Psalms 103:12
in Psalms 103As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
As far as the east is from the west, So far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
KJV
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.
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This verse in Psalms 103
Commentary
16 notes on this verseAs far as the east is from the west,.... Which Kimchi thinks is mentioned because it contains the length of the habitable world; and therefore it is not said as far as the north is from the south; since a man can go from east to west, but not from north to south, because of the extreme heat and cold.
This site's exposition
nor harbor His anger forever
on Psalms 103:9-12
God's anger has an end, and He has held back the repayment the sins deserve. Two measures are given, height for the loving devotion and distance for the sin. The heavens stand above the earth, and east never reaches west.
This site's exposition
so far has He removed
Removed translates a Hebrew verb for putting a thing far away. The scapegoat of Leviticus 16:21 to 22 carried the iniquities of Israel away into the wilderness. Micah 7:19 gives a second picture, sins hurled into the depths of the sea.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers5 voices
So let us at last wind up this sermon. My brothers and sister, I urge you, I beseech you by the Lord and his gentleness, be gentle in your lives, be peaceful in your lives. Peacefully permit the authorities to do what pertains to them, of which they will have to render an account to God and to their superiors. As often as you have to petition them, make your petitions in an honorable and quiet manner. Do not mix with those who do evil and rampage in a rough and disorderly manner; do not desire to be present at such goings-on even as spectators. But as far as you can, let each of you in his own house and his own neighborhood deal with the one with whom you have ties of kinship and charity, by warning, persuading, teaching, correcting; also by restraining him from such seriously evil activities by any kind of threats, so that God may eventually have mercy, and put an end to human evils and "may not deal with us according to our sins or requite us according to our iniquities, but as far as the east is from the west may cast our sins for away from us," and that he "may be gracious to our sins, lest the nations perhaps should say, Where is their God?"
He is the one about whom the psalm says, "The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins …
"O wretched person, you have estranged yourself completely from the Lord. But the Lord is good, and he never 'kept his anger for a testimony, for he delights in mercy,' and he is 'able to sink our sins in the depths of the sea,' for …
The shepherd's most certain knowledge of merits, by which the sheep will be separated from the goats, is so great that no goat will be placed on the right, just as no sheep will be located on the left. Those merits with which people go …
"Look, how wide the east is from the west; so far has He set our sins from us" [Psalm 103:12]. They who know the Sacraments know this; nevertheless, I only say what all may hear. When sin is remitted, your sins fall, your grace rises; your sins are as it were on the decline, your grace which frees you on the rise. "Truth springs from the earth." What means this? Your grace is born, your sins fall, you are in a certain manner made new. You should look to the rising, and turn away from the setting. Turn away from your sins, turn unto the grace of God; when your sins fall, thou rises and profitest....One region of the heaven falls, another rises: but the region which is now rising will set after twelve hours. Not like this is the grace which rises unto us: both our sins fall for ever, and grace abides for ever.
8 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
Though it is of our own benefit, by the pardoning mercy of God, that we are to take the comfort, yet of the benefit others have by it we must give him the glory. Observe, (1.) The transcendent riches of God's mercy (
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
): As far as the east is from the west (which two quarters of the world are of greatest extent, because all known and inhabited, and therefore geographers that way reckon their longitudes) so far has he removed our transgressions from us, so that they shall never be laid to our charge, nor rise up in judgment against us.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-punctuation+unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century6 voices
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. O glorious verse, no word even upon the inspired page can excel it! Sin is removed from us by a miracle of love! What a load to move, and yet is it removed so far that the distance is incalculable. Fly as far as the wing of imagination can bear you, and if you journey through space eastward, you are further from the west at every beat of your wing.
As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. O glorious verse, no word even upon the inspired page can excel it! Sin is removed from us by a miracle of love! What a load to move, and yet is it removed so far that the distance is incalculable. Fly as far as the wing of imagination can bear you, and if you journey through space eastward, you are further from the west at every beat of your wing. If sin be removed so far, then we may be sure that the scent, the trace, the very memory of it must be entirely gone. If this be the distance of its removal, there is no shade of fear of its ever being brought back again; even Satan himself could not achieve such a task. Our sins are gone, Jesus has borne them away. Far as the place of sunrise is removed from yonder west, where the sun sinks when his day's journey is done, so far were our sins carried by our scapegoat nineteen centuries ago, and now if they be sought for, they shall not be found, yea, they shall not be, saith the Lord. Come, my soul, awaken thyself thoroughly and glorify the Lord for this richest of blessings. Hallelujah. The Lord alone could remove sin at all, and he has done it in a godlike fashion, making a final sweep of all our transgressions.
WE shall aim at no novelty tonight, nor shall we try to serve up the old Truths of God in any new and attractive forms. Upon your tables you always require bread and generally you account salt to be indispensable. Some kinds of food are presented to us over and over again and it would foretell ill for our health if they were not always relished. It was an evil lusting which made Israel tire of the manna.
WE shall aim at no novelty tonight, nor shall we try to serve up the old Truths of God in any new and attractive forms. Upon your tables you always require bread and generally you account salt to be indispensable. Some kinds of food are presented to us over and over again and it would foretell ill for our health if they were not always relished. It was an evil lusting which made Israel tire of the manna. An Israelite in his right mind found it to be still a dainty, though he ate of it every day of his 40 years' pilgrimage. Who tires of the verdure of the fields, the light of the sun, or the air we breathe? These things are ever fresh and new, and ever necessary to us. The doctrine of forgiving love is one of those necessities of daily life concerning which it may be affirmed that if we should set them before you every day we should not be guilty of vain repetition. None need fear of tiring man, or vexing God's Spirit by harping too much on this string. Therefore come we to our favorite theme tonight. To speak of the great Gospel truth of the forgiveness of sin in the simplest manner we possibly can is the purpose we have immediately in view. To babes, to young men and to fathers in Christ, this all-important Truth will be equally precious, while the poor trembling sinner who cannot yet claim to be one of the sacred family may be encouraged by it. Our text has in it a word of peculiarity, and to this I call your attention at the outset.
As far as the east is from the west - As the east and the west can never meet in one point, but be for ever at the same distance from each other, so our sins and their decreed punishment are removed to an eternal distance by his mercy.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
As far as the east is from the west - As far as possible; as far as we can imagine. These are the points in our apprehension most distant from each other, and as we can conceive nothing beyond them, so the meaning is, that we cannot imagine our sins could be more effectually removed than they are. The literal meaning of the Hebrew is, “like the distance of the east from the west” or, “like its being far.” So far hath he removed our transgressions from us - That is, he has put them entirely away. They are so removed that they cannot affect us any more. We are safe from all condemnation for our sins, as if they had not been committed at all. Compare the notes at Isa 43:25; notes at Isa 44:22.
The words behind it
7 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּרְחֹ֣ק | kirchok | as is far away | H7368 → | 57 times |
| מִ֭זְרָח | mizroch | east | H4217 → | 74 times |
| מִֽמַּֽעֲרָ֑ב | mimaarav | from west | H4628 → | 14 times |
| הִֽרְחִ֥יק | hirchik | he has removed far away | H7368 → | 57 times |
| מִ֝מֶּ֗נּוּ | mimenu | from us | H4480 → | 1188 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| פְּשָׁעֵֽינוּ׃ | peshaeinu | transgressions our | H6588 → | 93 times |
כִּרְחֹ֣קas is far away
kirchokH7368 →57 times
מִ֭זְרָחeast
mizrochH4217 →74 times
מִֽמַּֽעֲרָ֑בfrom west
mimaaravH4628 →14 times
הִֽרְחִ֥יקhe has removed far away
hirchikH7368 →57 times
מִ֝מֶּ֗נּוּfrom us
mimenuH4480 →1188 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
פְּשָׁעֵֽינוּ׃transgressions our
peshaeinuH6588 →93 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 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
Isaiah 43:25I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
it leads to
- Hebrews 8:12
For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Micah 7:18–19
Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
- Hebrews 10:17
Then He adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.”
- Jeremiah 31:34
No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I…
- Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be as white as snow; though they are as red as crimson, they will become like wool.
- Hebrews 8:12
Through
1 John 1:7But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
it leads to
- Ephesians 5:8
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light,
- Romans 13:12
The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.
- Ephesians 5:8
Through
Micah 7:18Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?
it leads to
- Isaiah 43:25
I, yes I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake and remembers your sins no more.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Isaiah 43:25
Where this verse is studied
By subject
Forgiveness35 verses
On this page
Studies4
About Psalms
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, SERMON 302:21; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 103; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 4; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1108: “Plenary Absolution” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Fulgentius of Ruspe, LETTER TO MONIMUS 1:21.3; Fulgentius of Ruspe, ON THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS 2:10.4; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Pachomius the Great, PARALIPOMENA 5:11.