Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
Parallel translations
- WEB Who can say, “I have made my heart pure. I am clean and without sin?”
- BSB Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin”?
- NKJV Who can say, “I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin”?
- NASB Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart, I am pure from my sin”?
- NLT Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart; I am pure and free from sin”?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
No one can honestly claim to have cleansed his own heart and be free of sin. It matters because it exposes universal human sinfulness and our need for cleansing from God.
Overview
This rhetorical question expects the answer 'no one' — every human heart is stained by sin and cannot purify itself (1 Kings 8:46; Ecclesiastes 7:20). The verse undercuts any self-righteousness and points to our need for grace. The gospel answers it: only the blood of Christ cleanses the conscience and makes the heart pure (1 John 1:7-9; Hebrews 9:14).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Eccl 7:20For there is not a just man upon earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.
- 1 Jn 1:8–10If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
- 1 Kgs 8:46If 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;
- Job 14:4Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one.
- Job 15:14What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
- Job 25:4How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?
- 1 Cor 4:4For I know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord.
- Jas 3:2For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
- 2 Chr 6:36If they sin against thee, (for there is no man which sinneth not,) and thou be angry with them, and deliver them over before their enemies, and they carry them away captives unto a land far off or near;
- Ps 51:5Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 20:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.