Job 9:30

9:30 If I wash myself with snow water, ¹ 

and make my hands clean with lye, ² 

Job 16:17

16:17 although ³  there is no violence in my hands

and my prayer is pure.

Job 17:9

17:9 But the righteous man holds to his way,

and the one with clean hands grows stronger. ⁴ 

Psalms 18:20

18:20 The Lord repaid ⁵  me for my godly deeds; ⁶ 

he rewarded ⁷  my blameless behavior. ⁸ 

Psalms 24:4

24:4 The one whose deeds are blameless

and whose motives are pure, ⁹ 

who does not lie, ¹⁰ 

or make promises with no intention of keeping them. ¹¹ 

Psalms 26:6

26:6 I maintain a pure lifestyle, ¹² 

so I can appear before your altar, ¹³  O Lord,

Psalms 73:13

73:13 I concluded, ¹⁴  “Surely in vain I have kept my motives ¹⁵  pure

and maintained a pure lifestyle. ¹⁶ 

Isaiah 1:15-16

1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I look the other way; ¹⁷ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ¹⁸ 

1:16 ¹⁹ Wash! Cleanse yourselves!

Remove your sinful deeds ²⁰ 

from my sight.

Stop sinning!

Isaiah 13:15

13:15 Everyone who is caught will be stabbed;

everyone who is seized ²¹  will die ²²  by the sword.

Matthew 15:2

15:2 “Why do your disciples disobey the tradition of the elders? For they don’t wash their ²³  hands when they eat.” ²⁴ 

Matthew 27:24

Jesus is Condemned and Mocked

27:24 When ²⁵  Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but that instead a riot was starting, he took some water, washed his hands before the crowd and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. You take care of it yourselves!” ²⁶ 

Matthew 27:1

Jesus Brought Before Pilate

27:1 When ²⁷  it was early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against Jesus to execute him.

Matthew 2:8

2:8 He ²⁸  sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and look carefully for the child. When you find him, inform me so that I can go and worship him as well.”

Matthew 2:1

The Visit of the Wise Men

2:1 After Jesus was born in Bethlehem ²⁹  in Judea, in the time ³⁰  of King Herod, ³¹  wise men ³²  from the East came to Jerusalem ³³ 

Matthew 3:1

The Ministry of John the Baptist

3:1 In those days John the Baptist came into the wilderness ³⁴  of Judea proclaiming,

[9:30]  ¹ tn The Syriac and Targum Job read with the Qere “with water of [בְמֵי, bÿme] snow.” The Kethib simply has “in [בְמוֹ, bÿmo] snow.” In Ps 51:9 and Isa 1:18 snow forms a simile for purification. Some protest that snow water is not necessarily clean; but if fresh melting snow is meant, then the runoff would be very clear. The image would work well here. Nevertheless, others have followed the later Hebrew meaning for שֶׁלֶג (sheleg) – “soap” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT). Even though that makes a nice parallelism, it is uncertain whether that meaning was in use at the time this text was written.

[9:30]  ² tn The word בֹּר (bor, “lye, potash”) does not refer to purity (Syriac, KJV, ASV), but refers to the ingredient used to make the hands pure or clean. It has the same meaning as בֹּרִית (borit), the alkali or soda made from the ashes of certain plants.

[16:17]  ³ tn For the use of the preposition עַל (’al) to introduce concessive clauses, see GKC 499 §160.c.

[17:9]  ⁴ tn The last two words are the imperfect verb יֹסִיף (yosif) which means “he adds,” and the abstract noun “energy, strength.” This noun is not found elsewhere; its Piel verb occurs in Job 4:4 and 16:5. “he increases strength.”

[18:20]  ⁵ tn In this poetic narrative context the prefixed verbal form is best understood as a preterite indicating past tense, not imperfect.

[18:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “according to my righteousness.” As vv. 22-24 make clear, the psalmist refers here to his unwavering obedience to God’s commands. In these verses the psalmist explains that the Lord was pleased with him and willing to deliver him because he had been loyal to God and obedient to his commandments. Ancient Near Eastern literature contains numerous parallels. A superior (a god or king) would typically reward a subject (a king or the servant of a king, respectively) for loyalty and obedience. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 211-13.

[18:20]  ⁷ tn The unreduced Hiphil prefixed verbal form appears to be an imperfect, in which case the psalmist would be generalizing. However, both the preceding and following contexts (see especially v. 24) suggest he is narrating his experience. Despite its unreduced form, the verb is better taken as a preterite. For other examples of unreduced Hiphil preterites, see Pss 55:14a; 68:9a, 10b; 80:8a; 89:43a; 107:38b; 116:6b.

[18:20]  ⁸ tn Heb “according to the purity of my hands he repaid to me.” “Hands” suggest activity and behavior.

[24:4]  ⁹ tn Heb “the innocent of hands and the pure of heart.” The “hands” allude to one’s actions, the “heart” to one’s thought life and motives.

[24:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “who does not lift up for emptiness my life.” The first person pronoun on נַפְשִׁי (nafshiy, “my life”) makes little sense here; many medieval Hebrew mss support the ancient versions in reading a third person pronoun “his.” The idiom “lift the life” here means to “long for” or “desire strongly.” In this context (note the reference to an oath in the following line) “emptiness” probably refers to speech (see Ps 12:2).

[24:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and does not swear an oath deceitfully.”

[26:6]  ¹² tn Heb “I wash my hands in innocence.” The psalmist uses an image from cultic ritual to picture his moral lifestyle. The imperfect verbal emphasizes that this is his habit.

[26:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “so I can go around your altar” (probably in ritual procession). Following the imperfect of the preceding line, the cohortative with vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose or result.

[73:13]  ¹⁴ tn The words “I concluded” are supplied in the translation. It is apparent that vv. 13-14 reflect the psalmist’s thoughts at an earlier time (see vv. 2-3), prior to the spiritual awakening he describes in vv. 17-28.

[73:13]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “heart,” viewed here as the seat of one’s thoughts and motives.

[73:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and washed my hands in innocence.” The psalmist uses an image from cultic ritual to picture his moral lifestyle. The reference to “hands” suggests actions.

[1:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ¹⁸ sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.

[1:16]  ¹⁹ sn Having demonstrated the people’s guilt, the Lord calls them to repentance, which will involve concrete action in the socio-economic realm, not mere emotion.

[1:16]  ²⁰ sn This phrase refers to Israel’s covenant treachery (cf. Deut 28:10; Jer 4:4; 21:12; 23:2, 22; 25:5; 26:3; 44:22; Hos 9:15; Ps 28:4). In general, the noun ַמעַלְלֵיכֶם (ma’alleykhem) can simply be a reference to deeds, whether good or bad. However, Isaiah always uses it with a negative connotation (cf. 3:8, 10).

[13:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “carried off,” i.e., grabbed from the fleeing crowd. See HALOT 764 s.v. ספה.

[13:15]  ²² tn Heb “will fall” (so KJV, NIV, NRSV); NLT “will be run through with a sword.”

[15:2]  ²³ tc ‡ Although most witnesses read the genitive plural pronoun αὐτῶν (autwn, “their”), it may have been motivated by clarification (as it is in the translation above). Several other authorities do not have the pronoun, however (א B Δ 073 ˹ 579 700 892 1424 pc f g¹); the lack of an unintentional oversight as the reason for omission strengthens their combined testimony in this shorter reading. NA²⁷ has the pronoun in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

[15:2]  ²⁴ tn Grk “when they eat bread.”

[27:24]  ²⁵ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[27:24]  ²⁶ sn You take care of it yourselves! Compare the response of the chief priests and elders to Judas in 27:4. The expression is identical except that in 27:4 it is singular and here it is plural.

[27:1]  ²⁷ tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[2:8]  ²⁸ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[2:1]  ²⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[2:1]  ³⁰ tn Grk “in the days.”

[2:1]  ³¹ sn King Herod was Herod the Great, who ruled Palestine from 37 b.c. until he died in 4 b.c. He was known for his extensive building projects (including the temple in Jerusalem) and for his cruelty.

[2:1]  ³² sn The Greek term magi here describes a class of wise men and priests who were astrologers (L&N 32.40).

[2:1]  ³³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:1]  ³⁴ tn Or “desert.”