To “confess” sins means to acknowledge them, to say the same thing about them that God does.

[28:13]  ²⁴ sn The verse contrasts the consequences of each. The person who refuses to confess will not prosper. This is an understatement (a figure of speech known as tapeinosis); the opposite is the truth, that eventually such a person will be undone and ruined. On the other hand, the penitent will find mercy. This expression is a metonymy of cause for the effect – although “mercy” is mentioned, what mercy provides is intended, i.e., forgiveness. In other passages the verb “conceal” is used of God’s forgiveness – he covers over the iniquity (Ps 32:1). Whoever acknowledges sin, God will cover it; whoever covers it, God will lay it open.

[28:13]  ²⁵ sn This verse is unique in the book of Proverbs; it captures the theology of forgiveness (e.g., Pss 32 and 51). Every part of the passage is essential to the point: Confession of sins as opposed to concealing them, coupled with a turning away from them, results in mercy.

[3:13]  ²⁶ tn Heb “Only acknowledge your iniquity.”

[3:13]  ²⁷ tn The words “You must confess” are repeated to convey the connection. The Hebrew text has an introductory “that” in front of the second line and a coordinative “and” in front of the next two lines.

[3:13]  ²⁸ tc MT reads דְּרָכַיִךְ (dÿrakhayikh, “your ways”), but the BHS editors suggest דּוֹדַיִךְ (dodayikh, “your breasts”) as an example of orthographic confusion. While the proposal makes sense, it remains a conjectural emendation since it is not supported by any actual manuscripts or ancient versions.

[3:13]  tn Heb “scattered your ways with foreign [gods]” or “spread out your breasts to strangers.”

[3:1]  ²⁹ tn Heb “May he go back to her again?” The question is rhetorical and expects a negative answer.

[3:1]  sn For the legal background for the illustration that is used here see Deut 24:1-4.

[3:1]  ³⁰ tn Heb “Would the land not be utterly defiled?” The stative is here rendered actively to connect better with the preceding. The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.

[3:1]  ³¹ tn Heb “But you have played the prostitute with many lovers.”

[3:1]  ³² tn Heb “Returning to me.” The form is the bare infinitive which the KJV and ASV have interpreted as an imperative “Yet, return to me!” However, it is more likely that a question is intended, expressing surprise in the light of the law alluded to and the facts cited. For the use of the infinitive absolute in the place of a finite verb, cf. GKC 346 §113.ee. For the introduction of a question without a question marker, cf. GKC 473 §150.a.

[1:8]  ³³ tn Or “to bear witness.”

[1:9]  ³⁴ tn Grk “every man” (but in a generic sense, “every person,” or “every human being”).

[1:9]  ³⁵ tn Or “He was the true light, who gives light to everyone who comes into the world.” The participle ἐρχόμενον (ercomenon) may be either (1) neuter nominative, agreeing with τὸ φῶς (to fw"), or (2) masculine accusative, agreeing with ἄνθρωπον (anqrwpon). Option (1) results in a periphrastic imperfect with ἦν (hn), ἦν τὸ φῶς… ἐρχόμενον, referring to the incarnation. Option (2) would have the participle modifying ἄνθρωπον and referring to the true light as enlightening “every man who comes into the world.” Option (2) has some rabbinic parallels: The phrase “all who come into the world” is a fairly common expression for “every man” (cf. Leviticus Rabbah 31.6). But (1) must be preferred here, because: (a) In the next verse the light is in the world; it is logical for v. 9 to speak of its entering the world; (b) in other passages Jesus is described as “coming into the world” (6:14, 9:39, 11:27, 16:28) and in 12:46 Jesus says: ἐγὼ φῶς εἰς τὸν κόσμον ἐλήλυθα (egw fw" ei" ton kosmon elhluqa); (c) use of a periphrastic participle with the imperfect tense is typical Johannine style: 1:28, 2:6, 3:23, 10:40, 11:1, 13:23, 18:18 and 25. In every one of these except 13:23 the finite verb is first and separated by one or more intervening words from the participle.

[1:9]  sn In v. 9 the world (κόσμος, kosmos) is mentioned for the first time. This is another important theme word for John. Generally, the world as a Johannine concept does not refer to the totality of creation (the universe), although there are exceptions at 11:9. 17:5, 24, 21:25, but to the world of human beings and human affairs. Even in 1:10 the world created through the Logos is a world capable of knowing (or reprehensibly not knowing) its Creator. Sometimes the world is further qualified as this world (ὁ κόσμος οὗτος, Jo kosmos Joutos) as in 8:23, 9:39, 11:9, 12:25, 31; 13:1, 16:11, 18:36. This is not merely equivalent to the rabbinic phrase “this present age” (ὁ αἰών οὗτος, Jo aiwn Joutos) and contrasted with “the world to come.” For John it is also contrasted to a world other than this one, already existing; this is the lower world, corresponding to which there is a world above (see especially 8:23, 18:36). Jesus appears not only as the Messiah by means of whom an eschatological future is anticipated (as in the synoptic gospels) but also as an envoy from the heavenly world to this world.

[1:10]  ³⁶ tn Or “was made”; Grk “came into existence.”

[1:10]  ³⁷ tn Grk “and,” but in context this is an adversative use of καί (kai) and is thus translated “but.”

[1:10]  ³⁸ tn Or “know.”