1 Samuel 26:21

26:21 Saul replied, “I have sinned. Come back, my son David. I won’t harm you, for you treated my life with value ¹  this day. I have behaved foolishly and have made a very terrible mistake!” ² 

Genesis 38:26

38:26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more upright ³  than I am, because I wouldn’t give her to Shelah my son.” He did not have sexual relations with her ⁴  again.

Exodus 9:27

9:27 So Pharaoh sent and summoned Moses and Aaron and said to them, “I have sinned this time! ⁵  The Lord is righteous, and I and my people are guilty. ⁶ 

Psalms 37:6

37:6 He will vindicate you in broad daylight,

and publicly defend your just cause. ⁷ 

Matthew 27:4

27:4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood!” But they said, “What is that to us? You take care of it yourself!”

¹ tn Heb “my life was valuable in your eyes.”

² tn Heb “and I have erred very greatly.”

³ tn Traditionally “more righteous”; cf. NCV, NRSV, NLT “more in the right.”

⁴ tn Heb “and he did not add again to know her.” Here “know” is a euphemism for sexual intercourse.

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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).

⁷ tn Heb “and he will bring out like light your vindication, and your just cause like noonday.”