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. ¹ 

Come back to me, for I protect ²  you.”

Psalms 51:7

51:7 Sprinkle me ³  with water ⁴  and I will be pure; ⁵ 

wash me ⁶  and I will be whiter than snow. ⁷ 

Micah 7:18-19

7:18 There is no other God like you! ⁸ 

You ⁹  forgive sin

and pardon ¹⁰  the rebellion

of those who remain among your people. ¹¹ 

You do not remain angry forever, ¹² 

but delight in showing loyal love.

7:19 You will once again ¹³  have mercy on us;

you will conquer ¹⁴  our evil deeds;

you will hurl our ¹⁵  sins into the depths of the sea. ¹⁶ 

Romans 5:20

5:20 Now the law came in ¹⁷  so that the transgression ¹⁸  may increase, but where sin increased, grace multiplied all the more,

Ephesians 1:6-8

1:6 to the praise of the glory of his grace ¹⁹  that he has freely bestowed on us in his dearly loved Son. ²⁰  1:7 In him ²¹  we have redemption through his blood, ²²  the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace 1:8 that he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight.

Revelation 7:14

7:14 So ²³  I said to him, “My lord, you know the answer.” ²⁴  Then ²⁵  he said to me, “These are the ones who have come out of the great tribulation. They ²⁶  have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb!

[44:22]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “redeem.” See the note at 41:14.

[51:7]  ³ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “cleanse me with hyssop.” “Hyssop” was a small plant (see 1 Kgs 4:33) used to apply water (or blood) in purification rites (see Exod 12:22; Lev 14:4-6, 49-52; Num 19:6-18. The psalmist uses the language and imagery of such rites to describe spiritual cleansing through forgiveness.

[51:7]  ⁵ tn After the preceding imperfect, the imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates result.

[51:7]  ⁶ tn The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

[51:7]  ⁷ sn I will be whiter than snow. Whiteness here symbolizes the moral purity resulting from forgiveness (see Isa 1:18).

[7:18]  ⁸ tn Heb “Who is a God like you?” The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one!”

[7:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “one who.” The prayer moves from direct address (second person) in v. 18a to a descriptive (third person) style in vv. 18b-19a and then back to direct address (second person) in vv. 19b-20. Due to considerations of English style and the unfamiliarity of the modern reader with alternation of persons in Hebrew poetry, the entire section has been rendered as direct address (second person) in the translation.

[7:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “pass over.”

[7:18]  ¹¹ tn Heb “of the remnant of his inheritance.”

[7:18]  ¹² tn Heb “he does not keep hold of his anger forever.”

[7:19]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ sn In this metaphor the Lord disposes of Israel’s sins by throwing them into the waters of the sea (here symbolic of chaos).

[5:20]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “slipped in.”

[5:20]  ¹⁸ tn Or “trespass.”

[1:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “to the praise of his glorious grace.” Many translations translate δόξης τῆς χάριτος αὐτοῦ (doxh" th" carito" autou, literally “of the glory of his grace”) with τῆς χάριτος as an attributed genitive (cf., e.g., NIV, NRSV, ESV). The translation above has retained a literal rendering in order to make clear the relationship of this phrase to the other two similar phrases in v. 12 and 14, which affect the way one divides the material in the passage.

[1:6]  ²⁰ tn Grk “the beloved.” The term ἠγαπημένῳ (hgaphmenw) means “beloved,” but often bears connotations of “only beloved” in an exclusive sense. “His dearly loved Son” picks up this connotation.

[1:7]  ²¹ tn Grk “in whom” (the relative clause of v. 7 is subordinate to v. 6). The “him” refers to Christ.

[1:7]  ²² sn In this context his blood, the blood of Jesus Christ, refers to the price paid for believers’ redemption, which is the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross.

[7:14]  ²³ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of the previous question.

[7:14]  ²⁴ tn Though the expression “the answer” is not in the Greek text, it is clearly implied. Direct objects in Greek were frequently omitted when clear from the context.

[7:14]  ²⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the vision.

[7:14]  ²⁶ tn Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation. Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.