1 Samuel 15:25
in 1 Samuel 15Now therefore, please forgive my sin and return with me so I can worship the LORD.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship Jehovah.
KJV
Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.
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This verse in 1 Samuel 15
Commentary
9 notes on this versePardon my sin - Literally, bear my sin; take it away; forgive what I have done against thee, and be my intercessor with God, that he may forgive my offense against him; turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.
This site's exposition
because I feared the people and obeyed their voice
on 1 Samuel 15:24-25
Saul's confession names the sin, "I have sinned," and its cause in the same breath, "because I feared the people and obeyed their voice," a king ruled by his subjects. His request in verse 25 asks Samuel to return with him to worship, seeking restored standing before showing any change. Wesley and Gill read the confession as sincere in naming the act but shallow in what it asks.
This site's exposition
please forgive my sin
Adam Clarke gives the Hebrew of forgive as bear, to lift a sin and carry it away. Saul asks this of a man. Clarke hears a plea for Samuel to stand as intercessor with God and to come back with him to worship.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
A commentator
Gregory the DialogistCommentary on 1 Kings, Book 6, Chapter 2 · Written before 604.
proposed
27. Correctable sins are indeed borne, because after they depart from the will of the one who committed them, they can be wholesomely purged through satisfaction. But the sins of those in whose minds they have become ingrained through impenitence are not borne. Whence John also says: "There is a sin unto death; I do not say that one should pray for that" (1 John 5:16). A sin unto death is that which is committed by one who can never come to his senses.
The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices
Pardon my sin - Neither can it be proved that there was any hypocrisy in this. Rather charity requires us to believe, that he sincerely desired pardon, both from God and man, as he now knew, he had sinned against both.
): I pray thee, pardon my sin; as if any could forgive sin but God only. Those wretchedly deceive themselves who, when they have fallen into scandalous sin, think it enough to make their peace with the church and their ministers, by the show and plausible profession of repentance, without taking care to make their peace with God by the sincerity of it.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
) to turn again with him, and assist in a public thanksgiving for the victory. Very importunate he was in this matter when he laid hold on the skirt of his mantle to detain him (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation
Now therefore, I pray thee, pardon my sin,....
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
I have sinned . . . turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord--The erring, but proud and obstinate monarch was now humbled. He was conscience-smitten for the moment, but his confession proceeded not from sincere repentance, but from a sense of danger and desire of averting the sentence denounced against him.
The words behind it
9 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְעַתָּ֕ה | veatah | and therefore | H6258 → | 433 times |
| שָׂ֥א | sa' | forgive | H5375 → | 656 times |
| נָ֖א | na' | please | H4994 → | 404 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| חַטָּאתִ֑י | chatati | sin my | H2403 → | 295 times |
| וְשׁ֣וּב | veshuv | and return | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| עִמִּ֔י | ʾimi | with me | H5973 → | 1050 times |
| וְאֶֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֖ה | veeshtachaveh | so I may bow down | H7812 → | 172 times |
| לַֽיהוָֽה׃ | layahweh | to Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
וְעַתָּ֕הand therefore
veatahH6258 →433 times
שָׂ֥אforgive
sa'H5375 →656 times
נָ֖אplease
na'H4994 →404 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
חַטָּאתִ֑יsin my
chatatiH2403 →295 times
וְשׁ֣וּבand return
veshuvH7725 →1056 times
עִמִּ֔יwith me
ʾimiH5973 →1050 times
וְאֶֽשְׁתַּחֲוֶ֖הso I may bow down
veeshtachavehH7812 →172 times
לַֽיהוָֽה׃to Yahweh
layahwehH3068 →6520 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Exodus 10:17Now please forgive my sin once more and appeal to the LORD your God, that He may remove this death from me.”
it leads to
- Exodus 8:8
Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people. Then I will let your people go, that they may sacrifice to the…
- Exodus 9:28
Pray to the LORD, for there has been enough of God’s thunder and hail. I will let you go; you do not need to stay any longer.”
- 1 Kings 13:6
Then the king responded to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the…
- Acts 8:24
Then Simon answered, “Pray to the Lord for me, so that nothing you have said may happen to me.”
- 2 Kings 4:40
And they poured it out for the men to eat, but when they tasted the stew they cried out, “There is death in the pot, O man of God!” And they could not eat…
- Exodus 8:8
Where this verse is studied
About 1 Samuel
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Gregory the Dialogist, Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 6, Chapter 2; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.