Kutipan untuk Amsal 28:13

It is also clear from the thing itself that self-excuse prevents repentance. For if a man thinks that excusing himself for his sin will avail him, he will never regret the doing of it, nor confess his sin. Such a one is called a man “who covers his transgressions,” as Solomon says: “He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper.” Covering one’s sin means to make something else responsible for one’s sin, as Job says: “If after the manner of Adam I covered my transgressions.” The reference is to Adam, who excused himself for his sin by saying: “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree …” But his excuse did not do him any good, for man was given reason so that he should always watch his conduct and not sin. This is why one who commits a misdeed through error is called a sinner and requires atonement. Similarly one must be careful not to be misled by any one, and hence Adam was told: “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife … cursed is the ground …,” although Adam had not been told not to listen to the voice of his wife. This shows that it does not avail one to excuse himself by saying, So and so made me sin, for nothing excuses a sin except absolute compulsion, concerning which the Rabbis say that heaven acquits a man in case of compulsion. We shall treat of the subject of compulsion in the next chapter.