15:24 Then Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned, for I have disobeyed what the Lord commanded 1 and what you said as well. 2 For I was afraid of the army, and I followed their wishes. 3
9:27 So Pharaoh sent and summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time! 6 The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty. 7
1 tn Heb “the mouth of the
2 tn Heb “and your words.”
3 tn Heb “and I listened to their voice.”
4 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Saul) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
5 tn Or “righteous” (so KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV); NAB “you are in the right”; NLT “are a better man than I am.”
6 sn Pharaoh now is struck by the judgment and acknowledges that he is at fault. But the context shows that this penitence was short-lived. What exactly he meant by this confession is uncertain. On the surface his words seem to represent a recognition that he was in the wrong and Yahweh right.
7 tn The word רָשָׁע (rasha’) can mean “ungodly, wicked, guilty, criminal.” Pharaoh here is saying that Yahweh is right, and the Egyptians are not – so they are at fault, guilty. S. R. Driver says the words are used in their forensic sense (in the right or wrong standing legally) and not in the ethical sense of morally right and wrong (Exodus, 75).
8 sn Balaam is not here making a general confession of sin. What he is admitting to is a procedural mistake. The basic meaning of the word is “to miss the mark.” He now knows he took the wrong way, i.e., in coming to curse Israel.
9 sn The reference is to Balaam’s way. He is saying that if what he is doing is so perverse, so evil, he will turn around and go home. Of course, it did not appear that he had much of a chance of going forward.
10 tn The verb is the cohortative from “return”: I will return [me].