Romans 4:7

Saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

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Word by word — the Greek

Word	Greek	Strong’s	Meaning
Blessed	μακάριοι makarioi	G3107	supremely blest · adjective — nominative plural masculine
whose	ὧν hōn	G3739	the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun · relative pronoun — genitive plural masculine
iniquities	ἀνομίαι anomiai	G458	illegality · noun — nominative plural feminine
forgiven	ἀφέθησαν aphethēsan	G863	an intensive form of · verb — aorist passive indicative, 3rd person plural
and	καὶ kai	G2532	and · conjunction
whose	ὧν hōn	G3739	the relatively (sometimes demonstrative) pronoun · relative pronoun — genitive plural masculine
sins	ἁμαρτίαι· hamartiai	G266	a sin (properly abstract) · noun — nominative plural feminine
covered	ἐπεκαλύφθησαν epekaluphthēsan	G1943	to conceal · verb — aorist passive indicative, 3rd person plural

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Psalms 32:1-2 Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
Psalms 130:3-4 If thou, LORD, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?
Luke 7:47-50 Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth littl…
Psalms 85:2 Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.
Micah 7:18-20 Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his…
Psalms 51:8-9 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Isaiah 40:1-2 Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God.
Jeremiah 33:8-9 And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they h…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Romans 4:1-8

Here the apostle proves that Abraham was justified not by works, but by faith. Those that of all men contended most vigorously for a share in righteousness by the privileges they enjoyed, and the works they performed, were the Jews, and therefore he appeals to the case of Abraham their father, and puts his own name to the relation, being a Hebrew of the Hebrews: Abraham our father. Now surely his prerogative must needs be as great as theirs who claim it as his seed according to the flesh. Now what has he found? All the world is seeking; but, while the most are wearying themselves for very vanity, none can be truly reckoned to have found, but those who are justified before God; and thus Abrah…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Romans 4:7

Saying, Blessed, &c.-- (Psa 32:1-2). David here sings in express terms only of "transgression forgiven, sin covered, iniquity not imputed"; but as the negative blessing necessarily includes the positive, the passage is strictly in point.

Adam Clarke on Romans 4:7

Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven - That is, the man is truly happy whose iniquities αι ανομιαι, whose transgressions of the law are forgiven; for by these he was exposed to the most grievous punishment. Whose sins, αι αμαρτιαι, his innumerable deviations from the strict rule of truth and righteousness, are covered - entirely removed out of sight, and thrown into oblivion. See the meaning of the word sin in the note on Gen 13:13 (note).

John Gill on Romans 4:7

Saying, blessed are they,.... These words are cited from Psalm 32:1, and contain the proof of the happiness of justified persons. In this citation the singular number is changed into the plural, to take in all sorts of men, Jews and Gentiles, and very agreeably to the sense of the original; for the word may be rendered "blessed are they", or, "O the blessednesses"; that is, of everyone of them, whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered: such whom God justifies by imputing the righteousness of his Son to them, he removes their iniquities from them, which is meant by their being "forgiven", and that "as far as the east is from the west", Psalm 103:12; he casts them behind his…

The Church Fathers

What is forgiven is not retained in the mind, and what is covered does not come to light, and for that reason it is not counted against us.
— Pelagius, PELAGIUS'S COMMENTARY ON ROMANS

And concerning the happiness of the man who has partaken of these, David says: "Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin." For, strictly speaking, there cannot any longer be reckoned ought against the martyrs, by whom in the baptism (of blood) life itself is laid down.
— Tertullian, Scorpiace

Obviously they are blessed, whose iniquities are forgiven without labor or work of any kind and whose sins are covered without any work of penitence being required of them, as long as they believe.How can these words apply to a penitent, when we know that penitents obtain the forgiveness of sin with much struggle and groaning? How can they be applied to a martyr, when we know that the glory of martyrdom is obtained by sufferings and pressures? But the prophet, foreseeing a happy time when the Savior comes, calls them blessed because their sins are forgiven, covered and not reckoned to them, and this without labor or work of any kind.
— Ambrosiaster, COMMENTARY ON PAUL'S EPISTLES

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Justification — A forensic term, opposed to condemnation. As regards its nature, it is the judicial act of God, by which he pardons all the sins of those who believe in Christ, and accounts, accepts, and treats them…
Bigotry · PAUL’S ARGUMENT AGAINST — PAUL’S ARGUMENT AGAINST
Blessed, The · Whose sins are forgiven — Whose sins are forgiven
Catholicity · INCUL — INCUL
Faith · 10:20;14:32;26:3;30:15;57:13; — 10:20;14:32;26:3;30:15;57:13;
Justification · 23:6; — 23:6;
Justification Before God · Under the gospel: Blessedness of — Under the gospel: Blessedness of
Pardon · Blessedness of — Blessedness of

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).

Romans 4:7

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Romans 4:1-8

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Romans 4:7

Adam Clarke on Romans 4:7

John Gill on Romans 4:7

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Romans 4:7

Word by word — the Greek

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Romans 4:1-8

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Romans 4:7

Adam Clarke on Romans 4:7

John Gill on Romans 4:7

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Romans 4:6-8

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Romans 4:7-8