Genesis 50:20

50:20 As for you, you meant to harm me, ¹  but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day. ² 

Job 33:27-28

33:27 That person sings ³  to others, ⁴  saying:

‘I have sinned and falsified what is right,

but I was not punished according to what I deserved. ⁵ 

33:28 He redeemed my life ⁶ 

from going down to the place of corruption,

and my life sees the light!’

Psalms 21:11

21:11 Yes, ⁷  they intend to do you harm; ⁸ 

they dream up a scheme, ⁹  but they do not succeed. ¹⁰ 

Proverbs 28:13

28:13 The one who covers ¹¹  his transgressions will not prosper, ¹² 

but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy. ¹³ 

James 5:16

5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. ¹⁴ 

[50:20]  ¹ tn Heb “you devised against me evil.”

[50:20]  ² tn Heb “God devised it for good in order to do, like this day, to preserve alive a great nation.”

[33:27]  ³ tc The verb יָשֹׁר (yashor) is unusual. The typical view is to change it to יָשִׁיר (yashir, “he sings”), but that may seem out of harmony with a confession. Dhorme suggests a root שׁוּר (shur, “to repeat”), but this is a doubtful root. J. Reider reads it יָשֵׁיר (yasher) and links it to an Arabic word “confesses” (ZAW 24 [1953]: 275).

[33:27]  ⁴ tn Heb “to men.”

[33:27]  ⁵ tn The verb שָׁוָה (shavah) has the impersonal meaning here, “it has not been requited to me.” The meaning is that the sinner has not been treated in accordance with his deeds: “I was not punished according to what I deserved.”

[33:28]  ⁶ sn See note on “him” in v. 24.

[21:11]  ⁷ tn Or “for.”

[21:11]  ⁸ tn Heb “they extend against you harm.” The perfect verbal forms in v. 11 are taken as generalizing, stating factually what the king’s enemies typically do. Another option is to translate with the past tense (“they intended…planned”).

[21:11]  ⁹ sn See Ps 10:2.

[21:11]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they lack ability.”

[28:13]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew participles provide the subject matter in this contrast. On the one hand is the person who covers over (מְכַסֶּה, mÿkhasseh) his sins. This means refusing to acknowledge them in confession, and perhaps rationalizing them away. On the other hand there is the one who both “confesses” (מוֹדֶה, modeh) and “forsakes” (עֹזֵב, ’ozev) the sin. To “confess” sins means to acknowledge them, to say the same thing about them that God does.

[28:13]  ¹² sn The verse contrasts the consequences of each. The person who refuses to confess will not prosper. This is an understatement (a figure of speech known as tapeinosis); the opposite is the truth, that eventually such a person will be undone and ruined. On the other hand, the penitent will find mercy. This expression is a metonymy of cause for the effect – although “mercy” is mentioned, what mercy provides is intended, i.e., forgiveness. In other passages the verb “conceal” is used of God’s forgiveness – he covers over the iniquity (Ps 32:1). Whoever acknowledges sin, God will cover it; whoever covers it, God will lay it open.

[28:13]  ¹³ sn This verse is unique in the book of Proverbs; it captures the theology of forgiveness (e.g., Pss 32 and 51). Every part of the passage is essential to the point: Confession of sins as opposed to concealing them, coupled with a turning away from them, results in mercy.

[5:16]  ¹⁴ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”