Lamentations 1:18

Jerusalem Speaks:

צ (Tsade)

1:18 The Lord is right to judge me! ¹ 

Yes, I rebelled against his commands. ² 

Please listen, all you nations, ³ 

and look at my suffering!

My young women and men

have gone into exile.

Leviticus 26:40-42

26:40 However, when ⁴  they confess their iniquity and their ancestors’ iniquity which they committed by trespassing against me, ⁵  by which they also walked ⁶  in hostility against me ⁷  26:41 (and I myself will walk in hostility against them and bring them into the land of their enemies), and ⁸  then their uncircumcised hearts become humbled and they make up for ⁹  their iniquity, 26:42 I will remember my covenant with Jacob and also my covenant with Isaac and also my covenant with Abraham, ¹⁰  and I will remember the land.

Leviticus 26:1

Exhortation to Obedience

26:1 “‘You must not make for yourselves idols, ¹¹  so you must not set up for yourselves a carved image or a pillar, and you must not place a sculpted stone in your land to bow down before ¹²  it, for I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 8:1

Ordination of the Priests

8:1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: ¹³ 

Job 33:27

33:27 That person sings ¹⁴  to others, ¹⁵  saying:

‘I have sinned and falsified what is right,

but I was not punished according to what I deserved. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 51:3-4

51:3 For I am aware of ¹⁷  my rebellious acts;

I am forever conscious of my sin. ¹⁸ 

51:4 Against you – you above all ¹⁹  – I have sinned;

I have done what is evil in your sight.

So ²⁰  you are just when you confront me; ²¹ 

you are right when you condemn me. ²² 

Proverbs 28:13

28:13 The one who covers ²³  his transgressions will not prosper, ²⁴ 

but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy. ²⁵ 

Jeremiah 2:35

2:35 you say, ‘I have not done anything wrong,

so the Lord cannot really be angry with me any more.’

But, watch out! ²⁶  I will bring down judgment on you

because you say, ‘I have not committed any sin.’

Jeremiah 3:13

3:13 However, you must confess that you have done wrong, ²⁷ 

and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God.

You must confess ²⁸  that you have given yourself to ²⁹  foreign gods under every green tree,

and have not obeyed my commands,’ says the Lord.

Luke 15:18-19

15:18 I will get up and go to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned ³⁰  against heaven ³¹  and against ³²  you. 15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me ³³  like one of your hired workers.”’

Luke 18:13-14

18:13 The tax collector, however, stood ³⁴  far off and would not even look up ³⁵  to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, be merciful ³⁶  to me, sinner that I am!’ ³⁷  18:14 I tell you that this man went down to his home justified ³⁸  rather than the Pharisee. ³⁹  For everyone who exalts ⁴⁰  himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”

[1:18]  ¹ tn Heb “The Lord himself is right.” The phrase “to judge me” is not in the Hebrew, but is added in the translation to clarify the expression.

[1:18]  ² tn Heb “His mouth.” The term “mouth” (פֶּה, peh) is a metonymy of instrument (= mouth) for the product (= words). The term פֶּה (peh) often stands for spoken words (Ps 49:14; Eccl 10:3; Isa 29:13), declaration (Gen 41:40; Exod 38:21; Num 35:30; Deut 17:6; Ezra 1:1) and commands of God (Exod 17:1; Num 14:41; 22:18; Josh 15:13; 1 Sam 15:24; 1 Chr 12:24; Prov 8:29; Isa 34:16; 62:2). When the verb מָרָה (marah, “to rebel”) is used with the accusative direct object פֶּה (peh, “mouth”) to connote disobedience to God’s commandments (Num 20:24; 1 Sam 12:14, 15; 1 Kgs 13:21) (BDB 805 s.v. פֶּה 2.c).

[1:18]  ³ tc The Kethib is written עַמִּים (’ammim, “peoples”), but the Qere, followed by many medieval Hebrew mss and the ancient versions (LXX and Aramaic Targum), read הָעַמִּים (ha’ammim, “O peoples”). The Qere is probably the original reading.

[26:40]  ⁴ tn Heb “And.” Many English versions take this to be a conditional clause (“if…”) though there is no conditional particle (see, e.g., NASB, NIV, NRSV; but see the very different rendering in B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 190). The temporal translation offered here (“when”) takes into account the particle אָז (’az, “then”), which occurs twice in v. 41. The obvious contextual contrast between vv. 39 and 40 is expressed by “however” in the translation.

[26:40]  ⁵ tn Heb “in their trespassing which they trespassed in me.” See the note on Lev 5:15, although the term is used in a more technical sense there in relation to the “guilt offering.”

[26:40]  ⁶ tn Heb “and also which they walked.”

[26:40]  ⁷ tn Heb “with me.”

[26:41]  ⁸ tn Heb “or then,” although the LXX has “then” and the Syriac “and then.”

[26:41]  ⁹ tn Heb “and then they make up for.” On the verb “make up for” see the note on v. 34 above.

[26:42]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “my covenant with Abraham I will remember.” The phrase “I will remember” has not been repeated in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[26:1]  ¹¹ sn For the literature regarding the difficult etymology and meaning of the term for “idols” (אֱלִילִם, ’elilim), see the literature cited in the note on Lev 19:4. It appears to be a diminutive play on words with אֵל (’el, “god, God”) and, perhaps at the same time, recalls a common Semitic word for “worthless, weak, powerless, nothingness.” Snaith suggests a rendering of “worthless godlings.”

[26:1]  ¹² tn Heb “on.” The “sculpted stone” appears to be some sort of stone with images carved into (see B. A. Levine, Leviticus [JPSTC], 181, and J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 449).

[8:1]  ¹³ sn Lev 8 is the fulfillment account of the ordination legislation recorded in Exod 29, and is directly connected to the command to ordain the tabernacle and priesthood in Exod 40:1-16 as well as the partial record of its fulfillment in Exod 40:17-38.

[33:27]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to men.”

[33:27]  ¹⁶ 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.”

[51:3]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “know.”

[51:3]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and my sin [is] in front of me continually.”

[51:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “only you,” as if the psalmist had sinned exclusively against God and no other. Since the Hebrew verb חָטָא (hata’, “to sin”) is used elsewhere of sinful acts against people (see BDB 306 s.v. 2.a) and David (the presumed author) certainly sinned when he murdered Uriah (2 Sam 12:9), it is likely that the psalmist is overstating the case to suggest that the attack on Uriah was ultimately an attack on God himself. To clarify the point of the hyperbole, the translation uses “especially,” rather than the potentially confusing “only.”

[51:4]  ²⁰ tn The Hebrew term לְמַעַן (lÿma’an) normally indicates purpose (“in order that”), but here it introduces a logical consequence of the preceding statement. (Taking the clause as indicating purpose here would yield a theologically preposterous idea – the psalmist purposely sinned so that God’s justice might be vindicated!) For other examples of לְמַעַן indicating result, see 2 Kgs 22:17; Jer 27:15; Amos 2:7, as well as IBHS 638-40 §38.3.

[51:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “when you speak.” In this context the psalmist refers to God’s word of condemnation against his sin delivered through Nathan (cf. 2 Sam 12:7-12).

[51:4]  ²² tn Heb “when you judge.”

[28:13]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ 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.

[2:35]  ²⁶ tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle often translated “behold” (הִנֵּה, hinneh) in a meaningful way in this context. See further the translator’s note on the word “really” in 1:6.

[3:13]  ²⁷ tn Heb “Only acknowledge your iniquity.”

[3:13]  ²⁸ tn The words “You must confess” are repeated to convey the connection. The Hebrew text has an introductory “that” in front of the second line and a coordinative “and” in front of the next two lines.

[3:13]  ²⁹ tc MT reads דְּרָכַיִךְ (dÿrakhayikh, “your ways”), but the BHS editors suggest דּוֹדַיִךְ (dodayikh, “your breasts”) as an example of orthographic confusion. While the proposal makes sense, it remains a conjectural emendation since it is not supported by any actual manuscripts or ancient versions.

[15:18]  ³⁰ sn In the confession “I have sinned” there is a recognition of wrong that pictures the penitent coming home and “being found.”

[15:18]  ³¹ sn The phrase against heaven is a circumlocution for God.

[15:18]  ³² tn According to BDAG 342 s.v. ἐνωπιον 4.a, “in relation to ἁμαρτάνειν ἐ. τινος sin against someone Lk 15:18, 21 (cf. Jdth 5:17; 1 Km 7:6; 20:1).”

[15:19]  ³³ tn Or “make me.” Here is a sign of total humility.

[18:13]  ³⁴ tn Grk “standing”; the Greek participle has been translated as a finite verb.

[18:13]  ³⁵ tn Grk “even lift up his eyes” (an idiom).

[18:13]  ³⁶ tn The prayer is a humble call for forgiveness. The term for mercy (ἱλάσκομαι, Jilaskomai) is associated with the concept of a request for atonement (BDAG 473-74 s.v. 1; Ps 51:1, 3; 25:11; 34:6, 18).

[18:13]  ³⁷ tn Grk “the sinner.” The tax collector views himself not just as any sinner but as the worst of all sinners. See ExSyn 222-23.

[18:14]  ³⁸ sn The prayer that was heard and honored was the one given with humility; in a surprising reversal it was the tax collector who went down to his home justified.

[18:14]  ³⁹ tn Grk “the other”; the referent (the Pharisee, v. 10) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[18:14]  ⁴⁰ sn Everyone who exalts himself. See Luke 14:11. Jesus often called for humility and condemned those who sought honor.