Psalms

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Psalm 19

1 For the music director, a psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God;⁠ the sky displays his handiwork. 2 Day after day it speaks out; night after night it reveals his greatness. 3 There is no actual speech or word, nor is its voice literally heard. 4 Yet its voice echoes throughout the earth; its words carry to the distant horizon. In the sky he has pitched a tent for the sun.⁠ 5 Like a bridegroom it emerges from its chamber; like a strong man it enjoys running its course. 6 It emerges from the distant horizon, and goes from one end of the sky to the other;⁠ nothing can escape its heat.⁠ 7 The law of the Lord is perfect and preserves one’s life. The rules set down by the Lord are reliable and impart wisdom to the inexperienced.⁠ 8 The Lord’s precepts are fair and make one joyful. The Lord’s commands are pure and give insight for life. 9 The commands to fear the Lord are right and endure forever. The judgments given by the Lord are trustworthy and absolutely just. 10 They are of greater value than gold, than even a great amount of pure gold; they bring greater delight than honey, than even the sweetest honey from a honeycomb. 11 Yes, your servant finds moral guidance there; those who obey them receive a rich reward. 12 Who can know all his errors? Please do not punish me for sins I am unaware of.⁠ 13 Moreover, keep me from committing flagrant sins; do not allow such sins to control me. Then I will be blameless and innocent of blatant rebellion. 14 May my words and my thoughts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord,⁠ my sheltering rock and my redeemer.

Texts in conversation

Compare Surpu III and Psalm 19:12

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · Hebrew Bible

Summary

Psalm 19 includes a prayer that asks for forgiveness for sins committed unknowingly, following ancient Near Eastern traditions such as the Akkadian Surpu tablet, which similarly shows a concern for dealing with sin committed in ignorance.

Passages

Surpu III

Ancient Near East, Babylonian · Sumerian and Akkadian Incantations

The sin of father or mother, the sin of his father’s father or his mother’s mother, the sin of brother or sister, the sin of friend or companion, the sin of family or in-laws, the sin of late offspring or sucklings, the sin of dead or living, the sin of wronged man or wronged woman, the sin he knows and the sin he does not know, Asalluḫi, exorcist among the gods, will undo. The committing of assault or violence.

1200 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Surpu

Psalm 19:12

Hebrew Bible

9 The commands to fear the Lord are right and endure forever. The judgments given by the Lord are trustworthy and absolutely just. 10 They are of greater value than gold, than even a great amount of pure gold; they bring greater delight than honey, than even the sweetest honey from a honeycomb. 11 Yes, your servant finds moral guidance there; those who obey them receive a rich reward. 12 Who can know all his errors? Please do not punish me for sins I am unaware of. 13 Moreover, keep me from committing flagrant sins; do not allow such sins to control me. Then I will be blameless and innocent of blatant rebellion.

600–201 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Psalms

References

"... In the Priestly Source, all sins are confessed collectively on an annual basis, as we learn in Leviticus 16:21. The sins of Leviticus 5, which were not committed completely unwittingly, require, an additional confession as stated ... Comparable circumstances can be detected in Šurpu, although this source contains a much longer list of offenses. Similar to what we had observed for P, the types of transgressions listed are broad and include offenses committed either on purpose, unwittingly or through carelessness. While it is true that some sins of the catalogue cannot be committed unknowingly, such as shedding the neighbor’s blood or sleeping with the neighbor’s wife (Šurpu II 48 – 49), Šurpu also lists sins which might have been committed unwittingly or through carelessness. This is the case, for example, when the supplicant sins by coming into contact with an accursed person (Šurpu II 98–103). The claim that this list of potential transgressions is deliberately vague and also includes unknown sins is supported by the concluding line of the catalogue, “The sin he knows, the sin he does not know” (Šurpu III 183). In short, Šurpu was phrased to include as many potential transgressions as possible ..."

Isabel Cranz, Atonement and Purification: Priestly and Assyro-Babylonian Perspectives on Sin and Its Consequences (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), 48.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

Psalms150 psalms

Compare Surpu III and Psalm 19:12

Summary

Passages

Surpu III

Psalm 19:12

References

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