SIN — and literally a MISSING: the root is the ordinary verb for an arrow falling short of its mark (Judges 20:16 uses it of slingers who could NOT miss). It is the least dramatic of the Hebrew words for wrongdoing and the most common. Psalm 51 opens by stacking three of them that are not synonyms — pesha (rebellion, a breach of relationship), avon (guilt, the crookedness itself) and chatta't (missing) — and asks a different verb against each: wipe out, wash, cleanse. → first discussed at Psalms 51:4