Bible Strands
Psalms 103:12
As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — David, in a psalm of praise that turns to instruction, addresses the reader directly as one who fears the LORD, between two similes that bracket this verse (103:11, 13).
The words — הִרְחִיק (hirqiq), Hiphil of רֶחֹק (rechok, "far away"), is causative: "He has made far away." The same root appears in the simile (מִזְרָח מִמַּעֲרָב, "east from west"), so the verb enacts the very distance it describes.
The thread — Isaiah 43:25 pairs the same idea with memory: God "remembers your sins no more." Micah 7:18 uses the spatial verb "passes over" (עָבַר) for the same act of removal.
Why it lands — The verse forbids the reader from re-measuring the gap; the distance is fixed, not shrinking or growing.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 43:25 I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
- 1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
- Micah 7:18 Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
- Isaiah 38:17 Surely for my own welfare I had such great anguish; but Your love has delivered me from the pit of oblivion, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back.
- Jeremiah 31:34 No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”
- Hebrews 10:2 If it could, would not the offerings have ceased? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt the guilt of their sins.
- 2 Samuel 12:13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” “The LORD has taken away your sin,” Nathan replied. “You will not die.
- Jeremiah 50:20 In those days and at that time, declares the LORD, a search will be made for Israel’s guilt, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found; for I will forgive the remnant I preserve.
- Isaiah 45:6 so that all may know, from where the sun rises to where it sets, that there is none but Me; I am the LORD, and there is no other.
- Psalms 113:3 From where the sun rises to where it sets, the name of the LORD is praised.