Isaiah 1:18

1:18 ¹ Come, let’s consider your options,” ²  says the Lord.

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

you can become ³  white like snow;

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

you can become ⁴  white like wool. ⁵ 

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.

Nehemiah 4:5

4:5 Do not cover their iniquity, and do not wipe out their sin from before them. For they have bitterly offended ⁶  the builders! ⁷ 

Psalms 51:1

Psalm 51 ⁸ 

For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. ⁹ 

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of ¹⁰  your loyal love!

Because of ¹¹  your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! ¹² 

Psalms 51:9

51:9 Hide your face ¹³  from my sins!

Wipe away ¹⁴  all my guilt!

Psalms 103:12

103:12 As far as the eastern horizon ¹⁵  is from the west, ¹⁶ 

so he removes the guilt of our rebellious actions ¹⁷  from us.

Psalms 109:14

109:14 May his ancestors’ ¹⁸  sins be remembered by the Lord!

May his mother’s sin not be forgotten! ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 18:23

18:23 But you, Lord, know

all their plots to kill me.

Do not pardon their crimes!

Do not ignore their sins as though you had erased them! ²⁰ 

Let them be brought down in defeat before you!

Deal with them while you are still angry! ²¹ 

Jeremiah 33:8

33:8 I will purify them from all the sin that they committed against me. I will forgive all their sins which they committed in rebelling against me. ²² 

Acts 3:19

3:19 Therefore repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out,

[1:18]  ¹ 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]  ² 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]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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.

[4:5]  ⁶ tn The Hiphil stem of כָּעַס (ka’as) may mean: (1) “to provoke to anger”; (2) “to bitterly offend”; or (3) “to grieve” (BDB 495 s.v. Hiph.; HALOT 491 s.v. כעס hif). The Hebrew lexicons suggest that “bitterly offend” is the most appropriate nuance here.

[4:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “before the builders.” The preposition נֶגֶד (neged, “before”) here connotes “in the sight of” or “in the view of” (BDB 617 s.v. 1.a; HALOT 666 s.v. 1.a).

[51:1]  ⁸ sn Psalm 51. The psalmist confesses his sinfulness to God and begs for forgiveness and a transformation of his inner character. According to the psalm superscription, David offered this prayer when Nathan confronted him with his sin following the king’s affair with Bathsheba (see 2 Sam 11-12). However, the final two verses of the psalm hardly fit this situation, for they assume the walls of Jerusalem have been destroyed and that the sacrificial system has been temporarily suspended. These verses are probably an addition to the psalm made during the period of exile following the fall of Jerusalem in 586 b.c. The exiles could relate to David’s experience, for they, like him, and had been forced to confront their sin. They appropriated David’s ancient prayer and applied it to their own circumstances.

[51:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “a psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him when he had gone to Bathsheba.”

[51:1]  ¹⁰ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ¹² tn Traditionally “blot out my transgressions.” Because of the reference to washing and cleansing in the following verse, it is likely that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to wiping an object clean (note the use of the verb מָחָה (makhah) in the sense of “wipe clean; dry” in 2 Kgs 21:13; Prov 30:20; Isa 25:8). Another option is that the psalmist is comparing forgiveness to erasing or blotting out names from a register (see Exod 32:32-33). In this case one might translate, “erase all record of my rebellious acts.”

[51:9]  ¹³ sn In this context Hide your face from my sins means “Do not hold me accountable for my sins.”

[51:9]  ¹⁴ tn See the note on the similar expression “wipe away my rebellious acts” in v. 1.

[103:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sunrise.”

[103:12]  ¹⁶ tn Or “sunset.”

[103:12]  ¹⁷ tn The Hebrew term פֶּשַׁע (pesha’, rebellious act”) is here used metonymically for the guilt such actions produce.

[109:14]  ¹⁸ tn Or “fathers’ sins.”

[109:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “not be wiped out.”

[18:23]  ²⁰ sn Heb “Do not blot out their sins from before you.” For this anthropomorphic figure which looks at God’s actions as though connected with record books, i.e., a book of wrongdoings to be punished, and a book of life for those who are to live, see e.g., Exod 32:32, 33, Ps 51:1 (51:3 HT); 69:28 (69:29 HT).

[18:23]  ²¹ tn Heb “in the time of your anger.”

[33:8]  ²² sn Compare Jer 31:34; Ezek 36:25, 33.