Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight: that you might be justified when you speak, and be blameless when you judge.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
9. "Against Thee alone have I sinned, and before Thee an evil thing have I done" (ver. 4). What isthis? For before men was not another's wife debauched and husband slain? Did not all men know what David had done? What is, "Against Thee alone have I sinned, and before Thee an evil thing have I done." Because Thou alone art without sin. He is a just punisher that hath nothing in Him to be punished; He is a just reprover that hath nothing in Him to be reproved. "That thou mayest be justified in Thy sayings, and conquer when Thou art judged." To whom he speaketh, brethren, to whom he speaketh, isdifficult to understand. To God surely he speaketh, and it is evident that God the Father isnot judged. What is, "And conquer when Thou art judged"? He seeth the future Judge to be judged, one just by sinners to be judged, and therein conquering, because in Him was nothing to be judged. For alone among men could truly say the God-Man, "If ye have found in Me sin, say." But perchance there was what ...
Only, or principally, who art the only God, (1 Timothy i. 17.; Worthington) the judge and witness of my crime. (Haydock)
David was a king, and acknowledged no judge among men. (St. Ambrose, c. x.)
Soli Deo reus est. (Cassiodorus)
Urias, whom he had injured, was no more. (St. Augustine)
The action had been done in secret: (2 Kings xii. 12.) but many began to suspect, and to blaspheme. (Haydock)
Judged. St. Paul reads thus, (Romans iii. 4.) though the Hebrew be, "when thou judgest. "St. Jerome has also judicaberis, so that we might infer, that the Hebrew is now incorrect, or that beshophtec means in judicare te. (Berthier)
Houbigant changes the order of the verses, "cleanse me from my sins, that thou mayst be blameless when thou comest into judgment: For I know "(Haydock)
Susanna was preserved from sinning by the thought of God's presence, Daniel xiii. 25.
If David fell, he confessed his fault. (Berthier)
God is faithful to his promises, and desires the conversion of sinners, th...
