What Does Psalm 51:13 Mean?
Then I teach your ways to those who break away, and those who miss the mark turn back to you.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.THE KEY
The word translated “converted” means “they will return,” so even those who break away are still facing a way back to God.
THE MEANING
When restoration reaches you, God’s ways are not private relief; they become something you can make visible to people who have broken away. Their movement is described as a return toward God, not the making of a different kind of person. Teaching gives them a way to turn toward.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
This undoes the belief that people who break away are beyond return: the verse still sees them as able to turn toward God.
THE ROOT
יָשׁוּבוּ
yashuvu
GROWS FROM
שוב
shuv
Turn back, return.
“turn back” in this verse is yashuvu. “Converted” carries the motion of returning: the sinners turn toward God. The verse presents the turn as a way back into relationship, not as the manufacture of a different self.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Turn back; return.
שׁוּב
This is the root’s basic movement, which the verse gives to the sinners who turn toward God.
yeshovev: Restores; turns back.
יְשׁוֹבֵב
The same root describes restoration in Psalm 23:3, linking return with being brought back.
פֹּשְׁעִים
posh'im
GROWS FROM
פשע
p-sh-ʿ
Rebel; break away.
“those who break away” in this verse is posh'im. The word carries the sense of rebellion and breaking away. That makes the return in the next phrase especially striking: those who have broken away are still addressed as people who can turn toward God.
ALSO GROWS
peshaʿ: Rebellion; breaking away.
פֶּשַׁע
It names the rupture behind “transgressors” and shows what the return answers.
pashaʿ: To rebel; to break away.
פָּשַׁע
The verb makes the transgressor’s condition a movement away, one that the verse shows can be reversed by turning back.
אֲלַמְּדָה
ʾălammedāh
GROWS FROM
למד
l-m-d
Learn; teach or train.
“teach” in this verse is ʾălammedāh. Teaching and learning share this root. The verse’s teaching is more than naming God’s ways: it makes them learnable, so those who have broken away can find a way to return.
ALSO GROWS
lamad: Learn; be trained.
לָמַד
The root holds the learner within the same word-family as the one who teaches.
limmud: One who is taught; a learner.
לִמּוּד
This branch shows the possibility held open for the transgressors: they can become learners of the way being taught.
THE PATTERN
A turn back toward God can become a way by which others find their own return.
Therefore say to them, Thus says the LORD of hosts, Turn to me, says the LORD of hosts, and I will turn to you, says the LORD of hosts.But I have begged for you, that your trust may not run out. And when you have turned back, steady your brothers.Let him know that the one who turns back one of those who miss the mark from the wandering of his way will deliver a living soul from death, and will cover a multitude of shortcomings.THE THREAD
He turns back my living soul; he leads me in the tracks of alignment for the sake of his nature.The Hebrew verb יְשׁוֹבֵב (yeshovev, “restores” or “turns back”) in Psalm 23:3 comes from שׁוּב (shuv, “turn back” or “return”), the same root behind “shall be converted” here. The shared root links restoration with return: what is brought back can turn toward God’s ways.
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