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head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel …”
(Lev. 16:21). “And the seed of Israel … confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their
fathers” (Neh. 9:2; cf. Ps. 38:18).
The grace of God may remove or forgive “iniquity”: “And unto him he said, Behold,
I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee …” (Zech. 3:4; cf. 2 Sam. 24:10). His
atonement may cover over “iniquity”: “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged; and by the
fear of the Lord men depart from evil” (Prov. 16:6; cf. Ps. 78:38).
*(
may refer to “the guilt of iniquity,” as in Ezek. 36:31: “Then shall ye
remember your own evil ways … and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your
iniquities and for your abominations” (cf. Ezek. 9:9). The word may also refer to
“punishment for iniquity”: “And Saul sware to her by the Lord, saying, As the Lord
liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing” (1 Sam. 28:10). In Exod.
28:38,
(
is used as the object of
(“to bear, carry away, forgive”), to suggest
bearing the punishment for the “iniquity” of others. In Isa. 53:11, we are told that the
servant of Yahweh bears the consequences of the “iniquities” of sinful mankind,
including Israel.
(
, 7563), “wicked; criminal; guilty.” Some scholars relate this word to the
Arabic
(“to be loose, out of joint”), although that term is not actively used in
literary Arabic. The Aramaic cognate
means “to be wicked” and the Syriac
(“to do wickedly”).
generally connotes a turbulence and restlessness (cf. Isa. 57:21) or something
disjointed or ill-regulated. Thus Robert B. Girdlestone suggests that it refers to the
tossing and confusion in which the wicked live, and to the perpetual agitation they came
to others.
In some instances,
carries the sense of being “guilty of crime”: “Thou shalt not
raise a false report: put not thine hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness”
(Exod. 23:1) “Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be
established in righteousness” (Prov. 25:5). “An ungodly witness scorneth judgment: and
the mouth of the
(
[plural form] devoureth iniquity” (Prov. 19:28; cf. Prov. 20:26).
Justifying the “wicked” is classed as a heinous crime: “He that justifieth the wicked,
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord” (Prov.
17:15; cf. Exod. 23:7).
The
is guilty of hostility to God and His people: “Arise, O Lord, disappoint
him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword” (Ps. 17:13);
“Oh let the wickedness of the
(
[plural form] come to an end; but establish the just
…” (Ps. 7:9). The word is applied to the people of Babylon in Isa. 13:11 and to the
Chaldeans in Hab. 1:13.
(
6
, 2403), “sin; sin-guilt; sinpurification; sin offering.” The noun
appears about 293 times and in all periods of biblical literature.
The basic nuance of this word is “sin” conceived as missing the road or mark (155
times).
)
can refer to an offense against a man: “And Jacob was wroth, and chode