Bible Strands
Psalms 19:12
Who can discern his own errors? Cleanse me from my hidden faults.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God in prayer, positioned between praise for the law's warning function (v. 11) and a plea against willful sin (v. 13). He is asking for what he cannot do for himself.
The words — שְׁגִיא֥וֹת (shegi'ot) denotes unintentional errors, sins committed without deliberate intent, and stands in deliberate contrast to the "willful sins" of the following verse. The verb נַקֵּֽנִי (naqqeni) is a legal term meaning "acquit," framing the request as a plea before a judge.
The thread — The same inability to see one's own faults recurs in Psalms 139:23 ("Search me, O God") and Psalms 90:8 (secret sins exposed in God's light). Job 6:24 mirrors the dependence: "Help me understand how I have erred."
Why it lands — The verse concedes a real limit: a person cannot fully audit himself. It asks the reader to stop treating self-examination as sufficient and to bring the unseen to the one who sees it.
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
Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Cross-references
- Psalms 90:8 You have set our iniquities before You, our secret sins in the light of Your presence.
- Psalms 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my concerns.
- Job 6:24 Teach me, and I will be silent. Help me understand how I have erred.
- Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
- Psalms 40:12 For evils without number surround me; my sins have overtaken me, so that I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart has failed within me.
- 1 Corinthians 4:4 My conscience is clear, but that does not vindicate me. It is the Lord who judges me.
- 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.
- Psalms 139:6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
- Leviticus 4:2 “Tell the Israelites to do as follows with one who sins unintentionally against any of the LORD’s commandments and does what is forbidden by them:
- Psalms 51:2 Wash me clean of my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.