Psalm 139 · a question people ask

"In your book they were all written" (139:16). What does the verse say was written?

In the text

The WEB reads, "Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them" (139:16). Ordained is the verb yatsar, which Strong's gives as "to mould into a form; especially as a potter". It is the verb of "The LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground" (Genesis 2:7), and for the form used here Brown-Driver-Briggs gives "days (that) were pre-ordained (in divine purpose)". At the verse's last words the Hebrew text has two readings, and the Westminster Leningrad Codex gives both: the word as it is written, and a reading it marks beside it. The written word is and followed by the letters of lo', which Brown-Driver-Briggs gives as "not": word for word, and not one among them. The marked reading differs by one letter (the written word ends in aleph, the marked reading in vav): and with the small word to him, word for word and to him one among them. The WEB's "when as yet there were none of them" goes with the written word. Psalm 100:3 has the same pair of readings, and the chapter on Psalm 100 looks at it. The psalm says no more about the book than this verse, and these notes don't either.

The verses

“Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.”
Psalm 139:16 · World English Bible
“The LORD God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Genesis 2:7 · World English Bible
“Know that the LORD, he is God. It is he who has made us, and we are his. We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.”
Psalm 100:3 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Psalm 139

Psalm 139: Search me, God

Psalm 139 opens, "LORD, you have searched me, and you know me" (139:1), and ends asking for the same two verbs: "Search me, God, and know my heart" (139:23). Its woven (139:15) is the verb Exodus uses for the embroiderer, and its word for thoughts comes only twice in the Hebrew Bible: my thoughts (139:2) and your thoughts (139:17).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions