Psalms 19:14

Also...from willful sins Heb. מזדים, from willful sins.

then I will be perfect Heb. איתם will be perfect. The Sages said (Mid. Ps. 19:17, Lev. Rabbah 5:8): To what can David be compared? To a Cuthite who goes from door to door, and they are more cunning in this matter than any other people. “Give me a drink of water,” something that costs no money. After drinking, he says, “Perhaps you have a small onion?” After he gives it to him, he says, “Is there an onion without salt?” After he gives it to him, he says, “Give me a little bread, so that the onion does not harm me.” So did David say at first concerning the inadvertent sins, and then concerning the willful sins, and afterwards concerning the rebellious sins. פשעים are rebellious sins, with which one intends to provoke, and so Scripture says (II Kings 3:7): “The king of Moab rebelled (פשע) against me.”

Keep back Thy servant also from sins of passion; Let them not have dominion over me: – I seek of Thee further a great request, greater than this I have asked, viz. that Thou hold me back from sins of passion, that they get not the rule over me and that my (evil) nature do not over-power me. For I am on the watch with all my strength, and do Thou assist me lest the evil impulse rule over me. For the Holy One – Blessed be He! – assists him whose heart is fixed, as He says to Abimelech (Gen. 20:6): “and I also withheld thee from sinning against Me.” (The word) זֵדִים is a noun, not an adjective; then זֵד (passion) will be a noun of the form of רֵאשׁ (poverty) in “poverty and riches” (Prov. 30:8) and of אֵל in “It is in the power (אֵל) of my hand” (Gen. 31:29).

then shall I be perfect: – איתם (here) is written with yodh after aleph, but quiescent – as it compensates for the daghesh without yodh. Cf. (ימַּד in) “it cannot be measured (ימַּד)” (Hos. 2:1); (ימס in) “and every heart of man shall melt (ימס)” (Is. 13:7). There is in it also a hidden meaning, for the numerical value of yodh is ten, and in the Ten Words was the Law given, and they are its perfection and completeness. He says: then when Thou shalt clear me from my errors and help me so that sins of passion have not control over me, then I shall be perfect and whole.

Then I shall be clear from great transgression: – פשׁע (transgression) is worse than זדון (passion); seeing that the sins of passion arise from his appetite in unchastity, he is a transgressor in so far as he acts wilfully; but רב פשע (great transgression) implies one who rebels against his Lord, whose command he despises, and he commits the transgression although he has no actual desire thereto. Also he who is habituated in sins of passion will fall into rebellion; therefore, says David: If Thou wilt clear me from my errors and help me against sins of passion so that they have not dominion over me – if so, I shall never be a wilful sinner; and if I am no longer a wilful sinner, surely I shall not be a transgressor (פושׁע); and this is what (he means when) he says: Then I shall be clear from great transgression. And the meaning of רב here is “great,” for the greatest of evil deeds and transgressions is rebellion. And after he has made this the subject of his prayer, he asks God to receive his prayer.