Psalm 51

to the choirmaster: a psalm of David, when Nattan the prophet came to him, after he had gone to Bat-sheva.

01: Grant your pardon, God.
With your loving-kindness
and abundant pity,
blot out my transgressions.
02: Wash me thoroughly
of my iniquity;
cleanse me of my sin.
03: For I admit my trespass;
my sin will ever haunt me.
04: I sinned against you alone,
my evil done in your sight.
Your sentence will be just,
your judgment clarifying.
05: Behold! I am prone to sin:
so my mother conceived me.
06: Behold! You wish the truth
to imbue my inmost parts,
and inwardly you teach
the wisdom I should know.
07: Purify me with hyssop:
let me be clean. Wash me:
I shall be whiter than snow.
08: Fill me with joy and gladness.
May bones you crushed rejoice.
09: Avert your face from my crime:
erase my depravity.

10: For me, oh God, create
a wholesome heart; renew
within mea steady spirit.
11: Send me not from your presence,
nor withdraw your holy spirit.
12: Restore the joy of your freedom;
uphold me with fulsome spirit.
13: I will teach your ways to rebels.
The sinful will turn to you.
14: Deliver me from blood-guilt,
God, youGod of rescue.
My tongue will sing your justice.
15: Oh Lord, open my lips;
my mouth will declare your praise.
16: For you do not delight
in sacrifice; or I would give it;
nor would you welcome
a burnt offering.
17: The offerings to God
are a humbled spirit,
a humbled, abject heart: ¹
these God shall not despise.
18: Show your favor to Zion:
buildJerusalem’s walls.
19: Then you will be pleased
with rightful sacrifice:
offerings burnt and whole.
Then upon your altar
bullocks may be brought.




1 Hebrew: nishbar v’nidkeh ,literally “quenched, dispirited”; often translated as cliché, “broken heart,”in E.