PSALM 32:5

Q: Does “You forgave the guilt of my sin” mean that God removed his feelings of guilt, of not being able to forgive himself?

No, the Hebrew word for “guilt” in this verse is awon, which always refers to objective guilt against God, not subjective feelings of guilt. (Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis)

So what does this phrase mean? At least two commentators have mentioned that “guilt of my sin” is a very unusual construction. One possibility is that when the same word (or a synonym in this case) is repeated with “of” in the middle, it is a way of intensifying that word. For example, Song of Songs and King of Kings, refer, respectively, to the great or greatest song and king. According to this pattern, the phrase is to be read literally as “my sin of sins,” meaning “my great(est) sin,” or as TEV and the Living Bible translate it, “all my sin.”

Another tack is taken by NEB, recognizing that awon can on rare occasions by translated as “punishment for sin.” Their translation thus reads “you have removed the penalty of my sin.”

A third possibility is adopted by Jerusalem Bible following the suggestion (New Century Bible Commentary, Psalms and Bible Knowledge Commentary) that the consonants for selah and hattah (sin) should be joined together to form salahhtah, meaning “forgive.” Thus, their translation of 32:5b reads “you have forgiven the wrong I did and have pardoned my sin.”