Psa 139:2-3, 7, 9, 19-20 | Clarke | e4.org | Verse 2. My downsitting and mine uprising ] Even these inconsiderable and casual things are under thy continual notice. I cannot so much as take a seat , or leave it , without being marked by thee. Thou understandest my thought ] lerei , "my cogitation." This word is Chaldee , see . Afar off. ] While the figment is forming that shall produce them.

‏ Psalms 139:2-3

Verse 2. My downsitting and mine uprising] Even these inconsiderable and casual things are under thy continual notice. I cannot so much as take a seat, or leave it, without being marked by thee.

Thou understandest my thought] lerei, "my cogitation." This word is Chaldee, see Da 2:29, 30.

Afar off.] While the figment is forming that shall produce them.

Verse 3. Thou compassest my path] zeritha thou dost winnow, ventilate, or sift my path; and my lying down, ribi, my lair, my bed.

And art acquainted] Thou treasurest up. This is the import of sachan. Thou hast the whole number of my ways, and the steps I took in them.

‏ Psalms 139:7

Verse 7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit?] Surely ruach in this sense must be taken personally, it certainly cannot mean either breath or wind; to render it so would make the passage ridiculous.

From thy presence?] mippaneycha, "from thy faces." Why do we meet with this word so frequently in the plural number, when applied to God? And why have we his Spirit, and his appearances or faces, both here? A Trinitarian would at once say, "The plurality of persons in the Godhead is intended;" and who can prove that he is mistaken?

‏ Psalms 139:9

‏ Psalms 139:19-20

Verse 19. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked] The remaining part of this Psalm has no visible connexion with the preceding. I rather think it a fragment, or a part of some other Psalm.

Ye bloody men.] anshey damim, men of blood, men guilty of death.

Verse 20. Thine enemies take thy name in vain.] Bishop Horsley translates the whole verse thus:-

"They have deserted me who are disobedient to thee;

"They who are sworn to a rash purpose-thy

refractory adversaries."

The original is obscure: but I cannot see these things in it. Some translate the Hebrew thus: "Those who oppose thee iniquitously seize unjustly upon thy cities;" and so almost all the Versions. The words, thus translated, may apply to Sanballat, Tobiah, and the other enemies of the returned Jews, who endeavoured to drive them from the land, that they might possess the cities of Judea.