What Does Psalm 25:11 Mean in the King James?
For thy name’s sake, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
“Thy name” means the LORD’s nature: the speaker asks for release from great crookedness on the ground of who God is.
THE MEANING
The reader names the crookedness as great and still asks the LORD to release them from its claim. The plea rests on the LORD’s nature, not on making the wrong seem small.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The belief that serious wrongdoing places a person beyond the reach of release.
THE ROOT
וְסָלַחְתָּ
vesalaḥta
GROWS FROM
סלח
salaḥ: to pardon, forgive.
The verb names the act the speaker seeks: pardon. The crookedness remains great in the plea; release is asked for on the ground of the LORD’s nature, not by shrinking the wrong.
ALSO GROWS
wenislaḥ: and it shall be forgiven
וְנִסְלַח
This form from the same root describes the state that follows the pardon sought here.
selichah: forgiveness, pardon
סְלִיחָה
The noun carries the same root into the name of the act itself, showing the request belongs to a wider language of pardon.
THE PATTERN
Release of wrongdoing is grounded in the nature of God and carries the wrong away from the person.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.THE THREAD
For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.Psalm 86 uses the same Hebrew root, סלח (salaḥ, “pardon”), in describing the LORD as ready to forgive. That shared root makes the plea in Psalm 25 an appeal to the nature named in the verse, even while the crookedness is called great.
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