Genesis 20:9

20:9 Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? ¹  You have done things to me that should not be done!” ² 

Leviticus 4:2

4:2 “Tell the Israelites, ‘When a person sins by straying unintentionally ³  from any of the Lord’s commandments which must not be violated, and violates any ⁴  one of them ⁵  –

Leviticus 4:13

For the Whole Congregation

4:13 “‘If the whole congregation of Israel strays unintentionally ⁶  and the matter is not noticed by ⁷  the assembly, and they violate one of the Lord’s commandments, which must not be violated, ⁸  so they become guilty,

Leviticus 4:27

For the Common Person

4:27 “‘If an ordinary individual ⁹  sins by straying unintentionally ¹⁰  when he violates one of the Lord’s commandments which must not be violated, ¹¹  and he pleads guilty

Deuteronomy 23:17

Purity in Cultic Personnel

23:17 There must never be a sacred prostitute ¹²  among the young women ¹³  of Israel nor a sacred male prostitute ¹⁴  among the young men ¹⁵  of Israel.

Deuteronomy 23:1

Purity in Public Worship

23:1 A man with crushed ¹⁶  or severed genitals ¹⁷  may not enter the assembly of the Lord. ¹⁸ 

Colossians 1:18

1:18 He is the head of the body, the church, as well as the beginning, the firstborn ¹⁹  from among the dead, so that he himself may become first in all things. ²⁰ 

Colossians 1:8

1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Ephesians 5:3

5:3 But ²¹  among you there must not be either sexual immorality, impurity of any kind, ²²  or greed, as these are not fitting for the saints. ²³ 

Colossians 3:5

3:5 So put to death whatever in your nature belongs to the earth: ²⁴  sexual immorality, impurity, shameful passion, ²⁵  evil desire, and greed which is idolatry.

Colossians 3:1

Exhortations to Seek the Things Above

3:1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.

Colossians 1:13

1:13 He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the Son he loves, ²⁶ 

Hebrews 13:4

13:4 Marriage must be honored among all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge sexually immoral people and adulterers.

James 3:10

3:10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. These things should not be so, my brothers and sisters. ²⁷ 

[20:9]  ¹ tn Heb “How did I sin against you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin?” The expression “great sin” refers to adultery. For discussion of the cultural background of the passage, see J. J. Rabinowitz, “The Great Sin in Ancient Egyptian Marriage Contracts,” JNES 18 (1959): 73, and W. L. Moran, “The Scandal of the ‘Great Sin’ at Ugarit,” JNES 18 (1959): 280-81.

[20:9]  ² tn Heb “Deeds which should not be done you have done to me.” The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here.

[4:2]  ³ tn Heb “And a person, when he sins in straying.” The English translation of “by straying” (בִּשְׁגָגָה [bishgagah] literally, “in going astray; in making an error”) varies greatly, but almost all suggest that this term refers to sins that were committed by mistake or done not knowing that the particular act was sinful (J. Milgrom, Leviticus [AB], 1:228-29). See, e.g., LXX “involuntarily”; Tg. Onq. “by neglect”; KJV “through ignorance”; ASV, RSV, NJPS “unwittingly”; NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT “unintentionally”; NAB, NEB “inadvertently”; NCV “by accident.” However, we know from Num 15:27-31 that committing a sin “by straying” is the opposite of committing a sin “defiantly” (i.e., בְּיַד רָמָה [bÿyad ramah] “with a raised hand,” v. 30). In the latter case the person, as it were, raises his fist in presumptuous defiance against the Lord. Thus, he “blasphemes” the Lord and has “despised” his word, for which he should be “cut off from among his people” (Num 15:30-31). One could not bring an offering for such a sin. The expression here in Lev 4:2 combines “by straying” with the preposition “from” which fits naturally with “straying” (i.e., “straying from” the Lord’s commandments). For sins committed “by straying” from the commandments (Lev 4 throughout) or other types of transgressions (Lev 5:1-6) there was indeed forgiveness available through the sin offering. See R. E. Averbeck, NIDOTTE 2:94-95.

[4:2]  ⁴ tn This is an emphatic use of the preposition מִן (min; see R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 56-57, §325).

[4:2]  ⁵ tn The “when” clause (כִּי, ki) breaks off here before its resolution, thus creating an open-ended introduction to the following subsections, which are introduced by “if” (אִם [’im] vv. 3, 13, 27, 32). Also, the last part of the verse reads literally, “which must not be done and does from one from them.”

[4:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “strays”; KJV “sin through ignorance.” The verb “strays” here is the verbal form of the noun in the expression “by straying” (see the note on Lev 4:2 above).

[4:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “is concealed from the eyes of”; NASB, NRSV, NLT “escapes the notice of.”

[4:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “and they do one from all the commandments of the Lord which must not be done” (cf. v. 2).

[4:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “an individual from the people of the land”; cf. NASB “anyone of the common people” (KJV, ASV both similar); NAB “a private person.”

[4:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “If one person sins by straying, from the people of the land.” See Lev 4:2 for a note on “straying.”

[4:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “by doing it, one from the commandments of the Lord which must not be done.”

[23:17]  ¹² tn The Hebrew term translated “sacred prostitute” here (קְדֵשָׁה [qÿdeshah], from קַדֵשׁ [qadesh, “holy”]; cf. NIV “shrine prostitute”; NASB “cult prostitute”; NRSV, TEV, NLT “temple prostitute”) refers to the pagan fertility cults that employed female and male prostitutes in various rituals designed to evoke agricultural and even human fecundity (cf. Gen 38:21-22; 1 Kgs 14:24; 15:12; 22:47; 2 Kgs 23:7; Hos 4:14). The Hebrew term for a regular, noncultic (i.e., “secular”) female prostitute is זוֹנָה (zonah).

[23:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “daughters.”

[23:17]  ¹⁴ tn The male cultic prostitute was called קָדֵשׁ (qadesh; see note on the phrase “sacred prostitute” earlier in this verse). The colloquial Hebrew term for a “secular” male prostitute (i.e., a sodomite) is the disparaging epithet כֶּלֶב (kelev, “dog”) which occurs in the following verse (cf. KJV, ASV, NAB, NASB).

[23:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sons.”

[23:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “bruised by crushing,” which many English versions take to refer to crushed testicles (NAB, NRSV, NLT); TEV “who has been castrated.”

[23:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “cut off with respect to the penis”; KJV, ASV “hath his privy member cut off”; English versions vary in their degree of euphemism here; cf. NAB, NRSV, TEV, NLT “penis”; NASB “male organ”; NCV “sex organ”; CEV “private parts”; NIV “emasculated by crushing or cutting.”

[23:1]  ¹⁸ sn The Hebrew term translated “assembly” (קָהָל, qahal) does not refer here to the nation as such but to the formal services of the tabernacle or temple. Since emasculated or other sexually abnormal persons were commonly associated with pagan temple personnel, the thrust here may be primarily polemical in intent. One should not read into this anything having to do with the mentally and physically handicapped as fit to participate in the life and ministry of the church.

[1:18]  ¹⁹ tn See the note on the term “firstborn” in 1:15. Here the reference to Jesus as the “firstborn from among the dead” seems to be arguing for a chronological priority, i.e., Jesus was the first to rise from the dead.

[1:18]  ²⁰ tn Grk “in order that he may become in all things, himself, first.”

[5:3]  ²¹ tn The term “But” translates the δέ (de) in a contrastive way in light of the perfect obedience of Jesus in vv. 1-2 and the vices mentioned in v. 3.

[5:3]  ²² tn Grk “all impurity.”

[5:3]  ²³ tn Grk “just as is fitting for saints.” The καθώς (kaqws) was rendered with “as” and the sense is causal, i.e., “for” or “because.” The negative particle “not” (“for these are not proper for the saints”) in this clause was supplied in English so as to make the sense very clear, i.e., that these vices are not befitting of those who name the name of Christ.

[3:5]  ²⁴ tn Grk “the members which are on the earth.” See BDAG 628 s.v. μέλος 1, “put to death whatever in you is worldly.”

[3:5]  ²⁵ tn Or “lust.”

[1:13]  ²⁶ tn Here αὐτοῦ (autou) has been translated as a subjective genitive (“he loves”).

[3:10]  ²⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:2.