Sin is doing wrong against God and others, falling short; and “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In Judges 20:16, the Hebrew word is chata (H2398): In most of its places it means to sin, to do wrong. Strong’s gives its first sense as ‘to miss’, and that is how it is used here.
Get DeepWordWhat the original says
Behind the word “missing” in this verse is the Hebrew word chata (said khah-TAH), the Old Testament’s ordinary word for ‘to sin’.
In most of its places it means to sin, to do wrong. Strong’s gives its first sense as ‘to miss’, and that is how it is used here.
This form, yachati, comes with ‘not’ before it: each slinger ‘would not miss’. It is a ‘does or will do’ form of the verb, used here for what they could do every time. It is the last word of the verse.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘sinned’ 81 times and ‘sin’ 60 times, counting their other forms. In this verse alone it is “missing”:
Word by word
| זֶה | קֹלֵעַ | בָּאֶבֶן | אֶל | הַשַּׂעֲרָה | וְלֹא | יַחֲטִא |
| this | slinging | with the · stone | to | the · single hair | and · not | he missed |
Original form
What this tells us
This verse comes from one of the darkest stretches of Judges. A terrible crime at Gibeah has led the tribes of Israel to war against the tribe of Benjamin, and the writer has been counting Benjamin’s army: “the Benjamites mobilized 26,000 swordsmen from their cities, in addition to the 700 select men of Gibeah” (Judges 20:15). Then he adds a detail about 700 left-handed slingers. The word for “missing” is chata. In most of its places in the Old Testament it is the word for sin; here it is used of a stone that does not miss its target. It is tempting to say that sin simply ‘means missing the mark’, but a word means what it is used for, and chata is used mostly for doing wrong against God or against another person. What this verse adds is a picture: a target, and a stone that can fall short of it. Paul uses a similar picture: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). And Judges keeps telling us why things went so wrong in those days: “everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Christians describe sin in different ways, as breaking God’s law, as a broken relationship, as a power that holds people; the Bible uses all of these pictures. Sin is serious, because it means falling short of what you were made for. It also means there is something better to aim at.
What the original says
Behind the word “sin” in this verse is the Hebrew word chattat (said khat-TAHT).
It means sin, a wrong done; and the same word also names the offering that dealt with it. It is the first time the Bible uses a word for sin.
This form, chattat, is the plain noun. The word after it, rovets, “crouching”, is the word for an animal lying in wait.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘sin’ 162 times and ‘offering’ 110 times: the same word names the sin and the offering for it, as in “a sin offering for the sin he has committed” (Leviticus 4:3):
Word by word
| לֹא | תֵיטִיב | לַפֶּתַח | חַטָּאת | רֹבֵץ | וְאֵלֶיךָ | תְּשׁוּקָתוֹ |
| not | you will do well | to the · door | sin | crouching | and · to · you | desire · its |
Original form
What this tells us
Cain and Abel have both brought offerings to the LORD, “and the LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering” (Genesis 4:4), but not on Cain’s. “So Cain became very angry, and his countenance fell” (Genesis 4:5). Before anything else happens, God comes to Cain and talks with him: “Why are you angry,” said the LORD to Cain, “and why has your countenance fallen?” (Genesis 4:6). The word for “sin” is chattat, and this is the first time the Bible uses a word for sin. It is pictured like an animal: “sin is crouching at your door; it desires you, but you must master it.” Sin here is not only something you do. It is close, it wants something from you, and it waits. The next verse shows Cain did not master it: “Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him” (Genesis 4:8). James describes the same path in a few words: “after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:15). Think of a door you keep checking at night: what is outside is real, but it is not yet inside. Notice who speaks first in this story. Before Cain does anything, God warns him, and tells him he can still master what is crouching at the door.
What the original says
Behind “have I sinned” in this verse is the Hebrew word chata (said khah-TAH), the word you met in Judges 20:16.
It is the same word, chata: to sin, to do wrong against someone.
This form, chatati, is ‘I’ with a finished action: I have sinned. In Hebrew it comes third, after ‘to You, to You alone’: who he sinned against comes first.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘sinned’ 81 times. The same verb can also mean to purify, to take sin away: “Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean” (Psalm 51:7) is this word too:
Word by word
| לְךָ | לְבַדְּךָ | חָטָאתִי | וְהָרַע | בְּעֵינֶיךָ | עָשִׂיתִי | לְמַעַן |
| to · you | to · alone · you | I have sinned | and · the · evil | in · view · your | I have done | so that |
Original form
What this tells us
The heading of this psalm ties it to King David after he took Bathsheba and had her husband killed, when the prophet Nathan confronted him: “You are that man!” (2 Samuel 12:7). David answered, “I have sinned against the LORD” (2 Samuel 12:13). The psalm opens, “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your loving devotion” (Psalm 51:1). The word behind “have I sinned” is chata. David is very plain: “Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.” He had wronged Bathsheba and Uriah terribly. Many readers take ‘against You only’ to mean that every wrong against a person is, underneath, a wrong against the God who made them. The psalm does not stop at confession. It asks for washing: “wash me, and I will be whiter than snow” (Psalm 51:7), and for a new start: “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:10). And it knows what God will receive: “a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). Nathan had already said, “The LORD has taken away your sin” (2 Samuel 12:13). Naming your sin honestly is not the end of the road. In this psalm it is the door to being washed and made new.
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Download on the App StoreWhat the original says
Behind the words “have sinned” in this verse is the Greek word hamartanō (said hah-mar-TAH-noh).
It means to sin, to do wrong. It is the verb that goes with hamartia, the New Testament’s main word for sin.
This form, hēmarton, is a plain statement about all of them: they have sinned. The next verb, hysterountai, “fall short”, is in a form for something still going on.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘sinned’ 21 times and ‘sin’ 18 times. The lost son uses it on the road home: “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you” (Luke 15:21):
Word by word
| πάντες | γὰρ | ἥμαρτον | καὶ | ὑστεροῦνται | τῆς | δόξης |
| all | for | have sinned | and | they fall short | of the | glory |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul has spent nearly three chapters showing that no one is in the clear, and he sums it up with the Scriptures: “There is no one righteous, not even one” (Romans 3:10). Then he turns: “But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed” (Romans 3:21), and “There is no distinction” (Romans 3:22). This verse explains why there is none. The word for “have sinned” is hamartanō, to sin, to do wrong. Paul says it of everyone, with no exceptions: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” No one is ranked here, good people against bad. Everyone is on the same level ground. The sentence does not end at this verse. It runs straight on into the next: “and are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). The same ‘all’ who have sinned are the ones offered grace. Isaiah had said it centuries before: “We all like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way” (Isaiah 53:6), and in the same verse, “the LORD has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all”. If you feel you are worse than everyone else, this verse puts you alongside them. If you feel better than them, it does too. And it does not leave anyone there.
What the original says
Behind the words “of sin” in this verse is the Greek word hamartia (said hah-mar-TEE-ah).
It means sin: a wrong done, and also sin as a power that holds people. It is the New Testament’s main word for sin.
This form, hamartias, is the ‘of’ form: ‘the wages of sin’. Paul sets two things side by side, ‘wages’ and ‘gift’, with the word ‘but’ between them.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘sin’ 162 times. It is the word in “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24):
Word by word
| γὰρ | ὀψώνια | τῆς | ἁμαρτίας | θάνατος | τὸ | δὲ |
| for | wages | the | of sin | death | the | but |
Original form
What this tells us
Paul has been describing sin as a master that people serve, and he asks the Romans to look back honestly: “What fruit did you reap at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? The outcome of those things is death” (Romans 6:21). Then: “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the fruit you reap leads to holiness, and the outcome is eternal life” (Romans 6:22). The word for “sin” is hamartia. Paul pictures it as an employer who pays: “For the wages of sin is death.” Wages are earned; you get what the work is worth. Sin pays exactly what it promised, and it is not good. Then the sentence turns on one word: “but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” A gift is the opposite of wages. Nobody earns it; it is simply given. Paul said the same earlier in the letter: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Think of two envelopes on a table: one is a pay slip, the other a present with your name on it. The verse is honest about what sin pays. But it ends with a gift, and the gift has the last word.
What the original says
Behind the word “sin” in this verse is the Greek word hamartia (said hah-mar-TEE-ah), the word you met in Romans 6:23.
It is the same word, hamartia: sin. Here it is singular, the sin of the whole world.
This form, hamartian, is singular: John speaks of “the sin of the world”, one word for all of it. The word before it, airōn, “who takes away”, describes something ongoing.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘sin’ 162 of its 168 places. Hebrews says Christ “was offered once to bear the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28):
Word by word
| θεοῦ | ὁ | αἴρων | τὴν | ἁμαρτίαν | τοῦ | κόσμου |
| of God | who | is taking away | the | sin | of the | world |
Original form
What this tells us
John the Baptist is baptizing “at Bethany beyond the Jordan” (John 1:28), and people have been asking him who he is. The next day he sees Jesus coming toward him and points: “Look, the Lamb of God!” The next day he says it again to two of his own disciples, “Look, the Lamb of God!” (John 1:36), and they follow Jesus. The word for “sin” here is hamartia, and it is singular: “who takes away the sin of the world.” Not only this sin or that one, but the whole weight of the world’s wrong, named as one thing. And it is ‘taken away’, lifted off and carried somewhere else. The Lamb was an image every listener knew from the sacrifices, and Isaiah had spoken of one who “was led like a lamb to the slaughter” (Isaiah 53:7). Peter writes, “He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). Christians explain how the cross takes sin away in more than one way, and all of them start from this verse. Whatever you are carrying, John’s first words about Jesus were not about what you must do. They were about what he came to take away.
What the original says
Behind the word “sin” in this verse is hamartia (said hah-mar-TEE-ah) again.
It is the same word, hamartia: sin, every kind of wrong.
This form, hamartias, follows apo, ‘from’: “from all sin”. The word before it, pasēs, “all”, is shaped to match it.
In the Berean Standard Bible, it is ‘sin’ 162 times. A verse later John writes, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8):
Word by word
| υἱοῦ | αὐτοῦ | καθαρίζει | ἡμᾶς | ἀπὸ | πάσης | ἁμαρτίας |
| son | of Him | cleanses | us | from | all | sin |
Original form
What this tells us
John begins his letter with what he calls the message: “God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). Then he is honest about how people try to hide: “If we say we have fellowship with Him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth” (1 John 1:6). The word for “sin” is hamartia. John’s answer to it is not hiding but light: “if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” And then the promise: “the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” All of it, not most of it. The next verses keep going in the same direction. “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves” (1 John 1:8), and “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins” (1 John 1:9). Then: “if anyone does sin, we have an advocate before the Father” (1 John 2:1). Walking in the light is a bit like opening the curtains in a room you have kept dark: you see the dust, and you also see that it can be cleaned. You do not have to hide what you have done from God. Light is where cleansing happens, and John says it reaches all sin.
Behind "sin" are 15 different words
Your English Bible says "sin" 630 times. Behind it stand several Hebrew and Greek words:
Reflect
Read it as yours
David prayed this after his worst failure. Read it slowly, as a prayer you are allowed to pray:
Name it
Is there something you have been hiding, even from yourself? You can write it here, privately, and then read 1 John 1:7 again: “cleanses us from all sin”.
Carry with you
Where would it help to bring something into the light this week, instead of hiding it?
A note
Guilt that will not lift, even after you have brought it to God, is worth talking about with someone you trust: a pastor, a counselor or a doctor. Feeling guilty is not proof that God has not forgiven you.