Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; Cleanse me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Parallel translations
- WEB Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
- KJV Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
- BSB Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
- NKJV Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
- NLT Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
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
David asks God to purify him with hyssop so he will be clean, washed whiter than snow. He seeks complete cleansing from sin's defilement.
Overview
Hyssop was used in Israel's rituals to sprinkle blood or water for purification, so David invokes that imagery to plead for cleansing. The promise to be 'whiter than snow' echoes Isaiah 1:18, where God offers to make scarlet sins white. This points to the perfect cleansing achieved by Christ, whose blood truly purifies the conscience.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Jn 1:7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
- Isa 1:18“Come now, and let us reason together,” says Yahweh: “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
- Heb 9:13–14For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh:
- Num 19:18–20A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave.
- Heb 9:19For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
- Rev 1:5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood;
- Exod 12:22You shall take a bunch of hyssop, and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two door posts with the blood that is in the basin; and none of you shall go out of the door of his house until the morning.
- Eph 5:26–27that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
- Rev 7:13–14One of the elders answered, saying to me, “These who are arrayed in the white robes, who are they, and from where did they come?”
- Lev 14:49–52To cleanse the house he shall take two birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.
- Lev 14:4–7then the priest shall command them to take for him who is to be cleansed two living clean birds, and cedar wood, and scarlet, and hyssop.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 51:7 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
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