Footnotes:

1. 51:6 The Hebrew word bat-ţuchâh, although difficult to translate, can mean “something that is covered over, hidden, or concealed.” This could be paraphrased as “you desire light in my darkness” or “you want truth to expose my secrets.”
2. 51:7 The Hebrew text contains the word hyssop. This was a bushy plant used for sprinkling blood on a healed leper to ceremonially cleanse him for the worship of God. See Lev. 14:3–7; Num. 19.
3. 51:7 Or “Wash me with the snow from above so I can be whitened.”
4. 51:8 In this beautiful verse, the broken places (“places you have crushed”) are literally “broken bones.” Our bones speak allegorically of our inner being, our emotional strength.