9:30 If I wash myself with snow water, 1
and make my hands clean with lye, 2
16:17 although 3 there is no violence in my hands
and my prayer is pure.
17:9 But the righteous man holds to his way,
and the one with clean hands grows stronger. 4
18:20 The Lord repaid 5 me for my godly deeds; 6
he rewarded 7 my blameless behavior. 8
24:4 The one whose deeds are blameless
and whose motives are pure, 9
who does not lie, 10
or make promises with no intention of keeping them. 11
26:6 I maintain a pure lifestyle, 12
so I can appear before your altar, 13 O Lord,
73:13 I concluded, 14 “Surely in vain I have kept my motives 15 pure
and maintained a pure lifestyle. 16
1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,
I look the other way; 17
when you offer your many prayers,
I do not listen,
because your hands are covered with blood. 18
1:16 19 Wash! Cleanse yourselves!
Remove your sinful deeds 20
from my sight.
Stop sinning!
13:15 Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;
everyone who is seized 21 will die 22 by the sword.
27:24 When 25 Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but that instead a riot was starting, he took some water, washed his hands before the crowd and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. You take care of it yourselves!” 26
27:1 When 27 it was early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against Jesus to execute him.
2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem 29 in Judea, in the time 30 of King Herod, 31 wise men 32 from the East came to Jerusalem 33
3:1 In those days John the Baptist came into the wilderness 34 of Judea proclaiming,
1 tn The Syriac and Targum Job read with the Qere “with water of [בְמֵי, bÿme] snow.” The Kethib simply has “in [בְמוֹ, bÿmo] snow.” In Ps 51:9 and Isa 1:18 snow forms a simile for purification. Some protest that snow water is not necessarily clean; but if fresh melting snow is meant, then the runoff would be very clear. The image would work well here. Nevertheless, others have followed the later Hebrew meaning for שֶׁלֶג (sheleg) – “soap” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT). Even though that makes a nice parallelism, it is uncertain whether that meaning was in use at the time this text was written.
2 tn The word בֹּר (bor, “lye, potash”) does not refer to purity (Syriac, KJV, ASV), but refers to the ingredient used to make the hands pure or clean. It has the same meaning as בֹּרִית (borit), the alkali or soda made from the ashes of certain plants.
3 tn For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) to introduce concessive clauses, see GKC 499 §160.c.
4 tn The last two words are the imperfect verb יֹסִיף (yosif) which means “he adds,” and the abstract noun “energy, strength.” This noun is not found elsewhere; its Piel verb occurs in Job 4:4 and 16:5. “he increases strength.”
5 tn In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not imperfect.
6 tn Heb “according to my righteousness.” As vv. 22-24 make clear, the psalmist refers here to his unwavering obedience to God’s commands. In these verses the psalmist explains that the
7 tn The unreduced Hiphil prefixed verbal form appears to be an imperfect, in which case the psalmist would be generalizing. However, both the preceding and following contexts (see especially v. 24) suggest he is narrating his experience. Despite its unreduced form, the verb is better taken as a preterite. For other examples of unreduced Hiphil preterites, see Pss 55:14a; 68:9a, 10b; 80:8a; 89:43a; 107:38b; 116:6b.
8 tn Heb “according to the purity of my hands he repaid to me.” “Hands” suggest activity and behavior.
9 tn Heb “the innocent of hands and the pure of heart.” The “hands” allude to one’s actions, the “heart” to one’s thought life and motives.
10 tn Heb “who does not lift up for emptiness my life.” The first person pronoun on נַפְשִׁי (nafshiy, “my life”) makes little sense here; many medieval Hebrew
11 tn Heb “and does not swear an oath deceitfully.”
12 tn Heb “I wash my hands in innocence.” The psalmist uses an image from cultic ritual to picture his moral lifestyle. The imperfect verbal emphasizes that this is his habit.
13 tn Heb “so I can go around your altar” (probably in ritual procession). Following the imperfect of the preceding line, the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.
14 tn The words “I concluded” are supplied in the translation. It is apparent that vv. 13-14 reflect the psalmist’s thoughts at an earlier time (see vv. 2-3), prior to the spiritual awakening he describes in vv. 17-28.
15 tn Heb “heart,” viewed here as the seat of one’s thoughts and motives.
16 tn Heb “and washed my hands in innocence.” The psalmist uses an image from cultic ritual to picture his moral lifestyle. The reference to “hands” suggests actions.
17 tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”
18 sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.
19 sn Having demonstrated the people’s guilt, the Lord calls them to repentance, which will involve concrete action in the socio-economic realm, not mere emotion.
20 sn This phrase refers to Israel’s covenant treachery (cf. Deut 28:10; Jer 4:4; 21:12; 23:2, 22; 25:5; 26:3; 44:22; Hos 9:15; Ps 28:4). In general, the noun ַמעַלְלֵיכֶם (ma’alleykhem) can simply be a reference to deeds, whether good or bad. However, Isaiah always uses it with a negative connotation (cf. 3:8, 10).
21 tn Heb “carried off,” i.e., grabbed from the fleeing crowd. See HALOT 764 s.v. ספה.
22 tn Heb “will fall” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NLT “will be run through with a sword.”
23 tc ‡ Although most witnesses read the genitive plural pronoun αὐτῶν (autwn, “their”), it may have been motivated by clarification (as it is in the translation above). Several other authorities do not have the pronoun, however (א B Δ 073 Ë1 579 700 892 1424 pc f g1); the lack of an unintentional oversight as the reason for omission strengthens their combined testimony in this shorter reading. NA27 has the pronoun in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.
24 tn Grk “when they eat bread.”
25 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
26 sn You take care of it yourselves! Compare the response of the chief priests and elders to Judas in 27:4. The expression is identical except that in 27:4 it is singular and here it is plural.
27 tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.
28 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.
29 map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.
30 tn Grk “in the days.”
31 sn King Herod was Herod the Great, who ruled Palestine from 37
32 sn The Greek term magi here describes a class of wise men and priests who were astrologers (L&N 32.40).
33 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.
34 tn Or “desert.”