For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    For I know my transgressions. My sin is constantly before me.

  • KJV King James Version

    For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    (51-5) For I know my transgressions; and my sin is ever before me.

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Cross-references (10)

Passages linked to Psalms 51:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Proverbs 28:13 He who conceals his sins doesn’t prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
  • Isaiah 59:12 For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and as for our iniquities, we know them:
  • Psalms 38:18 For I will declare my iniquity. I will be sorry for my sin.
  • Psalms 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to you. I didn’t hide my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
  • Leviticus 26:40-41 “ ‘If they confess their iniquity and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me; and also that because they walked contrary to me, I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity,
  • Luke 15:18-21 I will get up and go to my father, and will tell him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight. I am no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.” ’ “He arose, and came to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
  • Jeremiah 3:25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice.”
  • Job 33:27 He sings before men, and says, ‘I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it didn’t profit me.
  • Psalms 40:12 For innumerable evils have surrounded me. My iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than the hairs of my head. My heart has failed me.
  • Nehemiah 9:2 The offspring of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (16 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 3. For I know my sins He now discovers…

3. For I know my sins He now discovers his reason for imploring pardon with so much vehemency, and this was the painful disquietude which his sins caused him, and which could only be relieved by his obtaining reconciliation with God. This proves that his prayer did not proceed from dissimulation, as many will be found commending the grace of God in high terms, although, in reality, they care little about it, having never felt the bitterness of being exposed to his displeasure. David, on the contrary, declares that he is subjected by his sin to constant anguish of mind, and that it is this which imparts such an earnestness to his supplications. From his example we may learn who they are that can alone be said to seek reconciliation with God in a proper manner. They are such as have had their consciences wounded with a sense of sin, and who can find no rest until they have obtained assurance of his mercy. We will never seriously apply to God for pardon, until we have obtained such a view of our sins as inspires us with fear. The more easily satisfied we are under our sins, the more do we provoke God to punish them with severity, and if we really desire absolution from his hand, we must do more than confess our guilt in words; we must institute a rigid and formidable scrutiny into the character of our transgressions. David does not simply say that he will confess his sins to man, but declares that he has a deep inward feeling of them, such a feeling of them as filled him with the keenest anguish. 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. He speaks of his sins in the plural number. His transgression, although it sprung from one root, was complicated, including, besides adultery, treachery and cruelty; nor was it one man only whom he had betrayed, but the whole army which had been summoned to the field in defense of the Church of God. He accordingly recognises many particular sins as wrapt up in it.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain My conscience accuseth me so, that I can have…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain I acknowledge, with grief and shame, and abhorrency of…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For I acknowledge my transgressions,.... Before God and man.…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions] I know,…
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 51:3. For I acknowledge my transgressions — With…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For I acknowledge my transgressions - literally, I know,…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain For . . . before me--Conviction precedes forgiveness; and,…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. In Psa_51:3-5 are brought out more distinctly the…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. For I acknowledge] Lit., I know. The pronoun…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) For I.—There is an emphatic pronoun in the…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain For I acknowledge my transgressions. (comp. Psa_32:5, "I said,…
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 3. For I acknowledge my transgressions. Here he…
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 my sin is always before me
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 51:3-6 The psalmist accepts the consequences of his sin…

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