Innocent
Innocent (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 (Ge 37:22; Ps 24:4). "I will wash my hands in innocency" (Ps 26:6).; "Then have I cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency" (Ps 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 (Mt 5:28; Joh 3:15), or even of the O.T. (Ps 51:6). To be innocent is used sometimes for being exempt from punishment. "I will not treat you, as one innocent" (Jer 46:28); literally, 'I will not make thee innocent; I will chastise thee, but like a kind father. 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." Na 1:3 declares that "God is ready to exercise vengeance; he will make no one innocent; he will spare no one;" (Ex 34:7, Heb.), "Thou shalt make no one innocent;" no sin shall remain unpunished. "With the pure thou wilt show thyself pure" (Ps 18:26); thou treatest the just as just, the good as good; thou never dost confound the guilty with the innocent.
