Look, you desire integrity in the inner man, David’s song continued. This is a truth he learned the hard way with Bathsheba. But I could hear the voice of Jesus, You have heard that it was said, “Do not commit adultery (μοιχεύσεις, a form of μοιχεύω).” But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery (ἐμοίχευσεν, another form of μοιχεύω) with her in his heart, in that inner man where the Lord desires integrity.
David’s song continued, you want me to possess wisdom (See Addendum below). Assuming that Psalm 139 was written later in David’s life than Psalm 51, that wisdom was acquired: O Lord, you examine me and know. You know when I sit down and when I get up; even from far away you understand my motives. You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest; you are aware of everything I do. Certainly my tongue does not frame a word without you, O Lord, being thoroughly aware of it [Table14 below]. You squeeze me in from behind and in front; you place your hand on me [Table16 below]. Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension; it is so far beyond me, I am unable to fathom it.
Sprinkle me with water and I will be pure; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. David did not sacrifice his daughter to purify himself, or divorce his wives and send his children away. And though the Hebrew for Sprinkle me with water (literally, Purge me with hyssop) refers to the plant used in religious rites of purification to sprinkle water or blood, David did not run off to a priest either. His faith did not rest on his own reform efforts or religious ritual but upon God. David used the language of religious ritual to reach out for the actual purification and cleansing from sin that only comes from God. The phrase whiter than snow reminded me of Isaiah, the prophet who lived and wrote many centuries after the time of David.
The Old Testament only began to make sense to me when I started to read it as if it were intended for primarily one reader. I began to hear it as a mnemonic device written and preserved to remind one twelve-year-old Jewish boy who He was, what He had said and done, what had transpired as a result, and what He had come to do. Before Jesus was born of a virgin and walked this earth as a man, He spoke through the prophet Isaiah, revealing some of his most profound thoughts. I’m not saying that Isaiah’s time is when Jesus decided to walk this earth and be publicly displayed…at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith, that was some time before the world began. But I will say that the book of Isaiah as a whole goes a long way to explaining why He chose to do it.
Listen, O heavens, pay attention, O earth! Isaiah’s prophetic words began. For the Lord speaks: “I raised children, I brought them up, but they have rebelled against me! An ox recognizes its owner, a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; but Israel does not recognize me, my people do not understand.” “Come, let’s consider your options,” says the Lord. “Though your sins have stained you like the color red, you can become white like snow; though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet, you can become white like wool.”
This translation is exactly what I understood the first time I read this verse in a different translation of the Bible. The upside was I recognized that forgiveness included not merely pardon from the penalty of sin, but cleansing from sin. I’ll consider the downside in a moment. Now I want to consider a forgiveness that merely pardoned the sinner without cleansing any sin.
Movies deal with redemption schemes all the time, and some are more self-conscious about it than others. In the movie The Final Cut, the EyeTech company has marketed a biological implant that records video and audio through a person’s eyes and ears throughout that person’s life. The protagonist played by Robin Williams is a cutter, a man who extracts data from an implant after the host’s death and edits a “Rememory” for showing at a memorial service. The antagonist, Jim Caviezel, is a reformed cutter who has joined with the people protesting against EyeTech and the cutters who profit from this work.
The cutter, apparently out of a sense of guilt, specialized in producing Rememories for notorious and unsavory characters that other cutters wouldn’t touch. The reformed cutter accused him of taking murderers and making them saints. The cutter countered that he was able to forgive people long after they could be punished for their sins. He considered himself a sin eater. Both the former cutter and the audience feel the inadequacy of this type of forgiveness. The redemption for Robin Williams’ character comes when he is just as happy not to make a Rememory for a deceased child molester due to circumstances beyond his control.
But my original understanding of—Though your sins have stained you like the color red, you can become white like snow; though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet, you can become white like wool—is not what the verse actually says. Even the translators of the NET acknowledge in a footnote that the verse says, Though your sins have stained you like the color red, they can become white like snow; though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet, they can become white like wool. It took me some time to take this verse literally. But for the Lord to prevail when He is judged for forgiving me, something must be done about the impact of my sins on others.
David’s song continued: Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven! May the bones you crushed rejoice! Hide your face from my sins! Wipe away all my guilt! Was David grasping at something like make my sin white as snow? Or was he self-focused here? Frankly, I don’t know. God didn’t crush David’s bones literally, but set him up through Nathan’s hypothetical to experience Uriah’s pain. David certainly felt a responsibility for his child with Bathsheba. Did David truly believe he could experience the ultimate joy of being forgiven apart from some justice for Uriah and the child? And I don’t mean retributive justice here, but some muting of the impact of David’s sin which resulted in their deaths.
I don’t know how God might accomplish this. Apart from the obvious strategy of paying back money I stole with interest, I’m also at a loss to know how I or God could mute the impact of my sins on others. Such knowledge is beyond my comprehension. I’ve thought about exploring it in a drama something like Sartre’s No Exit: Samuel, Saul, Uriah, and David’s and Bathsheba’s first child discuss the topic in Sheol. All I’ve ever gotten a handle on is the ending, based on 1 Peter 3:17-22: David’s and Bathsheba’s first child rushes in like a messenger and informs the other three, “The Messiah is here.” All rise and hurry to see. Samuel mutters, “Messiah, what’s he doing here?” The messenger, leading the way, shakes his head, “I don’t know. I think they killed him.”
Though I may not understand how God makes sins white like snow or wool, I’m confident He doesn’t use a moral rationalization. At the end of the The Final Cut the reformed cutter returned to cutting. He wanted to expose the child molester’s sin, hoping to bring down the EyeTech company. He stared at an image of the cutter, and spoke as if to him, but it seemed more like he was trying to convince himself that his own actions were justified because they were in service of this greater good. This is the moral rationalization of tyrants and terrorists. Perhaps it is unnecessary to say, but The Final Cut did not fare well at the box office.
Filmmakers don’t concern themselves with redemption strategies because they are avid moral philosophers—necessarily. They are interested in believable character arcs to make their stories ring true. They know that audiences expect a certain moral order to the universe their stories inhabit, whether they believe in such a moral order for their own lives or not. And they know from experience that movies that do not satisfy that sense of moral order will be punished at the box office. Evil characters suffer the consequences of their actions. Good characters redeem themselves by acts of bravery, good deeds or self-sacrifice. Movies are fundamentally religious exercises in almost precisely the way I am using the term. Successful movies reflect the religious attitudes of the audience that made them successful.
Addendum: January 4, 2020
In the translations from the Masoretic text בַטֻּח֑וֹת (inward parts, inner man) was part of the first clause and וּ֜בְסָתֻ֗ם (hidden part) part of the second in the Tanakh, while וּ֜בְסָתֻ֗ם was ignored apparently by the NET translators.
|
Masoretic Text
|
Septuagint |
| Psalm 51:6 (Tanakh) |
Psalm 51:6 (NET) |
Psalm 50:8 (NETS) |
Psalm 50:8 (English Elpenor)
|
| Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. |
Look, you desire integrity in the inner man; you want me to possess wisdom. |
For, look, you loved truth; the unclear and secret aspects of your wisdom you made clear to me. |
For, behold, thou lovest truth: thou hast manifested to me the secret and hidden things of thy wisdom. |
Morfix was no help at all.
|
Psalm 51:6 (51:8)
|
| Hebrew |
Tanakh |
Homographs |
English Definitions |
| בַטֻּח֑וֹת בטחות |
in the inward parts |
N/A |
N/A |
| וּ֜בְסָתֻ֗ם ובסתם |
and in the hidden part |
סְתָם |
(colloquial) purposelessly; (colloquial) simply, just |
| סֶתֶם |
blockage |
The rabbis chose ἄδηλα a form of ἄδηλος, “unknown, hidden, indistinct, secret, unseen, not clear, uncertain, obscure,” for בַטֻּח֑וֹת; κρύφια a form of κρύφιος, “secret, hidden” for וּ֜בְסָתֻ֗ם. They assigned both, however, to the second clause.
Tables comparing Psalm 51:6; Exodus 20:14 (20:13); Deuteronomy 5:18 (5:17); Psalm 139:1; 139:2; 139:3; 139:4; 139:5; 139:6; 51:7; Isaiah 1:2; 1:3; 1:18; Psalm 51:8 and 51:9 in the Tanakh, KJV and NET, and tables comparing Psalm 51:6 (50:8); Exodus 20:14 (20:13); Deuteronomy 5:18 (5:17); Psalm 139:1 (138:1); 139:2 (138:2); 139:3 (138:3); 139:4 (138:4); 139:5 (138:5); 139:6 (138:6); 51:7 (50:9); Isaiah 1:2; 1:3; 1:18; Psalm 51:8 (50:10) and 51:9 (50:11) in the Septuagint (BLB and Elpenor) follow. Following those are tables comparing Matthew 5:27, 28 in the NET and KJV.
|
Psalm 51:6 (Tanakh)
|
Psalm 51:6 (KJV) |
Psalm 51:6 (NET)
|
| Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. |
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. |
Look, you desire integrity in the inner man; you want me to possess wisdom. |
| Psalm 139:2 (Tanakh) |
Psalm 139:2 (KJV) |
Psalm 139:2 (NET) |
| Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. |
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. |
You know when I sit down and when I get up; even from far away you understand my motives. |
| Psalm 139:3 (Tanakh) |
Psalm 139:3 (KJV) |
Psalm 139:3 (NET) |
| Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. |
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. |
You carefully observe me when I travel or when I lie down to rest; you are aware of everything I do. |
| Psalm 139:4 (Tanakh) |
Psalm 139:4 (KJV) |
Psalm 139:4 (NET) |
| For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. |
For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. |
Certainly my tongue does not frame a word without you, O Lord, being thoroughly aware of it. |
| Psalm 139:5 (Septuagint BLB) |
Psalm 138:5 (Septuagint Elpenor) |
| ἰδού κύριε σὺ ἔγνως πάντα τὰ ἔσχατα καὶ τὰ ἀρχαῗα σὺ ἔπλασάς με καὶ ἔθηκας ἐπ᾽ ἐμὲ τὴν χεῗρά σου |
ἰδού, Κύριε, σὺ ἔγνως πάντα, τὰ ἔσχατα καὶ τὰ ἀρχαῖα· σὺ ἔπλασάς με καὶ ἔθηκας ἐπ᾿ ἐμὲ τὴν χεῖρά σου |
| Psalm 138:5 (NETS) |
Psalm 138:4b, 5 (English Elpenor) |
| look, O Lord; it was you who knew all things, the last and the first. It was you who shaped me and placed your hand upon me. |
behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, (5) the last and the first: thou hast fashioned me, and laid thine hand upon me. |
| Psalm 139:6 (Tanakh) |
Psalm 139:6 (KJV) |
Psalm 139:6 (NET) |
| Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. |
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. |
Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension; it is so far beyond me, I am unable to fathom it. |
| Psalm 51:7 (Tanakh) |
Psalm 51:7 (KJV) |
Psalm 51:7 (NET) |
| Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. |
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. |
Cleanse me with hyssop and I will be pure; wash me and I will be whiter than snow. |
| Isaiah 1:2 (Tanakh) |
Isaiah 1:2 (KJV) |
Isaiah 1:2 (NET) |
| Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. |
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. |
Listen, O heavens, pay attention, O earth! For the Lord speaks: “I raised children, I brought them up, but they have rebelled against me! |
| Isaiah 1:2 (Septuagint BLB) |
Isaiah 1:2 (Septuagint Elpenor) |
| ἄκουε οὐρανέ καὶ ἐνωτίζου γῆ ὅτι κύριος ἐλάλησεν υἱοὺς ἐγέννησα καὶ ὕψωσα αὐτοὶ δέ με ἠθέτησαν |
Ακουε οὐρανὲ καὶ ἐνωτίζου γῆ, ὅτι Κύριος ἐλάλησεν· υἱοὺς ἐγέννησα καὶ ὕψωσα, αὐτοὶ δέ με ἠθέτησαν |
| Isaiah 1:2 (NETS) |
Isaiah 1:2 (English Elpenor) |
| Hear, O heaven, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken: I begat sons and exalted them, but they rejected me. |
Hear, O heaven, and hearken, O earth: for the Lord has spoken, [saying], I have begotten and reared up children, but they have rebelled against me. |
| Isaiah 1:3 (Tanakh) |
Isaiah 1:3 (KJV) |
Isaiah 1:3 (NET) |
| The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. |
The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. |
An ox recognizes its owner, a donkey recognizes where its owner puts its food; but Israel does not recognize me, my people do not understand. |
| Isaiah 1:3 (Septuagint BLB) |
Isaiah 1:3 (Septuagint Elpenor) |
| ἔγνω βοῦς τὸν κτησάμενον καὶ ὄνος τὴν φάτνην τοῦ κυρίου αὐτοῦ Ισραηλ δέ με οὐκ ἔγνω καὶ ὁ λαός με οὐ συνῆκεν |
ἔγνω βοῦς τὸν κτησάμενον καὶ ὄνος τὴν φάτνην τοῦ κυρίου αὐτοῦ· ᾿Ισραὴλ δέ με οὐκ ἔγνω καὶ ὁ λαός με οὐ συνῆκεν |
| Isaiah 1:3 (NETS) |
Isaiah 1:3 (English Elpenor) |
| The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel has not known me, and the people have not understood me. |
The ox knows his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel does not know me, and the people has not regarded me. |
| Isaiah 1:18 (Tanakh) |
Isaiah 1:18 (KJV) |
Isaiah 1:18 (NET) |
| Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. |
Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. |
Come, let’s consider your options,” says the Lord. “Though your sins have stained you like the color red, you can become white like snow; though they are as easy to see as the color scarlet, you can become white like wool. |
| Isaiah 1:18 (Septuagint BLB) |
Isaiah 1:18 (Septuagint Elpenor) |
| καὶ δεῦτε καὶ διελεγχθῶμεν λέγει κύριος καὶ ἐὰν ὦσιν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ὑμῶν ὡς φοινικοῦν ὡς χιόνα λευκανῶ ἐὰν δὲ ὦσιν ὡς κόκκινον ὡς ἔριον λευκανῶ |
καὶ δεῦτε διαλεχθῶμεν, λέγει Κύριος· καὶ ἐὰν ὦσιν αἱ ἁμαρτίαι ὑμῶν ὡς φοινικοῦν, ὡς χιόνα λευκανῶ, ἐὰν δὲ ὦσιν ὡς κόκκινον, ὡς ἔριον λευκανῶ |
| Isaiah 1:18 (NETS) |
Isaiah 1:18 (English Elpenor) |
| So come, and let us argue it out, says the Lord: even though your sins are like crimson, I will make them white like snow, and though they are like scarlet, I will make them white like wool. |
And come, let us reason together, saith the Lord: and though your sins be as purple, I will make them white as snow; and though they be as scarlet, I will make [them] white as wool. |
| Psalm 51:8 (Tanakh) |
Psalm 51:8 (KJV) |
Psalm 51:8 (NET) |
| Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. |
Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. |
Grant me the ultimate joy of being forgiven. May the bones you crushed rejoice. |
| Matthew 5:27, 28 (NET) |
Matthew 5:27, 28 (KJV) |
| “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ |
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: |
| But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. |
But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. |
| NET Parallel Greek |
Stephanus Textus Receptus |
Byzantine Majority Text |
| ἐγὼ δὲ λέγω ὑμῖν ὅτι πᾶς ὁ βλέπων γυναῖκα πρὸς τὸ ἐπιθυμῆσαι |αὐτὴν| ἤδη ἐμοίχευσεν αὐτὴν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ |
εγω δε λεγω υμιν οτι πας ο βλεπων γυναικα προς το επιθυμησαι αυτης ηδη εμοιχευσεν αυτην εν τη καρδια αυτου |
εγω δε λεγω υμιν οτι πας ο βλεπων γυναικα προς το επιθυμησαι αυτην ηδη εμοιχευσεν αυτην εν τη καρδια αυτου |
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