2 Samuel 12:13

12:13 Then David exclaimed to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord!” Nathan replied to David, “Yes, and the Lord has forgiven ¹  your sin. You are not going to die.

Psalms 32:1-2

Psalm 32 ² 

By David; a well-written song. ³ 

32:1 How blessed ⁴  is the one whose rebellious acts are forgiven, ⁵ 

whose sin is pardoned! ⁶ 

32:2 How blessed is the one ⁷  whose wrongdoing the Lord does not punish, ⁸ 

in whose spirit there is no deceit. ⁹ 

Psalms 51:9

51:9 Hide your face ¹⁰  from my sins!

Wipe away ¹¹  all my guilt!

Isaiah 6:5-7

6:5 I said, “Too bad for me! I am destroyed, ¹²  for my lips are contaminated by sin, ¹³  and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. ¹⁴  My eyes have seen the king, the Lord who commands armies.” ¹⁵  6:6 But then one of the seraphs flew toward me. In his hand was a hot coal he had taken from the altar with tongs. 6:7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Look, this coal has touched your lips. Your evil is removed; your sin is forgiven.” ¹⁶ 

John 1:29

1:29 On the next day John ¹⁷  saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God ¹⁸  who takes away the sin of the world!

Romans 6:23

6:23 For the payoff ¹⁹  of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Hebrews 8:12

8:12 “For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.” ²⁰ 

[12:13]  ¹ tn Heb “removed.”

[32:1]  ² sn Psalm 32. The psalmist recalls the agony he experienced prior to confessing his sins and affirms that true happiness comes when one’s sins are forgiven. He then urges others not to be stubborn, but to turn to God while forgiveness is available, for God extends his mercy to the repentant, while the wicked experience nothing but sorrow.

[32:1]  ³ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term מַשְׂכִּיל (maskil) is uncertain. The word is derived from a verb meaning “to be prudent; to be wise.” Various options are: “a contemplative song,” “a song imparting moral wisdom,” or “a skillful [i.e., well-written] song.” The term occurs in the superscriptions of Pss 32, 42, 44, 45, 52-55, 74, 78, 88, 89, and 142, as well as in Ps 47:7.

[32:1]  ⁴ tn The Hebrew noun is an abstract plural. The word often refers metonymically to the happiness that God-given security and prosperity produce (see Pss 1:1, 3; 2:12; 34:9; 41:1; 65:4; 84:12; 89:15; 106:3; 112:1; 127:5; 128:1; 144:15). Here it refers to the relief that one experiences when one’s sins are forgiven.

[32:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “lifted up.”

[32:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “covered over.”

[32:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “man.” The word choice reflects the perspective of the psalmist, who is male. The principle of the psalm is certainly applicable to all people, regardless of their gender or age. To facilitate modern application, the gender and age specific “man” has been translated with the more neutral “one.”

[32:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “blessed [is] the man to whom the Lord does not impute wrongdoing.”

[32:2]  ⁹ sn In whose spirit there is no deceit. The point is not that the individual is sinless and pure. In this context, which focuses on confession and forgiveness of sin, the psalmist refers to one who refuses to deny or hide his sin, but instead honestly confesses it to God.

[51:9]  ¹⁰ sn In this context Hide your face from my sins means “Do not hold me accountable for my sins.”

[51:9]  ¹¹ tn See the note on the similar expression “wipe away my rebellious acts” in v. 1.

[6:5]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and among a nation unclean of lips I live.”

[6:5]  ¹⁵ 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.

[6:7]  ¹⁶ tn Or “ritually cleansed,” or “atoned for” (NIV).

[1:29]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “he”; the referent (John) has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:29]  ¹⁸ sn Gen 22:8 is an important passage in the background of the title Lamb of God as applied to Jesus. In Jewish thought this was held to be a supremely important sacrifice. G. Vermès stated: “For the Palestinian Jew, all lamb sacrifice, and especially the Passover lamb and the Tamid offering, was a memorial of the Akedah with its effects of deliverance, forgiveness of sin and messianic salvation” (Scripture and Tradition in Judaism [StPB], 225).

[6:23]  ¹⁹ tn A figurative extension of ὀψώνιον (oywnion), which refers to a soldier’s pay or wages. Here it refers to the end result of an activity, seen as something one receives back in return. In this case the activity is sin, and the translation “payoff” captures this thought. See also L&N 89.42.

[8:12]  ²⁰ sn A quotation from Jer 31:31-34.