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Selected Verse: Proverbs 20:9 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Pr 20:9 |
King James |
Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin? |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
| The interrogation in the affirmative strengthens the implied negation (compare Job 15:14; Ecc 7:20). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
| A warning voice against the spirit, which, ignorant of its own guilt, is forward to condemn others. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
9 Who can say I have made my heart clean,
I am pure from my sins?
It is the same thought that Solomon expresses in his prayer at the consecration of the temple, Kg1 8:46 : there is no man who sinneth not. To cleanse his heart (as Psa 73:13), is equivalent to to empty it, by self-examination and earnest effort after holiness, of all impure motives and inclinations; vid., regarding זכה, to be piercing, shining brightly, cloudlessly pure, Fleischer in Levy's Chald. Wrterbuch, i. 424. The consequence of זכּות is, becoming pure; and the consequence of זכּות לב, i.e., of the purifying of the heart, the being pure from sinful conduct: I have become pure from my sins, i.e., from such as I might fall into by not resisting temptations; the suffix is not understood as actual, but as potential, like Psa 18:24. No one can boast of this, for man's knowledge of himself and of his sins remains always limited (Jer 17:9.; Psa 19:13); and sin is so deeply rooted in his nature (Job 14:4; Job 15:14-16), that the remains of a sinful tendency always still conceal themselves in the folds of his heart, sinful thoughts still cross his soul, sinful inclinations still sometimes by their natural force overcome the moral resistance that opposes them, and stains of all kinds still defile even his best actions. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| Who can say, I have made any heart clean - No man. But thousands can testify that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed them from all unrighteousness. And he is pure from his sin, who is justified freely through the redemption that is in Jesus. |
20 For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
14 What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15 Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight.
16 How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?
4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
24 Therefore hath the LORD recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.
13 Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency.
46 If they sin against thee, (for there is no man that sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captives unto the land of the enemy, far or near;