What Does Psalm 51:3 Mean in the King James?
For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.
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
The verse’s “acknowledge” is a form of knowing: the rupture is no longer kept outside awareness.
THE MEANING
You know the ways you have broken away, and what you have missed remains directly before you. The wrong is neither hidden nor vague; it stays in view.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the lie that wrongdoing disappears when you refuse to name it: the verse says it remains before you.
THE ROOT
אֵדָע
ʾēdāʿ
GROWS FROM
ידע
y-d-ʿ
Know, perceive, recognize through encounter.
“acknowledge” in this verse is ʾēdāʿ. The Hebrew verb is literally “I know.” Its root also forms words for knowledge and understanding, placing acknowledgment in clear perception: what is wrong is no longer outside awareness.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, understanding.
דַּעַת
This branch shows that knowing is active perception, not merely a label for what happened.
maddaʿ: Knowledge, understanding.
מַדָּע
The shared root links personal recognition with what is brought into the realm of knowing.
פְּשָׁעַי
pəšāʿay
GROWS FROM
פשע
p-š-ʿ
Rebel, break away.
“transgressions” in this verse is pəšāʿay. Pesha names rebellion or breaking away. Set beside “I know,” the verse brings those breaks into conscious view and calls them the speaker’s own.
ALSO GROWS
pāšaʿ: To rebel, break away.
פָּשַׁע
The verb makes the rupture an action, not just an abstract accusation.
pešaʿ: Rebellion, breach.
פֶּשַׁע
This noun names the breaks that the speaker keeps in view.
חַטָּאתִי
ḥaṭṭāʾtî
GROWS FROM
חטא
ḥ-ṭ-ʾ
Miss, go wrong, fail to reach.
The root carries the sense of missing, while the verse places that missing continually “before me.” The English word “sin” holds the idea; the root also lets you hear the mark that was missed.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāṭāʾ: To miss, do wrong.
חָטָא
The verb makes “sin” an act of missing, not only a fixed status.
ḥaṭṭāʾt: Sin; in some contexts, an offering for the missing.
חַטָּאת
The same root can name the missing and, in a related use, what addresses it.
THE PATTERN
What is brought into view can be acknowledged, while concealment keeps it covered.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have 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
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.Psalm 51:3 says “I know”; Psalm 32:5 uses the same root, ידע (yādaʿ, know and perceive), in “I acknowledged.” The shared root connects knowing with making the hidden thing known, and Psalm 32:5 shows what follows when it is no longer concealed.
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