Mazmur 51:5

51:5 Look, I was guilty of sin from birth,

a sinner the moment my mother conceived me. ¹ 

Mazmur 71:5

71:5 For you give me confidence, ²  O Lord;

O Lord, I have trusted in you since I was young. ³ 

Mazmur 119:152

119:152 I learned long ago that

you ordained your rules to last. ⁴ 

[51:5]  ¹ tn Heb “Look, in wrongdoing I was brought forth, and in sin my mother conceived me.” The prefixed verbal form in the second line is probably a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive), stating a simple historical fact. The psalmist is not suggesting that he was conceived through an inappropriate sexual relationship (although the verse has sometimes been understood to mean that, or even that all sexual relationships are sinful). The psalmist’s point is that he has been a sinner from the very moment his personal existence began. By going back beyond the time of birth to the moment of conception, the psalmist makes his point more emphatically in the second line than in the first.

[71:5]  ² tn Heb “for you [are] my hope.”

[71:5]  ³ tn Heb “O Lord, my source of confidence from my youth.”

[119:152]  ⁴ tn Heb “long ago I knew concerning your rules, that forever you established them.” See v. 89 for the same idea. The translation assumes that the preposition מִן (min) prefixed to “your rules” introduces the object of the verb יָדַע (yada’), as in 1 Sam 23:23. Another option is that the preposition indicates source, in which case one might translate, “Long ago I realized from your rules that forever you established them” (cf. NIV, NRSV).