Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted. Habakkuk 1:3-4 NIV Tolerate – What is the subject of the second question in the NIV translation? “You.” That pronoun stands in the place of “God.” If the…
For my life is exhausted in sorrow and my years in sighing. Through my crime my strength stumbles and my limbs are worn out. Psalm 31:11 (Hebrew Bible) Robert Alter Crime – Note Robert Alter’s remark: “The translation follows the Masoretic Text, which has ba’awoni here. But the Septuagint and the Peshitta read be’onyi, ‘in…
“With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity; You consume as a moth what is precious to him; surely every man is a mere breath.” Selah. Psalm 39:11 NASB Reproofs– The apostolic letters don’t stray far from roots in the Tanakh. We should not be surprised. The letters are commentary on the Bible of the apostles, the Tanakh. So…
You have come to me to bring my iniquity to remembrance and to put my son to death! 1 Kings 17:18 NASB Iniquity – This word, translated “iniquity,” is one of the principal words for sin and evil found in the Old Testament (awon in Hebrew). This word carries the idea of something twisted, something…
I was also blameless with Him, and I kept myself from my iniquity. Psalm 18:23 NASB My iniquity – It would be much easier to for David to say that he kept himself “from iniquity.” Then the wickedness would be alien, outside, an enemy at a distance. But David uses the Hebrew ‘awoni, the combination…
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Psalm 51:5 NASB In iniquity – In Hebrew, hen-be-awwon comes first in the sentence. “Behold-in-iniquity” is the opening cry. English translations regularly transpose this forlorn sound of desperation by placing the verb before it, as if David is concerned with his…
Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases; Psalm 103:3 NASB Iniquities – Bent over! That’s what we were before pardon and healing. In fact, Yeshua recognizes the connection in his encounter with the woman suffering from scoliosis. He responds to those who raised objections to his act of healing by trying the…
“Alas, sinful nation, people weighed down with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, sons who act corruptly!” Isaiah 1:4 NASB Weighed down – What burdens do you carry? Debt? Past mistakes? Children from divorce? Broken contracts? Public shame? Write them down, as painful as it might be. See what a long list you have to carry. Then…
Every morning I will destroy all the wicked of the land, so as to cut off from the city of the Lord all those who do iniquity. Psalm 101:8 NASB Every morning – When you walk the streets of Jerusalem as the sun rises, you are likely to say, “Boqer tov” to those you meet. “Good…
If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? Psalm 130:3 NASB Should mark – I was always afraid of God. I wasn’t Catholic but when it came to guilt, I might as well have been. My childhood was punctuated by constant reminders that God saw everything I did, and as a result,…
