Innocent
Innocent [1]
(prop. נָקַי, άθῶος ). The Hebrews considered innocence as consisting chiefly in an exemption from external faults committed contrary to the law hence they often join innocent with hands ( Genesis 37:22; Psalms 24:4). "I will wash my hands in innocency" ( Psalms 26:6).; "Then have I cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency" ( Psalms 73:13). Josephus admits of no other sins than those actions which are put in execution (Ant. 12:7, 1). Sins in thought, in his account, are not punished by God. This is a very different standard of morality from that of the Gospel ( Matthew 5:28; John 3:15), or even of the O.T. ( Psalms 51:6). To be innocent is used sometimes for being exempt from punishment. "I will not treat you, as one innocent" ( Jeremiah 46:28); literally, ‘ I will not make thee innocent; I will chastise thee, but like a kind father. Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 49:12), speaking to the Edomites, says, "They who have not (so much) deserved to drink of the cup of my wrath, have tasted of it." Nahum 1:3 declares that "God is ready to exercise vengeance; he will make no one innocent; he will spare no one;" ( Exodus 34:7, Heb.), "Thou shalt make no one innocent;" no sin shall remain unpunished. "With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure" ( Psalms 18:26); thou treatest the just as just, the good as good; thou never dost confound the guilty with the innocent.
