I have sinned, O Lord, I have sinned: It would be hard to improve on the simplicity of this rendering, but it should at least be noted that the perfect tense of the Greek verb here (different from the aorist [past] tense of “the sins I have committed” in verse 9) indicates not only that the speaker sinned in the past, but that he lives now in a state conditioned by that sin. This simple line will be forcefully echoed in the next verse with “forgive me, O Lord, forgive me!”

I know my transgressions; that is, I am aware of them. By making this statement the speaker is confessing his sins, as Good News Translation has it: “I confess the wicked things I have done.” New English Bible says “I acknowledge my transgressions.”

Quoted with permission from Bullard, Roger A. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on The Shorter Books of the Deuterocanon. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2006. For this and other handbooks for translators see