We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you.
Parallel translations
- KJV We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers: for we have sinned against thee.
- BSB We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, the guilt of our fathers; indeed, we have sinned against You.
- NKJV We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness And the iniquity of our fathers, For we have sinned against You.
- NASB We know our wickedness, Lord, The wrongdoing of our fathers, for we have sinned against You.
- NLT Lord, we confess our wickedness and that of our ancestors, too. We all have sinned against you.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The people confess their own wickedness and the iniquity of their fathers, acknowledging they have sinned against God. Genuine confession owns both personal and inherited guilt before the LORD.
Overview
This corporate confession does not excuse sin but openly admits guilt across generations. Such honest acknowledgment is the necessary turning point toward mercy, as Scripture teaches that confession opens the way to forgiveness (1 John 1:9). It anticipates the gospel call to repentance, where sinners who confess find cleansing through the blood of Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Ps 32:5I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
- Jer 3:25Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice.”
- 1 Jn 1:7–9But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
- Luke 15:18–21I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight.
- Ps 51:3–4For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.
- Dan 9:5–8we have sinned, and have dealt perversely, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even turning aside from your precepts and from your ordinances;
- Lev 26:40–42“‘If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me,
- Ps 106:6–48We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly.
- Jer 3:13Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ says Yahweh.”
- Ezra 9:6–7and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens.
- Job 33:27He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me.
- Neh 9:2The offspring of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins, and the iniquities of their fathers.
- 2 Sam 12:13David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against Yahweh.” Nathan said to David, “Yahweh also has put away your sin. You will not die.
- 2 Sam 24:10David’s heart struck him after he had counted the people. David said to Yahweh, “I have sinned greatly in that which I have done. But now, Yahweh, put away, I beg you, the iniquity of your servant; for I have done very foolishly.”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 14:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.