Psalms 65:3

Iniquities Lit., words, or, matters of iniquities:many various items of iniquity. Cp. for the same idiom Psalms 105:27; Psalms 145:5. Virtually the clause is a protasis to the second line:

Though manifold iniquities are too strong for me,

As for our transgressions, Thou wilt purge them away.

In the singular -me" we may hear the voice of the Psalmist himself, or of some representative of the nation, the king or high-priest, who, like Daniel or Nehemiah, confesses his own sin as well as the sin of his people (Daniel 9:20; Nehemiah 1:6: cp. Hebrews 5:3; Hebrews 7:27): but more probably it is the assembled congregation which speaks of itself first as an individual (-against me"), then as an aggregate of individuals (- ourtransgressions"). For a similar change from sing. to plur. cp. Numbers 21:22, and many other passages. Its sins are an enemy which it cannot defeat (Genesis 4:7; cp. Psalms 38:4; Psalms 130:3; Psalms 143:2); yet God who "forgives iniquity and transgression and sin" will purge away their transgressions. thou is emphatic. He, and He alone, can do it. The word for purge awayis that commonly rendered -make atonement for" (whether its primary meaning is -to blot out" or -to cover" is disputed), and it would be natural to see in it an allusion to the Day of Atonement which immediately preceded the Feast of Tabernacles (Leviticus 23:27; Leviticus 23:34), and to suppose that the Ps. was intended for use at that Festival, did not Psalms 65:13 speak of the corn as still standing in the fields.