Musar para sa Mga Awit 51:6

"Against You alone have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your eyes; so that, etc." (Psalms 51:6). It is well-known that confession is a positive commandment which is in the Torah, as it is stated (Numbers 5:6-7), "When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the Lord [...]. They shall confess the sins which they committed." And the content of confession is that they confess and say to the Holy One, blessed be He, "I have sinned before you." And the Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, expounded, "Once a person has confessed and said, 'I have sinned,' no angel is allowed anymore to touch him, as it is stated (Numbers 22:34), 'And Bilaam said to the angel of the Lord, "I have sinned because I did not know that you were standing in the way before me."'" And likewise do we find with the Jewish people that when they sinned by expressing evil speech against the manna, they confessed and said (Deuteronomy 21:7), "We sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you"; so the Holy One, blessed be He, forgave them immediately. And Moshe [too] prayed for them, as it is stated, "Moshe prayed on behalf of the people." And even with the wicked, confession atones. So once they have accepted their punishment and confession, they merit life in the world to come. For thus have we found with Aakhan, that he confessed and said (Joshua 7:20), "Indeed I have sinned against the Lord, God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done." And immediately after he confessed, Joshua said to him (Joshua 7:25), "What calamity you have brought upon us; the Lord will bring calamity upon you this day." And [the Rabbis], may their memory be blessed, expounded, "This day are you visited by calamity; but you are not visited by calamity for life in the world to come." And it is not necessary to say this about the Jewish people, for confession even atones for the [other] nations of the world. For this is what have we found [concerning] Adoni-bezek, a great king among the kings of the Canaanites; and there were seventy kings of Canaan with severed thumbs and big toes collecting scraps under his table. [Even so,] once he confessed and mentioned God, it was atoned for him. And that is that which is written at the beginning of Judges [Judges 1:5-7), "At Bezek, they encountered Adoni-bezek, engaged him in battle, and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and captured him; and they cut off his thumbs and his big toes. And Adoni-bezek said, 'Seventy kings, with thumbs and big toes cut off, used to pick up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has requited me.' They brought him to Jerusalem and he died there." What is of interest [here], that the verse mentioned his death in Jerusalem? Rather, it is to teach you that once he confessed and mentioned God, may He be blessed, in his confession, his death was atonement, since he accepted his punishment as being measure for measure.

And it is fitting for a penitent to do this before the confession, so that he can be accepted with his confession. And at the time of [his] repentance, King David, peace be upon him, did this before the confession, as it is stated (Psalms 51:6), "Against You alone have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight; so that You are just in Your sentence, and right in Your judgment." The explanation [of this] is that I am only considered a sinner to you, and I need nothing besides your forgiveness; and if I sinned to a person, I have requested forgiveness from him and I have made amends with him. And similar to it is (Genesis 44:32), "I shall stand guilty before my father forever" - for this sin, I will be considered a sinner to my father forever, as he will never forgive me for it. And its translation (Onkelos), is "and I will be a sinner to father." Or (alternatively) the explanation [in the verse in Psalms above] is, "Against You alone have I sinned" - I have not sinned to a person and I have not said extra words about him, nor have I taken anything from a person; that I should require his forgiveness and return his stolen goods. So my atonement is only dependent upon You. "So that You are just in Your sentence, and right in Your judgment" - in order to show Your charity and the greatness of Your forgiveness to the nations, on the day of Your speech and Your judgement at the time that You judged me. And the expression, "so that," is [to mean] that the greatness of the sin is the reason to make known the greatness of Your charity in Your forgiveness. Therefore the thing is compared to the head of sin, in order that God's kindness can be revealed - as well as His charity in His forgiveness - on the day of [David's] judgement. And like it is [the usage of, so that] (in Hosea 8:4), "of their silver and gold they have made themselves images, so that it will be cut off." For their making the images is the reason for the cutting off of their silver and their gold - the thing was compared, as if they made the images in order that they would be cut off. Or its explanation (in Psalms) is, because of this, You will be justified in Your word about the judgement and the repayment (meaning to say that he is justifying His judgement, may He be blessed). And likewise (in Hosea), "so that it will be cut off," [can be understood] as, because of this will it be cut off.