Psalms 25:7

25:7 Do not hold against me ¹  the sins of my youth ²  or my rebellious acts!

Because you are faithful to me, extend to me your favor, O Lord! ³ 

Psalms 25:11

25:11 For the sake of your reputation, ⁴  O Lord,

forgive my sin, because it is great. ⁵ 

Psalms 41:4

41:4 As for me, I said: ⁶ 

“O Lord, have mercy on me!

Heal me, for I have sinned against you!

Psalms 51:1-3

Psalm 51 ⁷ 

For the music director; a psalm of David, written when Nathan the prophet confronted him after David’s affair with Bathsheba. ⁸ 

51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, because of ⁹  your loyal love!

Because of ¹⁰  your great compassion, wipe away my rebellious acts! ¹¹ 

51:2 Wash away my wrongdoing! ¹² 

Cleanse me of my sin! ¹³ 

51:3 For I am aware of ¹⁴  my rebellious acts;

I am forever conscious of my sin. ¹⁵ 

Psalms 86:15-16

86:15 But you, O Lord, are a compassionate and merciful God.

You are patient ¹⁶  and demonstrate great loyal love and faithfulness. ¹⁷ 

86:16 Turn toward me and have mercy on me!

Give your servant your strength!

Deliver your slave! ¹⁸ 

Psalms 119:41

ו (Vav)

119:41 May I experience your loyal love, ¹⁹  O Lord,

and your deliverance, ²⁰  as you promised. ²¹ 

Psalms 130:3-4

130:3 If you, O Lord, were to keep track of ²²  sins,

O Lord, who could stand before you? ²³ 

130:4 But ²⁴  you are willing to forgive, ²⁵ 

so that you might ²⁶  be honored. ²⁷ 

Psalms 130:7

130:7 O Israel, hope in the Lord,

for the Lord exhibits loyal love, ²⁸ 

and is more than willing to deliver. ²⁹ 

Daniel 9:5

9:5 we have sinned! We have done what is wrong and wicked; we have rebelled by turning away from your commandments and standards.

Daniel 9:9-11

9:9 Yet the Lord our God is compassionate and forgiving, ³⁰  even though we have rebelled against him. 9:10 We have not obeyed ³¹  the LORD our God by living according to ³²  his laws ³³  that he set before us through his servants the prophets.

9:11 “All Israel has broken ³⁴  your law and turned away by not obeying you. ³⁵  Therefore you have poured out on us the judgment solemnly threatened ³⁶  in the law of Moses the servant of God, for we have sinned against you. ³⁷ 

Daniel 9:18-19

9:18 Listen attentively, ³⁸  my God, and hear! Open your eyes and look on our desolated ruins ³⁹  and the city called by your name. ⁴⁰  For it is not because of our own righteous deeds that we are praying to you, ⁴¹  but because your compassion is abundant. 9:19 O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, pay attention, and act! Don’t delay, for your own sake, O my God! For your city and your people are called by your name.” ⁴² 

Hebrews 4:16

4:16 Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help. ⁴³ 

Hebrews 8:12

8:12 “For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.” ⁴⁴ 

[25:7]  ¹ tn Heb “do not remember,” with the intention of punishing.

[25:7]  ² sn That is, the sins characteristic of youths, who lack moral discretion and wisdom.

[25:7]  ³ tn Heb “according to your faithfulness, remember me, you, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.”

[25:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “name.” By forgiving the sinful psalmist, the Lord’s reputation as a merciful God will be enhanced.

[25:11]  ⁵ sn Forgive my sin, because it is great. The psalmist readily admits his desperate need for forgiveness.

[41:4]  ⁶ sn In vv. 4-10 the psalmist recites the prayer of petition and lament he offered to the Lord.

[51:1]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “a psalm by David, when Nathan the prophet came to him when he had gone to Bathsheba.”

[51:1]  ⁹ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ¹⁰ tn Or “according to.”

[51:1]  ¹¹ 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.”

[51:2]  ¹² tn Heb “Thoroughly wash me from my wrongdoing.”

[51:2]  ¹³ sn In vv. 1b-2 the psalmist uses three different words to emphasize the multifaceted character and degree of his sin. Whatever one wants to call it (“rebellious acts,” “wrongdoing,” “sin”), he has done it and stands morally polluted in God’s sight. The same three words appear in Exod 34:7, which emphasizes that God is willing to forgive sin in all of its many dimensions. In v. 2 the psalmist compares forgiveness and restoration to physical cleansing. Perhaps he likens spiritual cleansing to the purification rites of priestly law.

[51:3]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “know.”

[51:3]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and my sin [is] in front of me continually.”

[86:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “slow to anger.”

[86:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and great of loyal love and faithfulness.”

[86:16]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “the son of your female servant.” The phrase “son of a female servant” (see also Ps 116:16) is used of a son born to a secondary wife or concubine (Exod 23:12). In some cases the child’s father is the master of the house (see Gen 21:10, 13; Judg 9:18). The use of the expression here certainly does not imply that the Lord has such a secondary wife or concubine! It is used metaphorically and idiomatically to emphasize the psalmist’s humility before the Lord and his status as the Lord’s servant.

[119:41]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and may your loyal love come to me.”

[119:41]  ²⁰ tn Or “salvation” (so many English versions).

[119:41]  ²¹ tn Heb “according to your word.”

[130:3]  ²² tn Heb “observe.”

[130:3]  ²³ tn The words “before you” are supplied in the translation for clarification. The psalmist must be referring to standing before God’s judgment seat. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “No one.”

[130:4]  ²⁴ tn Or “surely.”

[130:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “for with you [there is] forgiveness.”

[130:4]  ²⁶ tn Or “consequently you are.”

[130:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “feared.”

[130:7]  ²⁸ tn Heb “for with the Lord [is] loyal love.”

[130:7]  ²⁹ tn Heb “and abundantly with him [is] redemption.”

[9:9]  ³⁰ tn Heb “to the Lord our God (belong) compassion and forgiveness.”

[9:10]  ³¹ tn Heb “paid attention to the voice of,” which is an idiomatic expression for obedience (cf. NASB “nor have we obeyed the voice of”).

[9:10]  ³² tn Heb “to walk in.”

[9:10]  ³³ tc The LXX and Vulgate have the singular.

[9:11]  ³⁴ tn Or “transgressed.” The Hebrew verb has the primary sense of crossing a boundary, in this case, God’s law.

[9:11]  ³⁵ tn Heb “by not paying attention to your voice.”

[9:11]  ³⁶ tn Heb “the curse and the oath which is written.” The term “curse” refers here to the judgments threatened in the Mosaic law (see Deut 28) for rebellion. The expression “the curse and the oath” is probably a hendiadys (cf. Num 5:21; Neh 10:29) referring to the fact that the covenant with its threatened judgments was ratified by solemn oath and made legally binding upon the covenant community.

[9:11]  ³⁷ tn Heb “him.”

[9:18]  ³⁸ tn Heb “turn your ear.”

[9:18]  ³⁹ tn Heb “desolations.” The term refers here to the ruined condition of Judah’s towns.

[9:18]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “over which your name is called.” Cf. v. 19. This expression implies that God is the owner of his city, Jerusalem. Note the use of the idiom in 2 Sam 12:28; Isa 4:1; Amos 9:12.

[9:18]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “praying our supplications before you.”

[9:19]  ⁴² tn Heb “for your name is called over your city and your people.” See the note on this expression in v 18.

[4:16]  ⁴³ tn Grk “for timely help.”

[8:12]  ⁴⁴ sn A quotation from Jer 31:31-34.