It must depend upon the scholar. Not the ones I checked. The whole context is about his sin. He was a sinner from conception. NET, NIV, NRSVue agree. ESV does not, which is not surprising given the Reformed background
Psalm 51:5 (NIV): Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
The Word commentary has a reasonable explanation of this translation:
"The passage is more commonly understood today as a confession of the essential human condition of the speaker. “One is a sinner simply as a result of one’s natural human descent” (W. Eichrodt, Theology of the Old Testament, I, 268). "
I have taken a lot of my research on this subject from Jewish Scholars (Some being Messianic Scholars) and especially some individuals I corresponded with in Jerusalem who had access to untranslated Hebrew writings.
Psalms 51:5 is a problem translation for Jews and Christians, so this one verse takes a lot of explaining, but it also has to be consistent with all these verse in Psalms at least.
It has been decades since I did my study and I have many pages of notes.
As you alluded to:
This could all be a very poetic hyperbole David is using and he should be allowed some poetic license.
We have similar verses:
Psalms 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Ps 22 Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
Ps. 139: 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
I argue that a child is Innocent:
Spiritual consequences of sin cannot be transmitted from father to son but only falls on the one who committed the act: Ezek 18:1-4; 18-20; Jer 32:29-30
Sin is committed by individually breaking God's law: 1 Jn 3:4
The spoken and written gospel message is God's power for salvation: Rom 1:16; 1 Cor. 1:18
God said that the king of Tyrus was "blameless in your ways from the day you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you." Ezek 28:15
"God made men upright but they sought devices" Eccl 7:29 (plural can't refer only to Adam)
Jer 19:2-6 human sacrifices of children to Baal is called the "blood of the innocent"
Jesus teaches us that we must become as little children to enter the kingdom of God (Matt. 18:3- 4; Lk. 18:16-17)
Apostle Paul: Rom 7:9-11 "Once alive" "sin killed me"
Psalms 58:3 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Ps 22 Yet you are he who took me from the womb;
you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
On you was I cast from my birth, and from my mother's womb you have been my God.
Ps. 139: 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.
Looking Deeper into Psalms 51:5
This is a Hebrew poetic parallelism, with
the second line of the verse saying the same thing as the first line in a slightly different way. The first verb, of which David is the subject, is in the Pulal tense (as is "made" in # Job 15:7 ), which is an idiom used to refer to creation or origins, and is the 'passive' form of Polel ("formed": # Ps 90:2 Pro 26:10 ). TWOT, #623, 1:270.
The subject is, as the verse clearly states, the 'circumstances' of his conception- the sexual union which produced him was an act of sin, and
addresses the unrighteousness of his mother's act.
Read some of the English translation Psalms 51:5
KJV Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and
in sin did my mother conceive me.
YLT Lo, in iniquity I have been brought forth, And
in sin doth my mother conceive me.
WEB Behold, I was born in iniquity.
My mother conceived me in sin
RSV Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me.
KJV Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And
in sin my mother conceived me.
Granted some translators have a problem with the sin being David’s mother’s problem and will point to verses like these:
In PS 116:16, David refers to himself as "the son of thy handmaid", which would seem to testify to his mother's positive relationship with the Lord.
Psalm 86:16 Turn to me and have mercy on me; show your strength in behalf of your servant; save me, because I serve you
just as my mother did. She sounds righteous to me.
Thus, they majorly change the translation to be David’s sin, But are these translations the result of preconceived ideas?
The wording seems to be saying: the sin is the mothers at conception.
What do we know which could show it to be David’s mother and a problem?
David had two half-sisters (Zeruiah, Abigail)…..:
1CHR 2:13-16 13 “And Jesse begat his firstborn Eliab, and Abinadab the second, and Shimma the third, 14 Nethaneel the fourth, Raddai the fifth, 15 Ozem the sixth, David the seventh: 16 Whose sisters were Zeruiah, and Abigail. And the sons of Zeruiah; Abishai, and Joab, and Asahel, three. 17 And Abigail bare Amasa: and the father of Amasa was Jether the Ishmeelite.”
Again the translators do not like the idea of these sisters only being David’s so the change the wording and meaning, but the better translations is:
KJV Whose sisters were Zeruiah, and Abigail. And the sons of Zeruiah; Abishai, and Joab, and Asahel, three.
Why might these two only be David’s sisters and not Jesse’s daughters: 2Sam 17:25 “And Absalom made Amasa captain of the host instead of Joab: which Amasa was a man’s son, whose name was Ithra an Israelite, that went in to Abigail the daughter of Nahash, sister to Zeruiah Joab’s mother.”
Nahash is king of the Ammonites.
1 Chronicles 19:2 David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, because his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father. When David’s envoys came to Hanun in the land of the Ammonites to express sympathy to him,
Why did Nahash show kindness to David?
David’s Jewish mother seems to have been previously married to Nahash the Ammonite and later was the second wife of Jesse, this was not a “sin” most likely but later could have been perceived as a sin, thus Jesse not counting David as one of his sons and all his brothers treating him badly.
A lot more can be said, but it was not David being conceived a sinner, but his mother conceiving him could be perceived as a sin.
Now we can go further into scripture showing how David was treated and persecuted as an outsider by his family and loved only by his mother.
Looking at David’s Mother
Exodus 34:7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.”
Matthew 1:5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse
Torah specifically forbids an Israelite to marry a Moabite convert, since this is the nation that cruelly refused the Jewish people passage through their land, or food and drink to purchase, when they wandered in the desert after being freed from Egypt.
It is an interesting study, but there is no proof text scripture I can point to. I am convinced it was the wrongfully perceived sin of David’s mother’s conception.
On some days I could only read 1 verse in some of those places, and just was full, delighted, and had enough to keep me for a full day.
