Luke 19:8

19:8 But Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I now give ¹  to the poor, and if ²  I have cheated anyone of anything, I am paying back four times as much!”

Psalms 18:23

18:23 I was innocent before him,

and kept myself from sinning. ³ 

Proverbs 28:13

28:13 The one who covers ⁴  his transgressions will not prosper, ⁵ 

but whoever confesses them and forsakes them will find mercy. ⁶ 

Isaiah 1:16-17

1:16 ⁷ Wash! Cleanse yourselves!

Remove your sinful deeds ⁸ 

from my sight.

Stop sinning!

1:17 Learn to do what is right!

Promote justice!

Give the oppressed reason to celebrate! ⁹ 

Take up the cause of the orphan!

Defend the rights of the widow! ¹⁰ 

Isaiah 55:6-7

55:6 Seek the Lord while he makes himself available; ¹¹ 

call to him while he is nearby!

55:7 The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle ¹² 

and sinful people their plans. ¹³ 

They should return ¹⁴  to the Lord, and he will show mercy to them, ¹⁵ 

and to their God, for he will freely forgive them. ¹⁶ 

Ezekiel 18:21-22

18:21 “But if the wicked person turns from all the sin he has committed and observes all my statutes and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. 18:22 None of the sins he has committed will be held ¹⁷  against him; because of the righteousness he has done, he will live.

Ezekiel 18:27-28

18:27 When a wicked person turns from the wickedness he has committed and does what is just and right, he will preserve his life. 18:28 Because he considered ¹⁸  and turned from all the sins he had done, he will surely live; he will not die.

Micah 6:8

6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good,

and what the Lord really wants from you: ¹⁹ 

He wants you to ²⁰  promote ²¹  justice, to be faithful, ²² 

and to live obediently before ²³  your God.

Matthew 7:12

7:12 In ²⁴  everything, treat others as you would want them ²⁵  to treat you, ²⁶  for this fulfills ²⁷  the law and the prophets.

Matthew 7:1

Do Not Judge

7:1 “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. ²⁸ 

Colossians 1:10

1:10 so that you may live ²⁹  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ³⁰  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

Ephesians 4:28

4:28 The one who steals must steal no longer; rather he must labor, doing good with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with the one who has need.

Titus 2:11-12

2:11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. ³¹  2:12 It trains us ³²  to reject godless ways ³³  and worldly desires and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

Hebrews 12:1

The Lord’s Discipline

12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, ³⁴  we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us,

[19:8]  ¹ sn Zacchaeus was a penitent man who resolved on the spot to act differently in the face of Jesus’ acceptance of him. In resolving to give half his possessions to the poor, Zacchaeus was not defending himself against the crowd’s charges and claiming to be righteous. Rather as a result of this meeting with Jesus, he was a changed individual. So Jesus could speak of salvation coming that day (v. 9) and of the lost being saved (v. 10).

[19:8]  ² tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text. It virtually confesses fraud.

[18:23]  ³ tn Heb “from my sin,” that is, from making it my own in any way.

[28:13]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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.

[1:16]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ 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).

[1:17]  ⁹ tn The precise meaning of this line is uncertain. The translation assumes an emendation of חָמוֹץ (khamots, “oppressor [?]”) to חָמוּץ (khamuts, “oppressed”), a passive participle from II חָמַץ (khamats, “oppress”; HALOT 329 s.v. II חמץ) and takes the verb II אָשַׁר (’ashar) in the sense of “make happy” (the delocutive Piel, meaning “call/pronounce happy,” is metonymic here, referring to actually effecting happiness). The parallelism favors this interpretation, for the next two lines speak of positive actions on behalf of the destitute. The other option is to retain the MT pointing and translate, “set right the oppressor,” but the nuance “set right” is not clearly attested elsewhere for the verb I אשׁר. This verb does appear as a participle in Isa 3:12 and 9:16 with the meaning “to lead or guide.” If it can mean to “lead” or “rebuke/redirect” in this verse, the prophet could be contrasting this appeal for societal reformation (v. 17c) with a command to reorder their personal lives (v. 17a-b). J. A. Motyer (The Prophecy of Isaiah, 47) suggests that these three statements (v. 17a-c) provide “the contrast between the two ends of imperfect society, the oppressor and the needy, the one inflicting and the other suffering the hurt. Isaiah looks for a transformed society wherever it needs transforming.”

[1:17]  ¹⁰ tn This word refers to a woman who has lost her husband, by death or divorce. The orphan and widow are often mentioned in the OT as epitomizing the helpless and impoverished who have been left without the necessities of life due to the loss of a family provider.

[55:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “while he allows himself to be found.” The Niphal form has a tolerative force here.

[55:7]  ¹² tn Heb “Let the wicked one abandon his way.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ¹³ tn Heb “and the man of evil his thoughts.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “let him return.” The singular is collective, meaning “let them.”

[55:7]  ¹⁵ tn The imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive after the jussive indicates purpose/result.

[55:7]  ¹⁶ sn The appeal and promise of vv. 6-7 echoes the language of Deut 4:25-31; 30:1-10; and 1 Kgs 8:46-53, all of which anticipate the exile and speak of the prerequisites for restoration.

[18:22]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “remembered.”

[18:28]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “he saw.”

[6:8]  ¹⁹ sn What the Lord really wants from you. Now the prophet switches roles and answers the hypothetical worshiper’s question. He makes it clear that the Lord desires proper attitudes more than ritual and sacrifice.

[6:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “except.” This statement is actually linked with what precedes, “What does he want from you except….”

[6:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “to do,” in the sense of “promote.”

[6:8]  ²² tn Heb “to love faithfulness.”

[6:8]  ²³ tn Heb “to walk humbly [or perhaps, “carefully”] with.”

[7:12]  ²⁴ tn Grk “Therefore in.” Here οὖν (oun) has not been translated.

[7:12]  ²⁵ tn This is a generic use of ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpo"), referring to both males and females.

[7:12]  ²⁶ sn Jesus’ teaching as reflected in the phrase treat others as you would want them to treat you, known generally as the Golden Rule, is not completely unique in the ancient world, but here it is stated in its most emphatic, selfless form.

[7:12]  ²⁷ tn Grk “is.”

[7:1]  ²⁸ sn The point of the statement do not judge so that you will not be judged is that the standards we apply to others God applies to us. The passive verbs in this verse look to God’s action.

[1:10]  ²⁹ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ³⁰ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

[2:11]  ³¹ tn Grk “all men”; but ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpois) is generic here, referring to both men and women.

[2:12]  ³² tn Grk “training us” (as a continuation of the previous clause). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started at the beginning of v. 12 by translating the participle παιδεύουσα (paideuousa) as a finite verb and supplying the pronoun “it” as subject.

[2:12]  ³³ tn Grk “ungodliness.”

[12:1]  ³⁴ tn Grk “having such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us.”