to the choirmaster: a psalm of David, when Nattan the prophet came to him, after he had gone to Bat-sheva.

01: Grant your pardon, God.
      With your loving-kindness
      and abundant pity,
      blot out my transgressions.
02: Wash me thoroughly
      of my iniquity;
      cleanse me of my sin.
03: For I admit my trespass;
      my sin will ever haunt me.
04: I sinned against you alone,
      my evil done in your sight.
      Your sentence will be just,
      your judgment clarifying.
05: Behold! I am prone to sin:
      so my mother conceived me.
06: Behold! You wish the truth
      to imbue my inmost parts,
      and inwardly you teach
      the wisdom I should know.
07: Purify me with hyssop:
      let me be clean. Wash me:
      I shall be whiter than snow.
08: Fill me with joy and gladness.
      May bones you crushed rejoice.
09: Avert your face from my crime:
      erase my depravity.

10: For me, oh God, create
      a wholesome heart; renew
      within mea steady spirit.
11: Send me not from your presence,
      nor withdraw your holy spirit.
12: Restore the joy of your freedom;
      uphold me with fulsome spirit.
13: I will teach your ways to rebels.
      The sinful will turn to you.
14: Deliver me from blood-guilt,
      God, youGod of rescue.
      My tongue will sing your justice.
15: Oh Lord, open my lips;
      my mouth will declare your praise.
16: For you do not delight
      in sacrifice; or I would give it;
      nor would you welcome
      a burnt offering.
17: The offerings to God
      are a humbled spirit,
      a humbled, abject heart:¹
      these God shall not despise.
18: Show your favor to Zion:
      buildJerusalem's walls.
19: Then you will be pleased
      with rightful sacrifice:
      offerings burnt and whole.
      Then upon your altar
      bullocks may be brought.




1 Hebrew:nishbar v'nidkeh,literally "quenched, dispirited"; often translated as cliché, "broken heart,"in E.