Bible Strands
Psalms 130:3
If You, O LORD, kept track of iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand?
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks directly to the LORD during a plea for mercy, following an immediate request for divine attention in the prior verse.
The words — The Hebrew terms עֲוֹנ֥וֹת (a.vo.Not, "iniquities") and יַעֲמֹֽד (ya.'a.Mod, "will he stand") anchor the verse's rhetorical challenge regarding human accountability.
The thread — This motif of human inability to withstand divine scrutiny runs through Psalms 143:2, Psalms 76:7, and Romans 3:20, where no one is declared righteous or able to stand before God's judgment.
Why it lands — The text states that strict accounting of iniquities would leave no one standing, which logically precedes the declaration of forgiveness in the following verse and demands acknowledgment of human inability to justify themselves.
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
If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
Cross-references
- Psalms 143:2 Do not bring Your servant into judgment, for no one alive is righteous before You.
- Psalms 76:7 You alone are to be feared. When You are angry, who can stand before You?
- Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be justified in His sight by works of the law. For the law merely brings awareness of sin.
- John 8:7 When they continued to question Him, He straightened up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her.”
- Job 10:14 If I sinned, You would take note, and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
- Nahum 1:6 Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.
- Revelation 6:17 For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”
- Job 15:14 What is man, that he should be pure, or one born of woman, that he should be righteous?
- Malachi 3:2 But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire, like a launderer’s soap.
- Job 9:20 Even if I were righteous, my mouth would condemn me; if I were blameless, it would declare me guilty.