Proverbs 20:9 (BSB)

Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am cleansed from my sin”?

From Proverbs 20. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 20:9

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 20:9: This question is not only a challenge to any man in the world to prove himself sinless, whatever he pretends, but a lamentation of the corruption of mankind, even that which remains in the best. Alas! Who can say, "I am sinless?" Observe, 1. Who the persons are that are excluded from these pretensions - all, one as well as another.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 20:9: Who can say, I have made my heart clean,.... The heart of than is naturally unclean, the mind, conscience, understanding, will, and affections; there is no part clean, all are defiled with sin; and though there is such a thing as a pure or clean heart, yet not as made so by men; it is God that has made the heart, that can only make...
• Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (Reformed), Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible on Proverbs 20:9: The interrogation in the affirmative strengthens the implied negation (compare Job 15:14; Ecc 7:20).
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 20:9: Pro 20:9 9 Who can say I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sins? It is the same thought that Solomon expresses in his prayer at the consecration of the temple, 1Ki 8:46 : there is no man who sinneth not.