Psalm 139
The full text of Psalm 139 in the Trinity Bible Version — clear modern English, translated from the original Hebrew. Free to read.
To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.
1 O LORD, you have searched me and known me!
2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is high; I cannot attain it.
7 Where shall I go from your Spirit?
Or where shall I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there!
If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,"
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
13 For you formed my inward parts;
you knitted me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my unformed substance;
in your book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 If I would count them, they are more than the sand.
I awake, and I am still with you.
19 Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God!
O men of blood, depart from me!
20 They speak against you with malicious intent;
your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with complete hatred;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart!
Try me and know my thoughts!
24 And see if there be any grievous way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting!
Translation notes (5)
- Psalm 139:8a Sheol (שְׁאוֹל) is the Hebrew name for the underworld realm of the dead, pictured as the lowest point of the cosmos opposite heaven; the pairing forms a merism embracing all creation. The verb behind 'make my bed', yatsa' (יצע), means to spread out a couch, a striking image of lying down among the dead.
- Psalm 139:13a Hebrew kilyot, literally 'kidneys', names the organs ancient Israel regarded as the seat of emotion and conscience, here rendered 'inward parts'. The verb sakak, elsewhere 'to weave' or 'to screen', pictures God working the unborn child like a weaver at the loom, an image resumed in verse 15 with the language of skillful embroidery.
- Psalm 139:15a The verb ruqqamti (רֻקַּמְתִּי), 'I was woven', comes from raqam, 'to embroider', a term used for the variegated needlework of the tabernacle curtains. The phrase 'depths of the earth' is not literal but a poetic image for the hidden darkness of the womb, standing in parallel with 'in secret' in the preceding line.
- Psalm 139:16a The phrase 'unformed substance' translates golem (גֹּלֶם), a word occurring only here in the Hebrew Bible; it denotes something rolled or wrapped up, hence an embryo or unshaped mass. In later rabbinic Hebrew the word came to mean an unfinished or shapeless being, the source of the medieval legend of the golem.
- Psalm 139:21a The Hebrew verb sane (שָׂנֵא), 'to hate', frequently denotes rejection and active opposition rather than mere personal animosity, as when Malachi 1:3 speaks of God 'hating' Esau. The psalmist declares alignment against those hostile to God, not private malice; the following verse frames this as counting them enemies.
About this translation
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