51:5 Look, I was guilty of sin from birth,
a sinner the moment my mother conceived me. 1
58:3 The wicked turn aside from birth; 2
liars go astray as soon as they are born. 3
1 tn Heb “Look, in wrongdoing I was brought forth, and in sin my mother conceived me.” The prefixed verbal form in the second line is probably a preterite (without vav [ו] consecutive), stating a simple historical fact. The psalmist is not suggesting that he was conceived through an inappropriate sexual relationship (although the verse has sometimes been understood to mean that, or even that all sexual relationships are sinful). The psalmist’s point is that he has been a sinner from the very moment his personal existence began. By going back beyond the time of birth to the moment of conception, the psalmist makes his point more emphatically in the second line than in the first.
2 tn Heb “from the womb.”
3 tn Heb “speakers of a lie go astray from the womb.”