Exodus 34:6-7

34:6 The Lord passed by before him and proclaimed: ¹  “The Lord, the Lord, ²  the compassionate and gracious ³  God, slow to anger, ⁴  and abounding in loyal love and faithfulness, ⁵  34:7 keeping loyal love for thousands, ⁶  forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But he by no means leaves the guilty unpunished, responding to the transgression ⁷  of fathers by dealing with children and children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.”

Psalms 32:5

32:5 Then I confessed my sin;

I no longer covered up my wrongdoing.

I said, “I will confess ⁸  my rebellious acts to the Lord.”

And then you forgave my sins. ⁹  (Selah)

Psalms 35:5

35:5 May they be ¹⁰  like wind-driven chaff,

as the Lord’s angel ¹¹  attacks them! ¹² 

Psalms 103:3

103:3 He is the one who forgives all your sins,

who heals all your diseases, ¹³ 

Psalms 130:4

130:4 But ¹⁴  you are willing to forgive, ¹⁵ 

so that you might ¹⁶  be honored. ¹⁷ 

Isaiah 1:18

1:18 ¹⁸ Come, let’s consider your options,” ¹⁹  says the Lord.

“Though your sins have stained you like the color red,

you can become ²⁰  white like snow;

though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet,

you can become ²¹  white like wool. ²² 

Isaiah 43:25

43:25 I, I am the one who blots out your rebellious deeds for my sake;

your sins I do not remember.

Isaiah 44:22

44:22 I remove the guilt of your rebellious deeds as if they were a cloud,

the guilt of your sins as if they were a cloud. ²³ 

Come back to me, for I protect ²⁴  you.”

Daniel 9:9

9:9 Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, ²⁵  even though we have rebelled against him.

Daniel 9:19

9:19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, and act! Don’t delay, for your own sake, O my God! For your city and your people are called by your name.” ²⁶ 

Micah 7:19

7:19 You will once again ²⁷  have mercy on us;

you will conquer ²⁸  our evil deeds;

you will hurl our ²⁹  sins into the depths of the sea. ³⁰ 

Romans 8:33

8:33 Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? ³¹  It is God who justifies.

[34:6]  ¹ tn Here is one of the clearest examples of what it means “to call on the name of the Lord,” as that clause has been translated traditionally (וַיִּקְרָא בְשֵׁם יְהוָה, vayyiqra’ vÿshem yÿhvah). It seems more likely that it means “to make proclamation of Yahweh by name.” Yahweh came down and made a proclamation – and the next verses give the content of what he said. This cannot be prayer or praise; it is a proclamation of the nature or attributes of God (which is what his “name” means throughout the Bible). Attempts to make Moses the subject of the verb are awkward, for the verb is repeated in v. 6 with Yahweh clearly doing the proclaiming.

[34:6]  ² sn U. Cassuto (Exodus, 439) suggests that these two names be written as a sentence: “Yahweh, He is Yahweh.” In this manner it reflects “I am that I am.” It is impossible to define his name in any other way than to make this affirmation and then show what it means.

[34:6]  ³ tn See Exod 33:19.

[34:6]  ⁴ sn This is literally “long of anger.” His anger prolongs itself, allowing for people to repent before punishment is inflicted.

[34:6]  ⁵ sn These two words (“loyal love” and “truth”) are often found together, occasionally in a hendiadys construction. If that is the interpretation here, then it means “faithful covenant love.” Even if they are left separate, they are dual elements of a single quality. The first word is God’s faithful covenant love; the second word is God’s reliability and faithfulness.

[34:7]  ⁶ tn That is, “for thousands of generations.”

[34:7]  ⁷ sn As in the ten commandments (20:5-6), this expression shows that the iniquity and its punishment will continue in the family if left unchecked. This does not go on as long as the outcomes for good (thousands versus third or fourth generations), and it is limited to those who hate God.

[32:5]  ⁸ tn The Hiphil of ידה normally means “give thanks, praise,” but here, as in Prov 28:13, it means “confess.”

[32:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “the wrongdoing of my sin.” By joining synonyms for “sin” in this way, the psalmist may be emphasizing the degree of his wrongdoing.

[35:5]  ¹⁰ tn The prefixed verbal form is taken as a jussive. See v. 4.

[35:5]  ¹¹ sn See the mention of the Lord’s angel in Ps 34:7.

[35:5]  ¹² tn Heb “as the Lord’s angel pushes [them].”

[103:3]  ¹³ tn This relatively rare noun refers to deadly diseases (see Deut 29:22; Jer 14:18; 16:4; 2 Chr 21:19).

[130:4]  ¹⁴ tn Or “surely.”

[130:4]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “for with you [there is] forgiveness.”

[130:4]  ¹⁶ tn Or “consequently you are.”

[130:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “feared.”

[1:18]  ¹⁸ sn The Lord concludes his case against Israel by offering them the opportunity to be forgiven and by setting before them the alternatives of renewed blessing (as a reward for repentance) and final judgment (as punishment for persistence in sin).

[1:18]  ¹⁹ tn Traditionally, “let us reason together,” but the context suggests a judicial nuance. The Lord is giving the nation its options for the future.

[1:18]  ²⁰ tn The imperfects must be translated as modal (indicating capability or possibility) to bring out the conditional nature of the offer. This purification will only occur if the people repent and change their ways.

[1:18]  ²¹ tn The imperfects must be translated as modal (indicating capability or possibility) to bring out the conditional nature of the offer. This purification will only occur if the people repent and change their ways.

[1:18]  ²² tn Heb “though your sins are like red, they will become white like snow; though they are red like scarlet, they will be like wool.” The point is not that the sins will be covered up, though still retained. The metaphorical language must be allowed some flexibility and should not be pressed into a rigid literalistic mold. The people’s sins will be removed and replaced by ethical purity. The sins that are now as obvious as the color red will be washed away and the ones who are sinful will be transformed.

[44:22]  ²³ tn Heb “I blot out like a cloud your rebellious deeds, and like a cloud your sins.” “Rebellious deeds” and “sins” stand by metonymy for the guilt they produce. Both עָב (’av) and עָנָן (’anan) refer to the clouds in the sky. It is tempting for stylistic purposes to translate the second with “fog” or “mist” (cf. NAB, NRSV “cloud…mist”; NIV “cloud…morning mist”; NLT “morning mists…clouds”), but this distinction between the synonyms is unwarranted here. The point of the simile seems to be this: The Lord forgives their sins, causing them to vanish just as clouds disappear from the sky (see Job 7:9; 30:15).

[44:22]  ²⁴ tn Heb “redeem.” See the note at 41:14.

[9:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “to the Lord our God (belong) compassion and forgiveness.”

[9:19]  ²⁶ tn Heb “for your name is called over your city and your people.” See the note on this expression in v 18.

[7:19]  ²⁷ tn The verb יָשׁוּב (yashuv, “he will return”) is here used adverbially in relation to the following verb, indicating that the Lord will again show mercy.

[7:19]  ²⁸ tn Some prefer to read יִכְבֹּס (yikhbos, “he will cleanse”; see HALOT 459 s.v. כבס pi). If the MT is taken as it stands, sin is personified as an enemy that the Lord subdues.

[7:19]  ²⁹ tn Heb “their sins,” but the final mem (ם) may be enclitic rather than a pronominal suffix. In this case the suffix from the preceding line (“our”) may be understood as doing double duty.

[7:19]  ³⁰ sn In this metaphor the Lord disposes of Israel’s sins by throwing them into the waters of the sea (here symbolic of chaos).

[8:33]  ³¹ sn An allusion to Isa 50:8 where the reference is singular; Paul applies this to all believers (“God’s elect” is plural here).