Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS, 22 Oct. 2023
Psalm 51 comes to us with a description of the context in which it was written, and that is when “Nathan the Prophet came to [David] after [David] had gone into Bathsheba.” David had tried to cover up his adultery with Bathsheba, but God sent a prophet to call David out on this and to communicate God’s anger and punishment for it. We read the account of that in 2 Samuel 121. Psalm 51 contains David’s penitent response to God and plea for forgiveness2.
Read
my translation of vs. 1-10:
Have mercy on me, God,
according to your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of your
compassions, wipe away my transgressions. Abundantly wash me from my
iniquity, indeed from my sin cleanse me, because, as for me, I know
my transgressions, and my sin is in front of me continually. It is
against You – You in particular – that I have sinned and done
what is evil in Your eyes, such that You are right when You speak,
and You are purely-winsome when You judge. Hey, it was into iniquity
that I was molded, and into sin that my mother warmed me up! Yet, it
was faithfulness that You delighted-in concerning what had been
covered-up, and, concerning what had been concealed, you made known
to me {Your} wisdom. You will make a sin-offering for me with hyssop
and I will be ceremonially-clean. You will wash me and I will be
whiter than snow. You will cause me to hear joy and happiness;
{humbled} bones will rejoice!
In this first half of Psalm 51, David gives us an example of how to ask God to pardon us from our sins, then he discusses the problem of sin so that we can begin to grasp how serious it is.
Notice how David owns his sin and responsibility.
He doesn’t blame Bathsheba for tempting him or Uriah for disobeying him.
This sets the example for us when God convicts us of our sin: we must admit it rather than try to shift the blame to others.
David admits that it was, “my transgressions… my iniquity… my sin.”
The three words he uses to describe the wrong he did highlight three aspects of the nature of sin:
“Transgression” (פֶּשַׁע) means crossing a line you weren’t supposed to cross, like trespassing. It means God said not to do something and you did it anyway.
God said, “Do not commit adultery,” and you did it anyway – at least in your mind. God said, “Do not commit murder,” and you did it anyway – at least in your heart3.
[Illustrate by putting a rope across the floor, symbolizing a boundary line, and then stepping over it.] This is pesha’/transgression.
This is the problem all mankind has: the transgression of God’s prohibitory commands (and perhaps this also includes the failure to obey God’s positive commands, which sinks us even deeper in conflict with God).
The second word David uses is “iniquity” (עוֹן in v.2). It connotes perversity, making things bad, incurring guilt.
God said, “A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife” (Gen. 2:24, NASB), but you have twisted and distorted that by chasing after many women. In David’s case, he had at least a dozen wives and concubines, and when he got Bathsheba pregnant, he felt guilty enough about it to try to hide that fact.
God said, “Do not bear false witness,” but rather than being entirely honest about things that would make us look bad, we bend and pervert the truth with half- truths or little white lies.
[Illustrate by rearranging the boundary rope to accommodate where I want to stand.] This propensity to bend and break what is good, is a problem!
Then the third word David uses is (חטָּאת) “Sin” is related to failure to do what you should do, thus causing personal offense.
God says, “Do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly” (Micah 6:8) and we miss the mark on every count, not treating everyone perfectly fairly, not loving everyone, not being merciful to everyone who offends us, and not submitting to God or to others.
The fact that nobody can be perfect means we are unable to fix this.
[Illustrate by forming a circle with the rope to indicate a target, then throwing a ball but missing the target.]
My transgression, my iniquity, my sin is the problem between me and God. If we locate the problem anywhere else we will be lost.
The problem is not that God requires too many good deeds from me.
The problem is not that I need to overcome the anxiety I feel about doing wrong and just feel better about myself.
The problem is not everybody else around me being mean or inconsiderate.
The problem is: I have broken God’s law, done wrong, and personally offended God.
The solution David calls for in verses 1-2 is for God to “blot out/wipe away my transgressions… wash me from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin”4 Three imperative actions to deal with the three aspects of sin.
Regarding the first imperative verb “blot out/wash away” (מְחֵ֣ה v.1):
It is used of what God did to sinners by means of the flood of Noah. (Gen. 7:4)
It is also described in the jealousy test of Numbers 5:23-24 “Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and washNAS,NIV,ESV/blotKJV/scrapeNKJV them off into the water of bitterness.” Then the woman shall drink it.
Then there’s Proverbs 30:20 “Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth...” (KJV, cf. 2 Kings 21:13)
and Isaiah 25:8 “...the Lord GOD will wipe away tears off of all faces.” (KJV)
David asks God to get out the wash-cloth, as it were, and wipe him clean from all his sin so that there is no trace of it left.
Later, God used the same verb when He said in Isaiah 44:22 “I have obliterated like the fog your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins. Turn to me for I have redeemed you.” (NAW)
In the New Testament, this idea carries on: Acts 3:19 "Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” Colossians 2:13-14 “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He [God the Father] has made alive together with Him [Jesus Christ], having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.” (NKJV)
The next imperative action for God’s dealing with sin is “wash me” (כַּבְּסֵ֣נִי) in v.2.
One of its first uses in the Bible was to describe how the Israelites were to “wash” their clothes before meeting God to receive the 10 Commandments at Mt. Sinai. (Ex. 19:10-14)
It also describes all of the purification ceremonies in Leviticus where unclean persons had to wash their clothes in order to become ceremonially clean5.
The root meaning of the word pictures the “agitation” action of washing fabrics, [Illustrate briefly with washing board and muddy cloth in a wash basin]
but it is sometimes applied figuratively to cleaning out sin, as it is here, and in...
Jeremiah 4:14 “O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved...” (ESV)
and then at the end of the Old Testament, we have the prophecy from Malachi 3:2 that the Messiah will be the launderer/washer-man/fuller for God’s people: “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.” (ESV)
This action also carries on into the New Testament: Acts 22:16 “...Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” (NKJV)
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 “...the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God... And such were some of y'all, but you were washed, but you were made holy, but you were made righteous in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” (NAW) Revelation 1:5 “...Jesus Christ... loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood” (NKJV)
Finally the third imperative action is “cleanse me” (טַהֲרֵֽנִי) in v.2.
This is the main word used in the Old Testament to describe ceremonial cleanliness,
This might could be illustrated with an aerosol germicide. I can’t see the germs, but all it takes is a little spraying down, and it is sanitary in a way it never was before.
This Hebrew word for “cleanse” also also described God making His people clean from sin:
Proverbs 20:9 Who can say, “I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin”? (NKJV) We are not able to purify ourselves, but God says in...
Jeremiah 33:8 “I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me.” (cf. Ezek. 36)
and again, at the end of the Old Testament, we have the prophecy from Malachi 3:3 that the Messiah will be the purifier for God’s people: “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them.” (ESV)
And again, this is carried through in the New Testament in passages like:
Hebrews 9:14 “how much more will the blood of the Anointed One (who, through the eternal Spirit offered His faultless self to God) purify y'all's conscience from dead works for devotion to the Living God?”
1 John 1:7 “...if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we are having fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus His Son is cleansing us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we lead ourselves astray and the truth is not in us. If we are confessing our sins, He is faithful and righteous in order to send away from us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (NAW)
God is the only one who can do this. He is the one who, according to His own testimony in Exodus 34:7 does this “keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving (נֹשֵׂ֥א) iniquity and transgression and sin, [while at the same time] by no means clearing the guilty..." (NKJV)
Now, we’ve looked at the three aspects of sin which David confesses and at the three words David uses to ask God to deal with that sin, but there is another very important matter here, and that is the basis upon which God can blot out, wash, or cleanse sin.
If God is fair, He should do to David exactly what He told Adam and Eve and Israel He would do if they sinned, and that is “the soul that sins it shall surely die6.” So on what basis can David, when he has sinned, ask for anything but his own execution? How can he ask God to remove sin from him?
There are two key words to describe this in verses 1-2: the first is “חהן/grace/mercy/undeserved kindness”
According to Exodus 33:19 and Romans 9:15-18, God’s grace is equated with God’s compassion, and both are a result of God’s will. “...I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion [רחם] on whom I will have compassion." (NKJV)
In the Aaronic blessing in Num. 6:25, grace is equated with God’s blessing and God’s favorable presence, “The LORD make His face shine upon you, And be gracious to you” (NKJV)
In Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8:33-34, this grace is equated with God forgiving sin, “When Your people... have sinned against You, and when they turn back to You and confess Your name, and pray and make supplication [ask for mercy] to You in this temple, then hear in heaven, and forgive (סלח) the sin of Your people...” (NKJV)
In 2 Kings 13:22-23, we see that God’s covenant is the basis on which He shows grace, and that this grace includes sparing them from destruction: “But the LORD was gracious to them, had compassion on them, and regarded them, because of His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not yet destroy them or cast them from His presence.” (NKJV)
So, throughout the Psalms, dozens of times7, David begs God for mercy, for instance, Psalm 119:58 “I entreated Your favor with my whole heart; Be merciful to me according to Your word.” (NKJV)
Isaiah 33:1 also relates God’s grace to “salvation8” and in Isaiah 30:19 God encourages us to ask Him for mercy, “He will certainly be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; as He hears, He answers you.” (NAW)
In the book of Job, another legal basis for God’s mercy is revealed, and that is the payment of a ransom to satisfy justice: Elihu prophesied that, “[W]hen [God] is gracious to [man], then He says, ‘Deliver him from going down to the Pit; I have found a ransom’” (Job 33:24, NAW)
That ransom was paid by Jesus on the cross, and so, in the New Testament, we see Jesus as the source of grace. It was to Jesus that they came, asking for mercy – the blind men in Nazareth (Mat. 9:27), the Syro-Phonecian woman (Mat. 15:22), the man with the lunatic son (Mat. 17:15), the blind men in Jericho (Mat. 20:30), the 10 lepers (Luke 17:13) – “Lord, have mercy,” “Lord, have mercy,” “Lord, have mercy,” they cried, and He healed them all! Stupendous mercy! Amazing grace!
So also the Apostle Paul, over and over again9 praised God’s mercy for saving him from sin, in passages like 1 Timothy 1:15-16 “...Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.” (NKJV)
The second key word is רַחֲמִים In Psalm 51:1, the extent of God’s gracious forgiveness is requested to be “according to the greatness/abundance/multitude of [God’s] compassions/tender mercies”
The NAS, NIV, and ESV mistakenly translated the word as singular, but it is plural in the original languages, lending even more to the thought of how great God’s mercies are.
The Bible mentions God’s “mercy” or “grace” several hundred times, and David in particular wrote often of the “great mercies” of God:
2 Samuel 24:14 “...let {me} fall into the control of Yahweh, for His mercies are great, and let me not fall in the direction of the control of man!” (NAW)
Psalm 25:6-7 “Remember Your mercies, Yahweh, and Your lovingkindnesses, because they are from eternity. [As for the] sins of my youth and my transgressions, don't remember [them]; according to Your lovingkindness remember Yourself for me, on account of Your goodness, Yahweh!” (NAW)
Psalm 40:11 “As for You, Yahweh, never stop Your compassions from [coming toward] me; Your lovingkindness and Your truth will always protect me.” (NAW)
Psalm 69:16 “Hear me, O LORD, for Your lovingkindness is good; Turn to me according to the multitude of Your tender mercies” (NKJV)
Psalm 103:2-4 “Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies” (NKJV)
Psalm 119:76-77 “Let, I pray, Your merciful kindness be for my comfort, According to Your word to Your servant. Let Your tender mercies come to me, that I may live; For Your law is my delight…. 156 Great are Your tender mercies, O LORD; Revive me according to Your judgments.” (NKJV)
Psalm 145:8-9 “The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy. The LORD is good to all, And His tender mercies are over all His works.” (NKJV)
Notice that David does not say, “Be gracious to me, O God, according to all the good things I have done.” No, Isaiah 64:6 says that our good deeds are “filthy rags/lying witnesses.”
Nor does David say, “Be gracious to me, O God, because I confessed my sin.” How many of you have had an argument with someone who had offended you that ended with them saying, “Well, I said I’m sorry!” That didn’t make you want to forgive them, did it?
David recognized that the only grounds for God’s mercy toward us is not us but the greatness of God’s compassions toward us.
Romans 9:16-18 says, “...it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy… So then he has mercy on whomever he wills…” (ESV)
And if it depends on God, then God is the one we must go to with our plea, “Have mercy on me!”
Now, how much sin can God, in His mercy, blot out? As much as the greatness of His mercies! And how much is that? Well, according to Ephesians 2:7, they are “immeasurable,” so that should be enough for you! “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” (Eph. 2:4-7, ESV)
v.3 Knowing that we have sinned against God is important, and so is knowing in what ways we have sinned against God, and acknowledging that to Him through specific confession.
If we are unclear on that, we can pray like Job did in Job 13:23 “How many are my iniquities and sins? Make me know my transgression and my sin.” (NKJV)
God will answer a request like that. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit’s job is to “convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment10,” so the Holy Spirit will make your sins more clear to you,
then you can say with Isaiah, “...our sins have testified against us; for our rebellions are with us, and, as for our iniquities, we know them” (Isaiah 59:12, NAW)
David also says that his sin is “before [him] continually.” He doesn’t try to ignore it or treat it dismissively or pretend that it was such an outlier to his behavior that it would never happen again.
“His was a very different spirit from that of the hypocrite, who displays a complete indifference upon this subject, or when it intrudes upon him, endeavors to bury the recollection of it.” ~J. Calvin
“True penitence is not a dead knowledge of sin committed, but a living sensitive consciousness of it…” ~F. Deltizsch
This is like what he wrote earlier in Psalm 38:17-18 “...my sorrow is always conspicuous to me11. Because I will confess my iniquity; I will stir up concern as a result of my sin.” (NAW)
This is one reason why the Old Testament animal sacrifices had to be daily (Psalm 50:8 “...your whole-burnt-offerings are before me continually.”) and why, in the New Testament, Jesus has to be continually in the presence of the Father interceding for us now because our sins are always in front of us (Heb. 7:25 “...He is also able to save in any eventuality those who come through Him to God, since He is always living for the purpose of interceding on their behalf.” ~NAW)
Now, in v.4, David confesses that he has sinned against God “alone.”
This is not to say that he had sinned only against God and not against Bathsheba and Uriah (and a lot of other people).
The Hebrew word lebad has to do with “that which is apart from others,” and in most of the Bible, it is used to single God out for the ways in which He stands alone uniquely as God, but in this case, I think it is appropriate to interpret the word “in particular,” because this Psalm is David’s communication with God, addressing his broken relationship with God in particular.
When we sin, we are often able to see the negative results sin has upon our relationships with other people, and we know we need to smooth those relationships over, but we all-too-easily forget that when we sin it also offends God, so we also need to make things right with Him. In 2 Sam. 12:13, David said, “I have sinned against Yahweh!”
When I discipline my children, I have them pray for God to forgive them in Jesus’ name and then make them apologize and make it right with whomever else they offended.
David had sinned against Bathsheba by destroying her marriage and her husband, so he would do what he could to make that right by marrying her and providing for her needs for the rest of her life, but in this Psalm, David is acknowledging that his sin against Bathsheba also offended God, and that he particularly needs to be forgiven by God as well.
Another part of David’s confession in v.4 was admitting to God that he had done wrong.
David doesn’t call it a “mistake” or an “indiscretion” or a “misunderstanding,” he straight-up calls his adultery and murder “evil.” That is an important part of confession.
And he recognizes that it is “evil” because it is “evil in God’s sight.” God is the one who defines good and evil, so if God says in the Bible that something is evil, then it is evil, and that’s the final word.
We see an echo of David’s confession in v.4, when Jesus tells the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and the son makes his confession to his father in Luke 15:21, “And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight...’” (NKJV)
These words from the Psalms (cf. Psalm 41:4) and from Jesus teach us how to word our own confessions of sin: “I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight.”
At the end of v.4, David admits that God was right and that God’s admonition through the prophet Nathan was perfectly just. He declares, “You are blameless/clear/purely-winsome when You judge.”
“Whatever sins men may commit are chargeable entirely upon themselves, and never can implicate the righteousness of God.” ~J. Calvin
Romans 3:4 quotes the Septuagint of this same verse when Paul argues that, the fact that some Jews didn’t believe in Jesus and went to hell, can’t be used as an excuse to accuse God of unfaithfulness, because His words are always just, and anybody who tries to dispute with God is going to lose the argument12. I’m wrong; you’re right, God.
According to Revelation 15:3 that’s what we’re going to be singing in heaven too: “...Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Your ways, O King...” (NKJV)
“When sin becomes manifest to a man as such, he must himself say Amen to the divine sentence, just as David does to that passed upon him by Nathan.” ~F. Delitzsch
In contrast to the unassailable justice and righteousness of God, David observes in v.5 that sin and iniquity were what he was “conceived/shaped” and born into.
I might hasten to add that the acts of conceiving and giving birth to a child are holy and good, as God created them to be, so David can’t be saying that these are sinful activities in-and-of-themselves (the Hebrew words are not even the normal words for conception and birth anyway);
what he must be saying is that, from the moment of conception, human beings have a sin nature. We suffer from the original guilt of Adam’s disobedience to God, we suffer from a lack of original righteousness, and we are born into a world full of sinners. Since that is the context in which we live and breathe, then pure righteousness, innocence, and justice are completely beyond us. Sin shapes and molds us from our mother’s womb! It’s not an excuse that gets us out of punishment; it’s just the unavoidable nature of our sinful condition.
This doctrine of the fallenness of mankind is taught throughout Scripture in places like:
Job 15:14 “What is man, that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous? … 25:4 How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman?” (NKJV) The obvious answer is: “He can’t!”
Psalm 58:3 explains: “The wicked are estranged from the womb; They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.” (NKJV)
The Apostle Paul explained why that is in Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (NKJV, cf. 1 Cor. 15:22)
Ephesians 2:3 “...we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.” (NKJV) We all were by nature destined for God’s wrath.
As such, we have no ability to begin to comprehend the righteousness, purity, innocence, and justice of God. We don’t know what it’s like not to sin. There’s no point even trying to defend ourselves when God convicts us of sin!
But - oh the glory of it! - when we acknowledge and confess our sins to God and ask for His forgiveness according to His mercy, God promises to forgive us!
Psalm 32:5 “My sin I acknowledge to You, and my iniquity I do not cover over; I talk; I hand against myself my transgressions to You, Yahweh, and You will lift away the iniquity of my sin.” (NAW)
Proverbs 28:13 “He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.” (NKJV)
1 John 1:8-9 “If we say that we have no sin, we lead ourselves astray and the truth is not in us. If we are confessing our sins, He is faithful and righteous in order to send away from us the sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (NAW)
“When we deal seriously with our sin, God will deal gently with us. When we hate what the Lord hates, he will soon make an end of it, to our joy and peace.” ~Ch. Spurgeon
Vulgate (Ps. 50)B |
LXXC
|
Brenton (Vaticanus)D |
KJVE |
NAW |
Masoretic TxtF |
PeshittaG |
1
in finem psalmus David 2 cum venit ad eum Nathan
propheta quando intravit ad Bethsabee |
1 Εἰς τὸ τέλος· ψαλμὸς τῷ ΔαυιδH 2 ἐν τῷ ἐλθεῖν πρὸς αὐτὸν Ναθαν τὸν προφήτην, ἡνίκα εἰσῆλθεν πρὸς Βηρσαβεε. 3 Ἐλέησόν με, ὁ θεός, κατὰ τὸ [μέγα] ἔλεός σουI [καὶ] κατὰ τὸ πλῆθος τῶν οἰκτιρμῶν σου ἐξάλειψον τὸ ἀνόμημά μου· |
1 For the end, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, when he had gone to Bersabee. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy great mercy; [and] according to the multitude of thy compassions blot out my transgressionXJ. |
1 To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. |
1 For the concertmaster, a psalm by David, when Nathan the Prophet came to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, God, according to your lovingkindness; according to the greatness of your compassions, wipe away my transgressions. |
(א)
לַמְנַצֵּחַ
מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד. |
|
4 amplius lava me ab iniquitate mea et a peccato meo munda me |
4 ἐπὶ πλεῖονO πλῦνόν με ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνομίας μου καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ἁμαρτίας μου καθάρισόν με. |
2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. |
2 Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. |
2 Abundantly wash me from my iniquity, indeed from my sin cleanse me, |
(ד) הַרְבֵּהP כַּבְּסֵנִי מֵעֲוֹנִי וּמֵחַטָּאתִי טַהֲרֵנִי. |
4 אסגא אשׁיגיני מן עולי ומן חטהי דכני |
5 quoniam iniquitatem meam ego cognosco et peccatum meum contra me est semper |
5 ὅτι τὴν ἀνομίαν μου ἐγὼ γινώσκω, καὶ ἡ ἁμαρτία μου ἐνώπιόν μού ἐστιν διὰ παντόςQ. |
3 For X I am conscious of mine iniquity; and my sin is continually before me. |
3 For X I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. |
3 because, as for me, I know my transgressions, and my sin is in front of me continually. |
(ה) כִּי פְשָׁעַי אֲנִי אֵדָע וְחַטָּאתִי נֶגְדִּיR תָמִיד. |
5 מטל דסכלותי ידע אנא וחטהי לוקבלי אנון בכלזבן |
6
tibi soli peccavi et malum coram te feci ut iustificeris in
sermonibus tuis [et]
vincas cum iudicar |
6
σοὶ μόνῳ ἥμαρτον καὶ τὸ πονηρὸν
ἐνώπιόν σου ἐποίησα, ὅπως ἂν
δικαιωθῇς ἐν τοῖς λόγοις σουS
[καὶ] νικήσῃς
ἐν τῷ κρίνεσ |
4
Against thee only have I sinned,
and done X evil
|
4
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this
evil in thy sight: that thou mightest
|
4 It is against You – You in particular – that I have sinned and done what is evil in Your eyes, such that You are right when You speak, and You are purely-winsome when You judge. |
(ו) לְךָ לְבַדְּךָ U חָטָאתִי וְהָרַע בְּעֵינֶיךָ עָשִׂיתִי לְמַעַן תִּצְדַּק בְּדָבְרֶךָV תִּזְכֶּהW בְשָׁפְטֶךָX. |
6
לך
בלחודיך חטית ובישׁתא קדמיך עבדת מטל
דתזדדק במלתך [ו] |
7
ecce enim
in iniquitatibus conceptus
sum et in peccatis |
7
ἰδοὺ [γὰρ]
ἐν ἀνομία |
5
[For]
behold, I was conceived
in iniquit |
5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. |
5 Hey, it was into iniquity that I was molded and into sin that my mother warmed me up! |
(ז) הֵן בְּעָווֹן חוֹלָלְתִּיAB וּבְחֵטְא ACיֶחֱמַתְנִי אִמִּי. |
7 מטל דבעולא אתבטנתAD ובחטהא בטנתני אמי |
12 Sam. 12:7-12 Then Nathan said to David, "You are that man! Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'It was I who anointed you to be king over Israel, and it was I who rescued you from the hand of Saul. I also gave to you the house of your Lord and even the women of your Lord into your embrace, that is, I have given to you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if it were a small thing, I also would have added this, that, and the other to you. Why did you despise the word of Yahweh by doing what is evil in His sight? Uriah the Hittite you have struck down with the sword! Moreover, his wife you have taken for yourself to be a wife while you slaughtered him with the sword of the descendants of Ammon! Now therefore, the sword shall never turn away from your household, in that you despised me and you took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to become your wife.' Thus says Yahweh, 'Here I am, raising up against you an evil out of your own household, and I will take your wives before your eyes and will give them to your fellow, and he will lie down with your wives in the sight of this same sun! As for you, you did it in secret, but I, I will do this thing in the presence of all Israel and in the presence of the sun.'" (NAW)
2Some of the vocabulary and subject matter of this Psalm is more-similar to later prophetic writings (like Isaiah) than to the other psalms of David, so perhaps David’s original version was edited by a prophet after him to the form we have today.
3Exodus 20:13-14, Matthew 6:21-28
4cf. Psalm 25:11 “On account of Your name, Yahweh, even pardon my iniquity, for it is much.” 39:8 “From all my transgressions rescue me...” (NAW)
5Lev. 11-15. cf. Numbers 8, where the consecration of priests included “washing” their clothes.
6Ezekiel 18:20, cf. Gen. 2:17
7Ps. 4:2; 6:3; 9:14; 25:16; 26:11; 27:7; 30:9, 11; 31:10; 41:5, 11; 51:3; 56:2; 57:2; 67:2; 86:3, 16; 119:29, 58, 132; 123:2-3; 142:2
8“Yahweh; be gracious to us! It is for You that we wait! Be their arm for the mornings, yes our salvation in a time of distress!” (Isa. 33:1, NAW)
9cf. 1 Cor. 7:25; 2 Cor. 4:1; 1 Tim. 1:13, and the many passages in with the noun for “grace” such as John 1:14-17.
10“Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment” John 16:7-8, NKJV
11נֶגְדִּ֣י תָמִֽיד (this same phrase is also in Psalm 50:8 and 51:3) A. Cohen also suggested that Psalm 32 might also be describing David’s distress of mind and body over this in detail.
12Rom. 3:4 “...As it is written: ‘That You may be justified in Your words, And may overcome when You are judged.’” (NKJV)
AMy
original chart includes the NASB, NIV, and ESV, but their copyright
restrictions force me to remove them from the publicly-available
edition of this chart. (NAW is my translation.) When a translation
adds words not in the Hebrew text, but does not indicate it has done
so by the use of italics (or greyed-out text), I put the added words
in [square brackets]. When one version chooses a wording which is
different from all the other translations, I underline it.
When a version chooses a translation which, in my opinion, either
departs too far from the root meaning of the Hebrew word or departs
too far from the grammar form of the original text, I use strikeout.
And when a version omits a word which is in the original text, I
insert an X. (I also place an X at the end of a word if the original
word is plural but the English translation is singular.) I
occasionally use colors to help the reader see correlations between
the various editions and versions when there are more than two
different translations of a given word. The only known Dead Sea
Scrolls containing Psalm 51 are 4Q85 Psalmsc (which
contains parts of verses 1-3) and 4Q91
Psalms (containing
parts of vs. 1-4),
both of which date
around 50 AD. Where the DSS is legible and reads the same as
the MT, the Hebrew text is colored purple. Where the DSS and ancient
versions support each other against the MT in such a way that I
suspect they are the original reading, I have highlighted
them with
yellow.
BJerome's Latin Vulgate w/ Deuterocanon using Gallican Psalter, 405 AD. As published electronically by E-Sword.
CThis Greek New Testament (GNT) is the 1904 "Patriarchal" edition of the Greek Orthodox Church. The Robinson-Pierpont Byzantine majority text of the GNT and the Textus Receptus are very similar. The Westcott-Hort, Nestle-Aland, and UBS editions are a slightly-different family of GNTs developed in the modern era as a break from the traditional Greek Bible by compiling just a few of the oldest-known manuscripts, but even so, the practical differences in the text between these two editing philosophies are minimal.
DEnglish translation of the Septuagint by Sir Lancelot Charles Lee Brenton, 1851, “based upon the text of the Vaticanus” but not identical to the Vaticanus. As published electronically by E-Sword.
E1769 King James Version of the Holy Bible; public domain. As published electronically by E-Sword.
FFrom
the Wiki Hebrew Bible
https://he.wikisource.org/wiki/%D7%A1%D7%A4%D7%A8_%D7%AA%D7%94%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9D.
DSS text comes from https://downloads.thewaytoyahuweh.com
GThe Leiden Peshitta, Copyright © 2012 by The Peshitta Foundation c/o Leiden University Institute for Religious Studies, as published electronically in BibleWorks.
HAquila: tw nikopoiw melwdhma tou Dauid
ITheodotian supported the LXX, but Aquila uncharacteristically rendered the first verb differently from the MT (δωρησαι = “give”). Symmachus employed the synonym used later in the verse by the LXX (οικτειρον = “have compassion”).
JThe neuter accusative form in Greek is spelled the same in plural as it is in singular, so the LXX should be construed as plural in keeping with the MT. Brenton apparently defaulted to the singular without realizing that the context denied that option, even though in another situation it might have been a valid translation.
KGerald
Wilson, in the NIV Application Commentary, noted that this is
the 4th of the 7 penitential psalms, the others being 6,
32, 38, 102, 130, and 143.
Augustine: “Let them hear that
have not fallen, lest they fall; let them hear that have fallen,
that they may rise.”
Lcf. 2 Sam .12:22 And David said, "While my newborn was still alive, I fasted and wept because I said, 'Who knows if Yahweh might have mercy and my newborn might live?'” (NAW)
MAlthough Vulgate and Septuagint insert “great” here, the Peshitta, Targum, and DSS do not. The Vulgate and LXX also insert “and” here, and the Peshitta joins them, but the DSS and Targum support the MT without the conjunction. Neither insertion changes the meaning of the statement, however.
NThis verb is used of what God did to sinners by means of the flood of Noah. It is also described in the jealousy test of Numbers 5:23-24 "Then the priest shall write these curses in a book and washNAS,NIV,ESV/blotKJV/scrapeNKJV them off into the water of bitterness.” Then have the woman drink it. Then there’s 2 Kings 21:13 “...I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish...” and Proverbs 30:20 “Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth...” and Isaiah 25:8 “...the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces.” (KJV. All other English versions also render the verb “wipe” in these verses.) and In contemporary English, “blot out” primarily connotes covering a mistake with ink or with paint so as to become no longer readable, although it can mean dabbing with a wet cloth to wash out a stain. The latter appears to be the meaning of this Hebrew verb. Note that the next verb in the next verse is “wash.” (Numbers 34:11 is the most unusual use of this verb: “...and the border shall descend, and shall reach unto the side of the sea of Chinnereth eastward” ~KJV)
OSymmachus reduced it to one word, following the MT, pollakiV (“much”).
PThe
Masoretic marginal note suggested that instead of this adverbial
form “abundantly,” the spelling of this word should be changed
to a Hiphil imperative form הֶרֶב
(“make abundant”), basically dropping the final
he. However, both of the
Dead Sea Scrolls of this passage support the Kethib’s adverbial
form. The LXX “fully” (and Symmachus “abundantly”), Vulgate
“amply,” and Peshitta “completely” also support an adverb
instead of a second imperative.
Concerning the verb that
follows (cabas), one
of its first uses in the Bible was to describe how the Israelites
were to “wash” their clothes before meeting God to receive the
10 Commandments at Mt. Sinai. It also describes all of the
purification ceremonies in Leviticus where an unclean person had to
wash their clothes. In Numbers, it is part of the consecration of
priests to wash their clothes. The root meaning of the word pictures
the agitation action of washing. In Jeremiah, the action takes a
turn of being applied figuratively to persons to cleanse from sin:
Jeremiah 2:22
“Though you wash
yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is
still before me, declares the Lord GOD…” Jeremiah
4:14 “O Jerusalem,
wash
your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your
wicked thoughts lodge within you?” and then at the end of the Old
Testament, we have the prophecy from Malachi
3:2 that the Messiah
will be the launderer/the washer-man/the fuller for God’s people:
“But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when
he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers'
soap.” (ESV)
QSymmachus came up with a one-word synonym for “continually” = endelecwV
RCompare
with the 4 other instances in
the O.T. of
this word combined with tamid:
Psalm
16:8 ... שִׁוִּ֬יתִי
יְהוָ֣ה לְנֶגְדִּ֣י
תָמִ֑יד
“I
have put Yahweh before me continually...”
Psalm
38:18 וּמַכְאוֹבִ֖י
נֶגְדִּ֣י
תָמִֽיד׃
… “...and
my shame is before me continually.”
Psalm
50:8
וְעוֹלֹתֶ֖יךָ
לְנֶגְדִּ֣י
תָמִֽיד׃
… “...and
your whole-burnt-offerings are before me continually.”
Isaiah
49:16
חוֹמֹתַ֥יִךְ
נֶגְדִּ֖י
תָּמִֽיד׃
… “...your
walls are before me continually.”
SSymmachus = eneken tou dikaiwqhnai se en toiV logoiV sou (“in order for you to be justified by your words”).
TAquila = uperkriqhV (“judged over”), Symmachus = nikan krinonta (“victoriously judging”?), Q. = same as LXX (“conquering”). Romans 3:4 is an exact quote of the LXX here (at least in the vast majority of Greek New Testament manuscripts, including the Vaticanus. A handful of manuscripts change the last vowel to a similar-sounding dipthong, and that is followed in modern critical Greek New Testaments).
U“chiefly” ~A.R. Faussett
VThe simple Qal stem in the MT “be right” does not support the passive form used in many English translations (“be justified”). The prepositional phrase “in your speaking” in the MT uses an infinitive verb “speaking” (not the noun “word”) prefixed by a temporal beth. However, the LXX and Vulgate translated “justified” as a passive verb followed by noun phrase (“be justified in your words” – note the addition of plurality to “words” – which Symmachus agreed with, although apparently not Aquilla), and the Targum also makes “word” a noun. I am not knowledgeable enough on Syriac grammar to expound on the grammar of the Peshitta here, but Bauscher translated the Peshitta into English as “be just in your word,” and Lamsa as, “be justified in thy reproof.” No one outside of God can make God any more “just/right” than He already is. The NIV attempts to get around this with “proved right” instead of “made right,” although English can use the word “justified” in a self-referential sense when a person is proving to someone else why they were right to do what they did, so, understood in this way, there is no substantial difference in meaning.
WThis
verb in the MT means “clean/pure/innocent.” Cf.
Proverbs 20:9
“Who can say, ‘I have made my heart clean,
I am pure [טהר]
from my sin?’” (NKJV) It only occurs a half-dozen other places
in the O.T. In Job 15:14 and 25:4, it is in parallel with
“righteous” (צדק),
Psalm 73:13 puts it in parallel with “innocence” (נִקָּי֣וֹן),
Isa. 1:16 parallels it with “washing” and “turning away
from evil,” and Micah 6:11 contrasts it with “wickedness” and
“falsehood/deceit.”
However, the LXX (supported by
Symmachus and Theodotian, despite Aquila’s attempt to correct the
Greek toward the MT), Vulgate,
and Peshitta all read “overcome/conquer/be victorious,” as
though the word were perhaps
נכה
instead
of זכה.
The DSS is obliterated at this point, so
we can’t use it to resolve the dispute.
Furthermore, when this
verse is quoted in Romans3:4, the LXX of this Psalm is quoted
word-for-word, so English versions of Romans 3:4 read
“overcome/prevail” instead of “blameless/just/clear.”
A
resolution may be found in the Hebrew Union College Comprehensive
Aramaic Lexicon which lists both “conquer” and “be innocent”
as definitions of the root זכי
which is
the word used in the Targums and
Peshitta of this verse.
English translators might
do well to find a word
which means both.
This
is also sustained in Hammond’s commentary on this verse, quoted in
a footnote in Calvin’s commentary: “[O]rdinarily rendered mundus
fuit, clean,
or clear,
or pure.
But this, as the context evinces, must be understood in a forensic
sense, as pure
is all one with free
from guilt; and so
there is a second notion of the word for overcoming,
meaning that sort of victory which belongs to him that carries the
cause in judicature… for he that doth overcome in the suit is
fitly said to be cleared or quitted by the law.”
XLXX
and Vulgate add a passive indicator “when you are judged,”
and it is quoted that way in Romans. But God is not the one in
danger of judgment. The Peshitta and Targums support the MT with the
active “when you judge.”
G. Wilson noted that this verse
pictures God as both accuser (“when you speak”) and judge.
YBauscher = “conquer,” Lamsa = “be triumphant”
ZSymmachus = (idou) eiV adikian wdinhqhn, kai en amartiaiV ekuhse me h mhthr mou. (Same meaning, synonyms underlined.)
AALiddel-Scott defined this Greek word as “crave” not “conceive.”
ABThis word literally means “writhe,” and is occasionally related to birth pangs, but also to “anxious waiting,” “circle dancing,” “hand-made” items, and other actions. Prov. 8:24 contains the only other instance of this verb in the exact same spelling, and it refers to the eternal generation of the Wisdom of God, parallel with the verb נסך (“poured out/installed”).
ACThis is not the usual Hebrew word for “conceive” (הרה). There are only two other passages in the O.T. agreed upon by all to contain this verb, and they are Gen. 30:41, and 31:10, describing the mating and conception of Jacob’s sheep in heat. The BibleWorks search engine adds Gen. 30:38 &39 (describing the same thing), and the E-Sword KJV with Strong’s numbers also adds Deut. 19:6 (a hot-hearted man taking revenge), 1Kings 1:1 (David unable to get warm), and Eccl. 4:11 (Two lying down together keeping warm). BDB defines its root meaning as to “be hot.”
ADThe Syriac word here means “formed.”