Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.
Parallel Translations
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Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.
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Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
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(51-7) Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Cross-references (8)
Passages linked to Psalms 51:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Romans 5:12 Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned.
- Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
- Psalms 58:3 The wicked go astray from the womb. They are wayward as soon as they are born, speaking lies.
- Job 15:14-16 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
- Ephesians 2:3 We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
- John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
- Genesis 5:3 Adam lived one hundred thirty years, and became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
- Genesis 8:21 Yahweh smelled the pleasant aroma. Yahweh said in his heart, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake because the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth. I will never again strike every living thing, as I have done.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 5 Behold, I was born in iniquity, etc He…
5 Behold, I was born in iniquity, etc He now proceeds further than the mere acknowledgement of one or of many sins, confessing that he brought nothing but sin with him into the world, and that his nature was entirely depraved. He is thus led by the consideration of one offense of peculiar atrocity to the conclusion that he was born in iniquity, and was absolutely destitute of all spiritual good. Indeed, every sin should convince us of the general truth of the corruption of our nature. The Hebrew word יחמתני, yechemathni, signifies literally, hath warmed herself of me, from יחם, yacham, or חמם, chamam, to warm; but interpreters have very properly rendered it hath conceived me. The expression intimates that we are cherished in sin from the first moment that we are in the womb. David, then, is here brought, by reflecting on one particular transgression, to east a retrospective glance upon his whole past life, and to discover nothing but sin in it. And let us not imagine that he speaks of the corruption of his nature, merely as hypocrites will occasionally do, to excuse their faults, saying, “I have sinned it may be, but what could I do? We are men, and prone by nature to everything which is evil.” David has recourse to no such stratagems for evading the sentence of God, and refers to original sin with the view of aggravating his guilt, acknowledging that he had not contracted this or that sin for the first time lately, but had been born into the world with the seed of every iniquity.
The passage affords a striking testimony in proof of original sin entailed by Adam upon the whole human family. It not only teaches the doctrine, but may assist us in forming a correct idea of it. The Pelagians, to avoid what they considered the absurdity of holding that all were ruined through one man’s transgression, maintained of old, that sin descended from Adam only through force of imitation. But the Bible, both in this and other places, clearly asserts that we are born in sin, and that it exists within us as a disease fixed in our nature. David does not charge it upon his parents, nor trace his crime to them, but sists himself before the Divine tribunal, confesses that he was formed in sin, and that he was a transgressor ere he saw the light of this world. It was therefore a gross error in Pelagius to deny that sin was hereditary, descending in the human family by contagion. The Papists, in our own day, grant that the nature of man has become depraved, but they extenuate original sin as much as possible, and represent it as consisting merely in an inclination to that which is evil. They restrict its seat besides to the inferior part of the soul and the gross appetites; and while nothing is more evident from experience than that corruption adheres to men through life, they deny that it remains in them subsequently to baptism. We have no adequate idea of the dominion of sin, unless we conceive of it as extending to every part of the soul, and acknowledge that both the mind and heart of man have become utterly corrupt. The language of David sounds very differently from that of the Papists, I was formed in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me He says nothing of his grosser appetites, but asserts that sin cleaved by nature to every part of him without exception.
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Here the question has been started, How sin is transmitted from the parents to the children? And this question has led to another regarding the transmission of the soul, many denying that corruption can be derived from the parent to the child, except on the supposition of one soul being begotten of the substance of another. Without entering upon such mysterious discussions, it is enough that we hold, that Adam, upon his fall, was despoiled of his original righteousness, his reason darkened, his will perverted, and that, being reduced to this state of corruption, he brought children into the world resembling himself in character. Should any object that generation is confined to bodies, and that souls can never derive anything in common from one another, I would reply, that Adam, when he was endued at his creation with the gifts of the Spirit, did not sustain a private character, but represented all mankind, who may be considered as having been endued with these gifts in his person; and from this view it necessarily follows that when he fell, we all forfeited along with him our original integrity.
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.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and…
Psa 51:5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Ver. 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity] This he allegeth, viz. his original depravity, not as an excuse, but as an aggravation of his actual abominations, which he saith were committed out of the vile viciousness of his nature. See Psa 58:3-4, . The Masorites here observe, that the word rendered iniquity is full, written with a double å, Vau, to signify the fulness of his sin; {Hebrew Text Note} whole evil being in every man by nature, and whole evil in man; which, when the saints confess, they are full in the mouth, as I may so say; they begin with the root of sin (not at the fingers’ ends, as Adonibezek did), stabbing the old man at the heart first, and laying the main weight upon original corruption, that indwelling sin, as the apostle calleth it, Rom 7:14, ; that sin of evil concupiscence, as the Chaldee here; that peccatum peccans, as the schools. Cicero likewise had heard somewhat of this when he said, Cum primum nascimur, in omni continuo pravitate versamur, As soon as ever we are born we are forthwith in all wickedness. Augustine saith, Damnatus homo antequam natus, Man is condemned as soon as conceived.
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And in sin did my mother conceive me] Heb. warm me; this Aben Ezra interpreteth to be our great grandmother Eve, Quae non parturiebat antequam peccabat. David meant it doubtless of his immediate mother, and spake of that poison wherewith she had warmed him in her womb, before the soul was infused. Corruption is conveyed by the impurity of the seed, Job 14:4 Joh 3:6; Joh 3:31. Sin may be said to be in the seed inception and dispostion, as fire is in the flint. Let us therefore go with Elisha to the fountain, and cast salt into those rotten and stinking waters. And for our children, let us labour to mend that by education which we have marred by propagation.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain This verse is both by Jewish and Christian, by…
This verse is both by Jewish and Christian, by ancient and later, interpreters, generally and most truly understood of original sin; which he here mentions as an aggravation of his crime: and the sense of the place is this, Nor is this the only sin which I have reason to acknowledge and bewail before thee; for this filthy stream leads me to a corrupt fountain; and upon a serious review of my heart and life I find that I am guilty of innumerable other sins, and that this heinous crime, though drawn forth by external temptations, yet was indeed the proper fruit of my own filthy and vile nature, which, without the restraints of thy providence or grace, ever was, and still is like to be, inclinable and ready to commit these and ten thousand other sins, as occasion offers itself; for which contrariety of my very nature to thine, thou mayst justly loathe and condemn me; and for which I humbly beg thy pardon and grace.
Conceive me, Heb. warm or cherish me in the womb, before I was
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shapen or formed there.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,.... This cannot be…
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,.... This cannot be understood of any personal iniquity of his immediate parents; since this respects his wonderful formation in the womb, in which both he and they were wholly passive, as the word here used is of that form; and is the amazing work of God himself, so much admired by the psalmist, Psa 139:13; and cannot design any sinfulness then infused into him by his Maker, seeing God cannot be the author of sin; but of original sin and corruption, derived to him by natural generation: and the sense is, that as soon as ever the mass of human nature was shaped and quickened, or as soon as soul and body were united together, sin was in him, and he was in sin, or became a sinful creature;
and in sin did my mother conceive me; by whom cannot be meant Eve; for though she is the mother of all living, and so of David, yet could not, with any propriety, be said to conceive him: this only could be said of his immediate parent, not even of his next grandmother, much less of Eve, at the distance of almost three thousand years. Nor does the sin in which he was conceived intend any sin of his parents, in begetting and conceiving him, being in lawful wedlock; which acts cannot be sinful, since the propagation of the human species by natural generation is a principle of nature implanted by God himself; and is agreeably to the first law of nature, given to man in a state of innocence, "increase and multiply", Gen 1:28. Marriage is the institution of God in paradise; and in all ages has been accounted "honourable in all, when the bed is undefiled", Heb 13:4. Nor does it design his being conceived when his mother was in "profluviis", of which there is no proof, and is a mere imagination, and can answer no purpose; much less that he was conceived in adultery, as the contenders for the purity of human nature broadly intimate; which shows how much they are convicted by this text, to give into such an interpretation of it, at the expense of the character of an innocent person, of whom there is not the least suggestion of this kind in the Holy Scriptures; but on the contrary, she is represented as a religious woman, and David valued himself upon his relation to her as such, Psa 86:16. Besides, had this been the case, as David would have been a bastard, he would not have been suffered to enter into the congregation of the Lord, according to the law in Deu 23:2; whereas he often did with great delight, Psa 42:4. Moreover, it is beside his scope and design to expose the sins of others, much less his own parents, while he is confessing and lamenting his own iniquities: and to what purpose should he mention theirs, especially if he himself was not affected by them, and did not derive a corrupt nature from them? Nor is the sin he speaks of any actual sin of his own, and therefore he does not call it, as before, "my" iniquity and "my" sin; though it was so, he having sinned in Adam, and this being in his nature; but "iniquity" and "sin", it being common to him with all mankind. Hence we learn the earliness of the corruption of nature; it is as soon as man is conceived and shapen; and that it is propagated from one to another by natural generation; and that it is the case of all men: for if this was the case of David, who was born of religious parents, was famous for his early piety, and from whose seed the Messiah sprung, it may well be concluded to be the case of all. And this corruption of nature is the fountain, source, and spring of all sin, secret and open, private and public; and is mentioned here not as an extenuation of David's actual transgressions, but as an aggravation of them; he having been, from his conception and formation, nothing else but a mass of sin, a lump of iniquity; and, in his evangelical repentance for them, he is led to take notice of and mourn over the corruption of his nature, from whence they arose. The Heathens themselves affirm, that no man is born without sin (c).
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(c) "Nam vitiis nemo sine nascitur". Horat. Sermon. l. 1. Satyr. 3.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Behold - Nor is this the only sin which…
Behold - Nor is this the only sin which I have reason to bewail before thee; for this filthy stream leads me to a corrupt fountain: and upon a review of my heart, I find, that this heinous crime, was the proper fruit of my vile nature, which, ever was, and still is ready to commit ten thousand sins, as occasion offers.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity] A…
Verse 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity] A genuine penitent will hide nothing of his state; he sees and bewails, not only the acts of sin which he has committed, but the disposition that led to those acts. He deplores, not only the transgression, but the carnal mind, which is enmity against God. The light that shines into his soul shows him the very source whence transgression proceeds; he sees his fallen nature, as well as his sinful life; he asks pardon for his transgressions, and he asks washing and cleansing for his inward defilement. Notwithstanding all that Grotius and others have said to the contrary, I believe David to speak here of what is commonly called original sin; the propensity to evil which every man brings into the world with him, and which is the fruitful source whence all transgression proceeds. The word חוללתי cholalti, which we translate shapen, means more properly, I was brought forth from the womb; and יחמתני yechemathni rather signifies made me warm, alluding to the whole process of the formation of the fetus in utero, the formative heat which is necessary to develope the parts of all embryo animals; to incubate the ova in the female, after having been impregnated by the male; and to bring the whole into such a state of maturity and perfection as to render it capable of subsisting and growing up by aliment received from without. "As my parts were developed in the womb, the sinful principle diffused itself through the whole, so that body and mind grew up in a state of corruption and moral imperfection."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity —…
Psa 51:5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity — Hebrew, חוללתי, cholaleti, I was born, or brought forth: for it does not appear that the word ever signifies, I was shapen; and then the ensuing words will contain the reason of it; the sense being, because in sin did my mother conceive me, therefore I was brought forth in iniquity; that is, with great propensities and dispositions to sin. This verse is, both by Jewish and Christian, by ancient and later interpreters generally, and most justly, understood of what we call original sin; which David here mentions, not as an excuse for, but as an aggravation of, his transgression, inasmuch as the knowledge which he had of the total corruption of his nature, and its tendency to evil, ought to have made him more on his guard, and to have watched more carefully over his sensual passions and affections. And the sense of the place is this: Nor is this the only sin which I have reason to acknowledge and bewail before thee; for this filthy stream leads me to a corrupt fountain. And, upon a serious review of my heart and life, I find that I am guilty of innumerable other sins; and that this heinous crime, though drawn forth by external temptations, yet was indeed the proper fruit of my own vile nature, which, without the restraints of thy providence or grace, ever was and still will be inclinable and ready to commit ten thousand sins as occasion offers. Thus, as Dr. Dodd, after Chandler, justly observes, “The psalmist owns himself to be the corrupted, degenerate offspring, of corrupted, degenerate parents, agreeable to what was said long before he was born, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one, Job 14:4. Nor is it unusual with good men, when confessing their own sins before God, to make mention of the sins of their parents, for their greater mortification and humiliation.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Behold, I was shapen in iniquity - The object…
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity - The object of this important verse is to express the deep sense which David had of his depravity. That sense was derived from the fact that this was not a sudden thought, or a mere outward act, or an offence committed under the influence of strong temptation, but that it was the result of an entire corruption of his nature - of a deep depravity of heart, running back to the very commencement of his being. The idea is, that he could not have committed this offence unless he had been thoroughly corrupt, and always corrupt. The sin was as heinous and aggravated “as if” in his very conception and birth there had been nothing but depravity. He looked at his, sin, and he looked back to his own origin, and he inferred that the one demonstrated that in the other there was no good thing, no tendency to goodness, no germ of goodness, but that there was evil, and only evil; as when one looks at a tree, and sees that it bears sour or poisonous fruit, he infers that it is in the very nature of the tree, and that there is nothing else in the tree, from its origin, but a tendency to produce just such fruit.
Of course, the idea here is not to cast reflections on the character of his mother, or to refer to her feelings in regard to his conception and birth, but the design is to express his deep sense of his own depravity; a depravity so deep as to demonstrate that it must have had its origin in the very beginning of his existence. The word rendered “I was shapen” - חוללתי chôlaletiy - is from a word - חול chûl - which means properly, “to turn around, to twist, to whirl;” and then it comes to mean “to twist oneself with pain, to writhe;” and then it is used especially with reference to the pains of childbirth. Isa 13:8; Isa 23:4; Isa 26:18; Isa 66:7-8; Mic 4:10. That is the meaning here. The idea is simply that he was “born” in iniquity; or that he was a sinner when he was born; or that his sin could be traced back to his very birth - as one might say that he was born with a love of music, or with a love of nature, or with a sanguine, a phlegmatic, or a melancholy temperament.
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There is not in the Hebrew word any idea corresponding to the word ““shapen,”” as if he had been “formed” or “moulded” in that manner by divine power; but the entire meaning of the word is exhausted by saying that his sin could be traced back to his “very birth;” that it was so deep and aggravated, that it could be accounted for - or that he could express his sense of it - in no other way, than by saying that he was “born a sinner.” How that occurred, or how it was connected with the first apostasy in Adam, or how the fact that he was thus born could be vindicated, is not intimated, nor is it alluded to. There is no statement that the sin of another was “imputed” to him; or that he was “responsible” for the sin of Adam; or that he was guilty “on account of” Adam’s sin, for on these points the psalmist makes no assertion. It is worthy of remark, further, that the psalmist did not endeavor to “excuse” his guilt on the ground that he was ““born”” in iniquity; nor did he allude to that fact with any purpose of “exculpating” himself. The fact that he was thus born only deepened his sense of his own guilt, or showed the enormity of the offence which was the regular result or outbreak of that carly depravity. The points, therefore, which are established by this expression of the psalmist, so far as the language is designed to illustrate how human nature is conceived, are
(1) that people are born with a propensity to sin; and
(2) that this fact does not excuse us in sin, but rather tends to aggravate and deepen our guilt.
The language goes no further than this in regard to the question of original sin or native depravity. The Septuagint agrees with this interpretation - ἰδού γὰρ ἐν ανομίαις συνελήφθην idou gar en anomias sunelēfthēn. So the Vulgate: in iniquitatibus conceptus sum.
And in sin did my mother conceive me - Margin, as in Hebrew, “warm me.” This language simply traces his sin back to the time when he began to exist. The previous expression traced it to “his birth;” this expression goes back to the very beginning of “life;” when there were the first indications of life. The idea is, “as soon as I began to exist I was a sinner; or, I had then a propensity to sin - a propensity, the sad proof and result of which is that enormous act of guilt which I have committed.”
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain His guilt was aggravated by his essential, native sinfulness,…
His guilt was aggravated by his essential, native sinfulness, which is as contrary to God's requisitions of inward purity as are outward sins to those for right conduct.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. I was shapen in iniquity;… in sin… conceive…
5. I was shapen in iniquity;… in sin… conceive me—The verb rendered “shapen” simply denotes the being born. The words “in sin,” etc., do not imply any thing sinful in the means leading to that birth, but merely the being born with a sinful nature. The text is of like import with Eph_2:3, “And were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” This confession of natural depravity was not made in abatement of actual transgression, but to show that David not only abandons every plea of self-justification, but also of self-restorative power.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. Behold, I was shapen] Better, Behold, I was…
5. Behold, I was shapen] Better, Behold, I was born. Acts of sin have their root in the inherited sinfulness of mankind. It does not appear, as some have thought, that the Psalmist pleads the sinifulness of his nature as an excuse for his actual sins. Rather, in utter self-abasement, he feels compelled to confess and bewail not only his actual sins, but the deep infection of his whole nature (Job_14:4; Rom_7:18). Moreover this verse forms the introduction to Psa_51:6, which, as the repetition of ‘behold’ indicates (cp. Isa_55:4 f; Isa_54:15 f), stands in close connexion and correlation with it. He contrasts his natural perversity and liability to error with the inward truth and wisdom which God desires, and which, he is confident, God can communicate to the pardoned and regenerate soul.
5–8. He has inherited a sinful nature; and yet, so he is confident, God can and will make it conform to His desire. The emphatic ‘Behold!’ marks the beginning of a new stanza.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (5) Behold, I was shapen . . .—Better, Behold,…
(5) Behold, I was shapen . . .—Better, Behold, I was born in iniquity.
The later rabbis, combining this verse with the mystery hanging over the origin and name of David’s mother, represent him as born in adultery. (See Stanley, Jewish Church, chap. ii., p. 46, Note.) The word rendered conceived is certainly one generally used of animal desire. (The marginal warm me is erroneous.) But the verse is only a statement of the truth of experience so constantly affirmed in Scripture of hereditary corruption and the innate proneness to sin in every child of man. The argument for a personal origin to the psalm from this verse seems strong; but in Psa_129:1, and frequently, the community is personified as an individual growing from youth to age, and so may here speak of its far-back idolatrous ancestry as the mother who conceived it in sin.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 5-12. The prayer now makes a stride in…
Vers. 5-12. The prayer now makes a stride in advance. It has been hitherto for the first step in justification the wiping out of past transgressions. It is now for restoration, for a renewal of spiritual life, for a return to God"s favour, and to the spiritual joy involved in it. First, however, an additional confession is made (vers. 5, 6). Not only have I committed acts of sin (vers. 1-4), but sin is thoroughly ingrained into my nature. I was conceived in it; I was brought forth in it; only the strongest remedies can cleanse me from it (ver. 7). But cleansing alone is not enough. I need renewal (ver. 10); I need thy Holy Spirit (ver. 11); I crave, above all, the sense of a restoration to thy favour a return to the old feelings of "joy and gladness" (ver. 8), even "the joy of thy salvation" (ver. 12).
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; rather, in iniquity was I brought forth. And in sin did my mother conceive me. It is doubtless true, as Professor Cheyne says, that "the Old Testament contains no theory of the origin of sin no formulated doctrine on the subject. But the fact of congenital depravity is stated, not only here, but also in Job_14:4 Psa_58:3; it is also implied in Isa_43:27 and Hos_6:7.
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Vers. 5-7. Secrets of the heart.
"Behold!" This is a word of power. It takes hold. It demands attention. It marks the solemnity and seriousness of the things to be brought before us. The veil is so far lifted. In the light of God, we get glimpses into the awful secrets of the heart.
I THE SECRET OF SIN IS FOUND IN THE CORRUPT HEART. The first thing that startles and staggers us may be some actual transgression; but as we consider the matter, we are forced back and back, and closer and closer, till we end with the corrupt heart. Sin is everywhere; but always, when we seek its origin, we come to the same source. We may not be able to explain fully why and how the heart is corrupt, but of the fact there can be no question. It is better to seek deliverance from the pit, than to weary and vex ourselves in vain with inquiries how we came there.
II THAT THE EVIL OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE CONTRADICTION OF TRUTH. What God desires must be right and good. But instead of "truth in the inward parts," it is the opposite. Instead of law, there is self-will; instead of order, there is confusion; instead of the unity of the Spirit, there is enmity and strife. The mind and the will are in contradiction to God. It is this that makes the disease so desperate, and the remedy so difficult. (Gen_17:9) We might make clean the outside of the cup, but it remains defiled within. We may whitewash the sepulchre, but after all it is a sepulchre, full of dead men"s bones and of all uncleanness. Helpless, and well-nigh despairing, our cry is, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?
III THAT DELIVERANCE FROM SIN CAN ONLY BE EFFECTED BY THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF GOD"S AUTHORITY IN THE HEART. Healing that does not go to the root of the disease is vain and delusive. The heart must be made right or nothing is right. This is the work of God through Christ Jesus. (Rom_6:8-14) It is not slight, or half-and-half work, but thorough. We cannot serve two masters. But by the grace of Christ we are saved from the bondage and misery of our old master, and God is again enthroned in our hearts as our true and rightful Lord, whose service is perfect freedom, and whose rewards are peace and joy for evermore. W.F.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. He…
Ver. 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. He is thunderstruck at the discovery of his inbred sin, and proceeds to set it forth. This was not intended to justify himself, but it rather meant to complete the confession. It is as if he said, not only have I sinned this once, but I am in my very nature a sinner. The fountain of my life is polluted as well as its streams. My birth tendencies are out of the square of equity; I naturally lean to forbidden things. Mine is a constitutional disease, rendering my very person obnoxious to thy wrath. And in sin did my mother conceive me. He goes back to the earliest moment of his being, not to traduce his mother, but to acknowledge the deep tap roots of his sin. It is a wicked wresting of Scripture to deny that original sin and natural depravity are here taught. Surely men who cavil at this doctrine have need to be taught of the Holy Spirit what be the first principles of the faith. David's mother was the Lord's handmaid, he was born in chaste wedlock, of a good father, and he was himself, "the man after God's own heart; "and yet his nature was as fallen as that of any other son of Adam, and there only needed the occasion for the manifesting of that sad fact. In our shaping we were put out of shape, and when we were conceived our nature conceived sin. Alas, for poor humanity! Those who will may cry it up, but he is most blessed who in his own soul has learned to lament his lost estate.
Ver. 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, etc. He said not, "Behold, this evil have I done, "but, Behold, I was conceived in sin, etc. He says not, "Behold, I, David, "a king, that have received such and such mercies from God, who would have given me more (as God told him), who had that entire communion with him, and graces from him, I, even I, have done this evil. No; he keeps it in till he came to this, and then his heart could hold no longer: Oh, behold I was conceived in sin. His debasement was at his auge here. And to whom is it he utters this behold? What, to men? No; his meaning is not to call on men, q.d., O ye sons of men, behold! That is but his secondary aim, arising out of his having penned it, and delivered it unto the church; but when he uttered it, it was to God, or rather afore God, and yet not as calling on God to behold, for that needed not. David had elsewhere said, "God looked down, "etc., "and beheld the sons of men, "when speaking of this very corruption. He therefore knew God beheld it sufficiently; but he utters it afore God, or, as spoken of himself between God and himself, thereby to express his own astonishment and amazement at the sight and conviction of this corruption, and at the sight of what a monster he saw himself to be in the sight of God in respect of this sin. It was a behold of astonishment at himself, as before the great and holy God; and therefore it was he seconds and follows it with another behold made unto God: "Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts." And it is as if he had said in both, Oh, how am I in every way overwhelmed, whilst with one eye cast on myself I see how infinitely corrupt I am in the very constitution of my nature; and with the other eye I behold and consider what an infinite holy God thou art in thy nature and being, and what an holiness it is which thou requirest. I am utterly overwhelmed in the intuition of both these, and able to behold no more, nor look up unto thee, O holy God! Thomas Goodwin.
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Ver. 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, etc. We are not to suppose that David here reflects upon his parents as the medium of transmitting to him the elements of moral evil; and that by the introduction of the doctrine of original sin he intended to extenuate the enormity of his own crimes. On the contrary, we are to regard him as afflicting himself by the humbling consideration that his very nature was fallen, that his transgressions flowed from a heart naturally at enmity with God; that he was not a sinner by accident, but by a depravity of purpose extending to the innermost desires and purposes of the soul; and that there was "a law in his members, warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to the law of sin and death" Ro 7:23; and that he was one of a race of guilty beings, none of whom could plead an exemption from an evil heart of unbelief, ready at all times to depart from the living God. Till we see sin in the fountain of the heart, we shall never truly mourn over it in the life and conversation. John Morison.
Ver. 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. He is not low enough down yet, he must come lower. It is not enough for him to confess that the water is filthy at the pool; he goes back to the source, and confesses that the whole river is polluted up to its head. The source is unclean; the very spring wells forth foul waters. Thomas Alexander.
Ver. 5. I was shapen in iniquity. I shall not easily be persuaded to think that parents who are sinners themselves and too much under the influence of bad affections and passions, will be very likely to produce children without transmitting to them some of those disorders and corruptions of nature with which they themselves are infected. And if this be a difficulty, I would beg leave to observe that it is a difficulty which affects natural as well as revealed religion. Since we must take human nature as it is, and if it be really in a state of disorder and corruption, and cannot be otherwise, considering the common law of its production, the difficulty must have been as ancient as the first man that was born; and therefore can be no objection against the truth of revelation, but it must be equally so against natural religion, which must equally allow the thing, if it be in reality a fact, with revelation itself. Samuel Chandler.
Ver. 5. Infants are no innocents, being born with original sin, the first sheet wherein they are wrapped is woven of sin, shame, blood, and filth. Eze 16:4, etc. They are said to sin as they were in the loins of Adam, just as Levi is said to pay tithes to Melchizedek, even in the loins of his forefather Abraham Heb 7:9-10; otherwise infants would not die, for death is the wages of sin Ro 6:23; and the reign of death is procured be the reign of sin, which hath reigned over all mankind except Christ. All are sinners, infected with the guilt and filth of sin; the rot (according to the vulgar saying) over runs the whole flock. Hence David reflects upon original sin as the cause of all his actual, saying, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. Thus man's malady begind betimes, even in our conception; this subtle serpent sowed his tares very early, so that we are all "born in sin." Joh 9:34. Christopher Ness's "Divine Legacy, "1700.
Ver. 5. Notwithstanding all that Grotius and others have said to the contrary, I believe David to speak here of what is commonly called original sin; the propensity to evil which every man brings into the world with him, and which is the fruitful source whence all transgression proceeds. Adam Clarke.
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Psalms 51:6*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin…
Psa_51:5-7
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
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Original depravity
Men may come upon this doctrine one of two different ways.
1. As a dogma in theology. The first thing that some theologians do is to assail human nature, to describe it as covered with wounds, bruises and putrefying sores, and as deserving nothing but eternal burning. And human nature denies this. It says, No, I have good impulses, upward desires, generous emotions; I resent your calumnies.
2. The second way is totally unlike this. Here is a true believer in Jesus Christ, one who loves Him with passionate devotion, and grows daily more like Him. From this attitude he looks back upon his former self, compares the human nature he started with, with that which he has attained, and involuntarily, by the sheer necessity of the contrast, he says, I was born in sin. What he never could have understood as an opinion he realizes as a fact. Let a tree be conscious. Tell it in April how bare and barren it is. It will defend itself stoutly. Go to it after it has had a summers experience, and it will confess, I am not what I was; I was as you said, but now I feel as if I had been born again. (J. Parker, D. D.)
Of original sin
The end of the Gospel is to bring sinners unto Christ; for this they must feel their misery without Christ. And this misery consists in our sin, original and actual.
I. Natural corruption is a sin (Rom_7:1-25.), where you may find near twenty aggravations of this sin. And it is not a valid objection that this sin is not voluntary, for what is involuntary may be sin. But original sin is voluntary both in respect of Adam who represented us all, and in respect of us by our after consent.
II. We are tainted with it from our birth (Isa_48:8). Stay not to inquire how sin is conveyed to us in the womb, but consider how to be set free from it.
III. It should be the ground of our humiliation.
1. It is a privation of all good (Rom_7:18).
2. There is an antipathy to God and the things of God (Rom_8:7). The carnal mind is not only an enemy, but enmity. Naturalists write of a beast that will tear and rend the picture of a man if it come in his way; whence they argue his great antipathy to man. And so we may argue antipathy to God when men will tear and despise His image. What cause, then, for humiliation.
IV. Press home this doctrine. Consider, therefore--
1. The unnaturalness of this sin. We hate vermin that are naturally poisonous more than any other.
2. The sinfulness of it; for it violates not one of, but all, Gods commands, and that always without interruption; there is no cessation from it.
3. The causality of it. All actual sin springs from it.
4. Its habitualness both in respect of permanency--see leprosy (Lviticus 14:41, 42)--and facility in acting (Rom_7:21; Jer_8:6).
5. Its pregnancy; it is all sin virtually, for all sin is wrapped up in it.
6. Its extent. It has overspread the whole man (Isa_1:6).
7. Its monstrousness; see the deformity it has brought upon the soul by defect, impotency, dislocation.
8. Its irresistibleness and strength.
9. Its devilishness, brutishness and incorrigibleness. (D. Clarkson.)
Original sin
We purpose considering the subject of original sin--what it is that David means, when he says, I was shapen in iniquity. This implies two things--guilt and corruption, that every man is born in sin and a child of wrath--there is guilt imputed to him. This guilt which is imputed to him is the guilt of Adam, his representative, and this sin which is derived by him is that of Adam, his progenitor. This is our twofold inheritance from our first parent--original sin. Let us take each of these in its order. Our first proposition is, that we inherit from Adam guilt; that he stood before God the representative of all humanity--their federal head, in whom they entered into covenant with their Maker. In him we all once stood upright, in him we were tried, fell, were judged and condemned. Is it true? Turn, then, to Rom_5:19; 1Co_15:45; Rom_5:12; Death has passed upon all men, because all have sinned. But the only sin they could have suffered for was the sin of Adam. Stern and strange as this doctrine may seem, it is not more stern or more strange than the undeniable fact which proves it. We take the man who denies it to the bedside, where lies the corpse of a newborn babe that has just breathed out its few short hours of painful life. Why is this? Pain has been here, and death--what brought them? What had that little sufferer done, that the dread penalty of death should be extracted from it, and its young life untimely snatched away? It was shapen in iniquity and conceived in sin. But this fact, that death has passed upon all alike, not only proves the doctrine of original sin, but supplies, to a certain extent, an answer to the objection made on the score of justice; for the injustice of imparting to us Adams guilt is certainly no greater than that of inflicting upon us Adams punishment. In this world the innocent do suffer for the guilty, and the sins of the parents are visited upon the children. Ask the offspring of the drunkard, the libertine, the criminal, the spendthrift. And the sins of one age are visited upon the next. A godless statesman suffers a nation to grow up in ignorance, and the next generation reap the bitter fruits of his neglect in misery and crime. A faithless ministry leave their flocks unguarded and unfed, and they who come after them toil painfully, and almost hopelessly, to recall those sheep to the fold from which the carelessness of others had suffered them to stray. Wherever we turn, then, we see men suffering for the sins and smarting for the follies of others. Why, then, should it startle you when we ask you to admit a fact which is not one whir more opposed to justice, nay, which throws the only gleam of light along this dark chain of sinful cause and sorrowful effect--namely, that we not only suffer the consequences, but also share the guilt, of our first parents first offence? If you object to the doctrine of original sin as revealed in the word of God, you must object against the fact of vicarious suffering as ordained in the providence of God. There is no stoppingplace between Atheism and the faith of the Christian who believes, in spite of all mystery, that God is just and good. But you say it is unjust that I should be held to have sinned in Adam--what, then, is it you would demand? A trial in your own person--that you should be placed as Adam was, in a state of probation, made upright, with the option of so continuing, if you could; this, you will say, would have been just. But if you were so placed, do you imagine that you would have fared better than he did? Was he not the very perfection of humanity? Was there any weakness in him there would not have been in you? Is there any strength you could have that He had not? What could you have been at best but another Adam, sure to yield to the very same temptation to which he yielded? What difference, then, is there, in point of justice, between this trial having been made for you or by you, if the result would be the same in either case, and if you are only held guilty of a sin which you would assuredly commit, had you the opportunity of committing it? But the vindication is more complete and triumphant when we remember that over against the sin of the first Adam is placed the grace of the second, so that where sin did abound, grace, etc. (Archbishop Magee.)
Original sin
I. Man by nature is sinful.
1. Prove this by Bible testimony (Gen_6:5; Gen_8:21).
2. Every page of human history tells the sad story of mans natural corruption.
3. What we observe in others we have to confess to be even more true of ourselves. We know not only the fact of this tendency to sin, but its strength; for we have had to struggle against it in order to do good, and to abstain from evil. Any righteousness in man is the result of an effort to work up-stream against his own nature.
4. This has been the testimony of the best men in all ages (Job_42:6; Isa_6:5; 1Ti_1:15; Rom_7:23).
5. The same is testified to by highest reason. If you try apple after apple from every part of the tree, and all alike sour, you cannot but conclude the tree itself is bad. If you drink from a stream and find it brackish, day after day you conclude that the fountain itself is bitter. Now, when you observe man after man sinning day after day, in all ages, under every form of government and society, you must conclude that the troubles lie in the very nature of man.
II. This corruption is universal as to the whole race, and total as to each man. Like leprosy, it may not be visible in the whole face or body, but being in the blood it is only a question of time as to when it will claim every part. Do not deceive yourselves. However you may manage to hold your inward corruption in check, it will sooner or later work out your total corruption, if not in this world, in the world to come. Death will remove all restraining motives and you will in eternity be left to the unrestrained operations of your sinful nature.
III. We are responsible for our sinful nature. I do not believe that Gods Word teaches that we were guilty of original sin in Adam. But the Word of God is clear that you are guilty and responsible for original sin by your own act. We have inherited sin; God does not condemn us for having inherited it, but for choosing to stand by the sin we have inherited, and refusing to give it up and turn from it when He calls upon us to forsake it and accept His abundant mercy in forgiveness, together with a new nature in Christ Jesus. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
The natural state of mankind in regard of sin
I. The original of it. I was shapen, etc. Original sin, wherewith the nature of man is so infected, consists in two things. First, in Adams voluntary transgression in eating of the forbidden fruit, imputed to all his posterity. Secondly, in the hereditary corruption of nature, propagated and derived to his posterity.
II. The manner of it, how it is conveyed. There are divers opinions about it, and each have their arguments for them. It is enough for us to know this, that man produces his like not only in nature, but also in corruption; and the one is consequent upon the other; so that it is impossible for a sinner to produce any other than a sinner (Job_14:4; Joh_3:6). The consideration of this point is thus far useful unto us.
1. As it teaches parents how to carry themselves towards their children; which, although it be not to indulge them, yet to pity corruption in them, as considering how themselves have been the occasions of conveying it to them. And further, it will hence concern parents to be so much the more careful and industrious of freeing their children from sin, so far forth as lies in their power. As they have been the occasion of corrupting them, so they should be likewise instruments of reforming them; and as they have been the conveyers of sin, so they should be also of grace. Now, this is especially done three manner of ways.
(1) By hearty and earnest prayers to God for them.
(2) By good and careful education.
(3) By godly example. I might add as an appurtenance hereunto the bringing of them to the Sacrament of Baptism, the laver of regeneration (Tit_3:5), as that which seals to all true believers their new birth in opposition to their corruption of nature.
2. Here is an item also to children from hence, not to glory too much in their pedigree and natural birth into the world. Thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite; thou wast shapen in iniquity, and in sin did thy mother conceive thee.
III. The notoriousness of it. Behold. David sets a mark upon this sin as being most grievous. And so it is.
1. In respect of the largeness of it; for it comprehends in it all other sins and evils.
2. in regard of the strength and power of it.
(1) As it hinders us from good (Rom_7:18; Gal_5:17; Rom_8:7; Jer_13:23).
(2) As it Carries forcibly to evil (Jer_8:6; Gen_11:6; Eph_4:19).
3. The inherence and permanency of it (Rom_7:17). As for many actual sins, they may be wholly suppressed in us so as we may never return to them again. But this corruption of nature will always more or less continue; and we shall never be freed absolutely from the actings and stirrings of it so long as we live. Now, the application of this point thus explained may be drawn forth into this improvement, namely, as matter of just abasement and humiliation to us, and that which may lay us low both in our own eyes and the eyes of God. And it may do so to two sorts of persons. First, those who are yet in their natural condition; heres a word of astonishment and advertisement also to them. By how much the more grievous original sin is in its own nature, by so much the more sad and lamentable is their estate, and they have cause to be affected with it. Now, further, there may be an improvement of it likewise to the regenerate, and that to sundry intents. First, in a way of thankfulness to God for their freedom and deliverances. The worse that original sin is, the greater mercy to be freed from such an evil. Secondly, in an endeavour to make others partakers of this birth so far forth as we are able; it is that which Paul professes of himself in the behalf of the Galatians (Gal_4:19). Thus should ministers for their people, parents for their children, Christian friends one for another, seeing a natural condition is so grievous, therefore being renewed themselves, to endeavour likewise the conversion of others. Thirdly, in a way of caution and wariness for themselves. They should hence ha persuaded to keep a watch over their own hearts, and to remember that they have flesh in them as well as spirit, from whence they may not make too bold with the occasions and temptations to sin, but may suppress and subdue them in them betimes. And further, to have sober thoughts in themselves when they behold the enormities of others; not to be high-minded, but to fear. (T. Horton, D. D.)
Total depravity
Total depravity is the entire alienation of the will and affections from God; and that carries all the good qualities as well aa the bad ones away from God and enlists them against Him. A daughter, tenderly reared and carefully educated, in an evil hour yields to temptation and loses her virtue, and subsequently chooses to lead a life of sin and shame. So far as her standing in society and among virtuous people is concerned she is totally depraved; and yet in her sin and shame she retains her accomplishments, and if not all her former graces and kindliness of heart and disposition, at least very much that is good. But who will deny that, for all this, she is in every sense a bad and totally lost woman, so far as virtuous society is concerned? I have recently wandered over some of the splendid ruins of Europe--through many an ancient abbey and cathedral. In some, if not all, there were the remains of their ancient and exquisite beauty. Here was a window with its exquisite tracery in stone as complete as when it was built; there an arch as entire and strong as of yore; and here again a cloister-room as entire as when it was occupied by one of the priests of the chapter. But for all this, the cathedral as such was a total ruin. Who has not admired with a constantly increasing admiration that grandest of European ruins, the old castle at Heidelberg! Much of it is still intact; its splendid and elaborately carved and sculptured facades are still there and the chapel scarcely decayed; and so of many other parts. And yet it is a mournful ruin, entirely and utterly destroyed so far as the purpose for which it was originally built is concerned. Out here in our own beautiful harbour a few months ago there was a collision between two ships, and one of them went to the bottom. The divers went down to examine her hull and see if it would pay to attempt to raise her, and coming up they pronounced her a total wreck. Now, some one objects to that report and says, while the ship is wrecked, to be sure, there are many parts about her that are as good as ever; keel and bow, and one entire side, boiler and engines scarcely damaged--why should she be called a total wreck? Why? Because she is beyond repair. The materials out of which she was built may be recovered and sold for old iron, but the ship as a ship is wholly ruined. In this sense man, with his many remainders of original beauty and perfections, is a totally depraved being. Man, originally upright, and to serve and enjoy God, he has sought out many inventions; he has become entirely alienated from God; and what of his powers have not become the prey of low and disgusting sins have boon preserved for selfish uses and wholly withdrawn from the service of God. Could a man be found who was a model of intellectual and moral perfection who yet withdrew from the fellowship and service of God and used those unimpaired and beautiful faculties against Him, he would be a totally depraved man. (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)
Nothing but sin
So the knowledge of this one sin bringeth him to the examination of his whole life, till he find nothing in himself but sin. For if the fountain be poisoned, what will the streams be that flow from it? If we would look back to our original sin, we might have cause the more to lament our actual sins as poisoned streams flowing from such a fountain. So soon, therefore, as our conscience accuseth us of any one sin, we should call to remembrance the whole course of our life, that it hath been nothing else but a continual sinning against God; that thus the last putting us in mind of the first, we may not he content to repent and ask pardon for one, but for all. A sick man having obtained health, doth remember how long he was sick, whereby for the present he both considereth his own frailty and Gods mercy in delivering him, as also encourageth and animateth himself against the time to come, by remembrance of former mercies obtained. Happy were we if we would begin to remember our miseries and Gods mercies. (A. Symson.)
The fact of original sin indisputable
Sin must be within us naturally, since the best training does not prevent it. Children secluded from the sight or hearing of evil, kept as it were within a glass case, yet run to it when the restraint is removed. As the young duck which has been reared in a dry place, yet takes to the water as soon as it sees a pond, so do many hasten to evil at the first opportunity. How often it happens that those young persons who have been most shut out from the world have become the readiest victims of temptation when the time has come for them to quit the parental roof! It must be in them, or it could not thus come out of them. In many cases evil cannot be the result of mistaken education nor of ill example, and yet there it is; the seed is in the soil, and needs no sowing. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 See, I was born in iniquity ... See, you…
See, I was born in iniquity ... See, you desire trustworthiness
The two uses of "See" here draw our attention to the contrast between these two situations. AT: "Truly I was born in iniquity ... But you desire trustworthiness"
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See, I was born in iniquity ... as soon as my mother conceived me, I was in sin
These two phrases mean basically the same thing and are used together for emphasis. (See: Parallelism)
I was born in iniquity
Being a sinner is spoken of as being in iniquity. AT: "I was already a sinner when I was born" (See: Metaphor)
as soon as my mother conceived me, I was in sin
Being a sinner is spoken of as being in sin. AT: "even when my mother conceived me, I was a sinner" (See: Metaphor)
you desire trustworthiness in my inner self
The "inner self" represents either 1) the person's desires or 2) the whole person. AT: "you want me to desire trustworthiness" or "you want me to be trustworthy" (See: Metonymy and Synecdoche)
translationWords
iniquity
conceive
trust
heart
wise
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 51:5 I was born a sinner: The psalmist is…
51:5 I was born a sinner: The psalmist is not making excuses but is acknowledging the depth of his sinfulness. From the time we are conceived, we all share in the human condition of sinfulness.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.