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Read the Bible

New King James Version

Psalms 139:15

My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - God Continued...;   Physiology;   Thompson Chain Reference - Mysteries of Nature;   Nature's;   The Topic Concordance - Creation;   God;   Man;   Name;   Predestination;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Lower Parts of the Earth;   Psalms, the Book of;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Body;   Providence of God;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Omnipresence of God;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - High Priest;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Depths;   Frame;   Knowledge;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Ethics;   Medicine;   Nature;   Psalms;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Mary;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Psalms the book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Curdle;   Curious;   Foreknow;   Frame;   Omnipresence;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Embroidery;   God;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for May 20;  

Parallel Translations

English Standard Version
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Geneva Bible (1587)
My bones are not hid from thee, though I was made in a secret place, and facioned beneath in the earth.
Christian Standard Bible®
My bones were not hidden from youwhen I was made in secret,when I was formed in the depths of the earth.
Hebrew Names Version
My frame wasn't hidden from you, When I was made in secret, Woven together in the depths of the eretz.
Easy-to-Read Version
You could see my bones grow as my body took shape, hidden in my mother's womb.
Amplified Bible
My frame was not hidden from You, When I was being formed in secret, And intricately and skillfully formed [as if embroidered with many colors] in the depths of the earth.
American Standard Version
My frame was not hidden from thee, When I was made in secret, And curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Contemporary English Version
Nothing about me is hidden from you! I was secretly woven together deep in the earth below,
Complete Jewish Bible
My bones were not hidden from you when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
My frame was not hidden from Thee,
King James Version (1611)
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret: and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
My bones, which thou madest in secret were not hidden from thee, nor my substance, in the lowest parts of the earth.
English Revised Version
My frame was not hidden from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Berean Standard Bible
My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Lexham English Bible
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was created secretly, and intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Literal Translation
My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret; when I was woven in the depths of the earth.
New Century Version
You saw my bones being formed as I took shape in my mother's body. When I was put together there,
New English Translation
my bones were not hidden from you, when I was made in secret and sewed together in the depths of the earth.
New Living Translation
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
New Life Bible
My bones were not hidden from You when I was made in secret and put together with care in the deep part of the earth.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
My substance was not hid from thee, - when I was made in secret, when I was skilfully figured in the lower parts of the earth.
Douay-Rheims Bible
(138-15) My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.
George Lamsa Translation
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and marvellously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Good News Translation
When my bones were being formed, carefully put together in my mother's womb, when I was growing there in secret, you knew that I was there—
New American Standard Bible
My frame was not hidden from You When I was made in secret, And skillfully formed in the depths of the earth;
King James Version
My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
The substaunce of my [body] was not hyd from thee: when I was made in secrete and fashioned with distinct members in my mothers wombe.
New Revised Standard
My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Darby Translation
My bones were not hidden from thee when I was made in secret, curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Mi boon, which thou madist in priuete, is not hyd fro thee; and my substaunce in the lower partis of erthe.
Young's Literal Translation
My substance was not hid from Thee, When I was made in secret, Curiously wrought in the lower part of earth.
World English Bible
My frame wasn't hidden from you, When I was made in secret, Woven together in the depths of the earth.
Revised Standard Version
my frame was not hidden from thee, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.
Update Bible Version
My frame was not hidden from you, When I was made in secret, [And] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Webster's Bible Translation
My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret, [and] curiously formed in the lowest parts of the earth.
Bible in Basic English
My frame was not unseen by you when I was made secretly, and strangely formed in the lowest parts of the earth.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Thine eyes se myne vnparfitnesse, they stonde all writte i thy boke:
New American Standard Bible (1995)
My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;
Legacy Standard Bible
My frame was not hidden from You,When I was made in secret,And intricately woven in the depths of the earth;

Contextual Overview

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? 8 If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, 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 fall [fn] on me,"Even the night shall be light about me; 12 Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You. 13 For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother's womb. 14 I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; [fn] Marvelous are Your works,And that my soul knows very well. 15 My frame was not hidden from You, When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

substance: or, strength, or body

when I: Psalms 139:13, Job 10:9-11, Exodus 11:5

in the lowest: Psalms 63:9, Ephesians 4:9

Reciprocal: Genesis 2:7 - formed man Psalms 22:9 - that took Psalms 71:6 - thou art Ecclesiastes 11:5 - nor Ephesians 4:16 - fitly Colossians 2:19 - by

Gill's Notes on the Bible

My substance was not hid from thee when I was made in secret,.... Or "my bone" n; everyone of his bones, which are the substantial parts of the body, the strength of it; and so some render it "my strength" o; those, though covered with skin and flesh yet, being done by the Lord himself, were not hid from him; nor the manner of their production and growth, which being done in secret is a secret to men; for they know not how the bones grow in the womb of her that is with child, Ecclesiastes 11:5; but God does;

[and] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth; or formed in my mother's womb, as the Targum, and so Jarchi, like a curious piece of needlework or embroidery, as the word p signifies; and such is the contexture of the human body, and so nicely and curiously are all its parts put together, bones, muscles, arteries, veins, nerves, and fibres, as exceed the most curious piece of needlework, or the finest embroidery that ever was made by the hands of men; and all this done in the dark shop of nature, in the "ovarium", where there is no more light to work by than in the lowest parts of the earth. The same phrase is used of Christ's descent into this world, into the womb of the virgin, where his human nature was curiously wrought by the finger of the blessed Spirit, Ephesians 4:9.

n עצמי "os meum", V. L. Vatablus, Gejerus, "ossa mea", Piscator; "apparatio ossium meorum", Cocceius. o "Robur meum", Tigurine version; "vis mea", Junius Tremellius. p רקמתי "velut opere phrygio effingerer", Tigurine version "velut acupictur sum", Grotius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My substance was not hid from thee - Thou didst see it; thou didst understand it altogether, when it was hidden from the eyes of man. The word “substance” is rendered in the margin, “strength” or “body.” The Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac, the Arabic, and Luther render it, “my bone,” or “my bones.” The word properly means strength, and then anything strong. Another form of the word, with different pointing in the Hebrew, means a bone, so called from its strength. The allusion here is to the bodily frame, considered as strong, or as that which has strength. Whatever there was that entered into and constituted the vigor of his frame, the psalmist says, was seen and known by God, even in its commencement, and when most feeble. Its capability to become strong - feeble as it then was - could not even at that time be concealed or hidden from the view of God.

When I was made in secret - In the womb; or, hidden from the eye of man. Even then thine eye saw me, and saw the wondrous process by which my members were formed.

And curiously wrought. - Literally, “embroidered.” The Hebrew word - רקם râqam - means to deck with color, to variegate. Hence, it means to variegate a garment; to weave with threads of various colors. With us the idea of embroidering is that of working various colors on a cloth by a needle. The Hebrew word, however, properly refers to the act of “weaving in” various threads - as now in weaving carpets. The reference here is to the various and complicated tissues of the human frame - the tendons, nerves, veins, arteries, muscles, “as if” they had been woven, or as they appear to be curiously interweaved. No work of tapestry can be compared with this; no art of man could “weave” together such a variety of most tender and delicate fibres and tissues as those which go to make up the human frame, even if they were made ready to his hand: and who but God could “make” them? The comparison is a most beautiful one; and it will be admired the more, the more man understands the structure of his own frame.

In the lowest parts of the earth - Wrought in a place as dark, as obscure, and as much beyond the power of human observation as though it had been done low down beneath the ground where no eye of man can penetrate. Compare the notes at Job 28:7-8.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 139:15. My substance was not hid from thee — עצמי atsmi, my bones or skeleton.

Curiously wrought — רקמתי rukkamti, embroidered, made of needlework. These two words, says Bishop Horsley, describe the two principal parts of which the human body is composed; the bony skeleton, the foundation of the whole; and the external covering of muscular flesh, tendons, veins, arteries, nerves, and skin; a curious web of fibres. On this passage Bishop Lowth has some excellent observations: "In that most perfect hymn, where the immensity of the omnipresent Deity, and the admirable wisdom of the Divine Artificer in framing the human body, are celebrated, the poet uses a remarkable metaphor, drawn from the nicest tapestry work: -

When I was formed in secret;

When I was wrought, as with a needle,

in the lowest parts of the earth.


"He who remarks this, (but the man who consults Versions only will hardly remark it,) and at the same time reflects upon the wonderful composition of the human body, the various implication of veins, arteries, fibres, membranes, and the 'inexplicable texture' of the whole frame; will immediately understand the beauty and elegance of this most apt translation. But he will not attain the whole force and dignity, unless he also considers that the most artful embroidery with the needle was dedicated by the Hebrews to the service of the sanctuary; and that the proper and singular use of their work was, by the immediate prescript of the Divine law, applied in a certain part of the high priest's dress, and in the curtains of the tabernacle, Exodus 28:39; Exodus 26:36; Exodus 27:16; and compare Ezekiel 16:10; Ezekiel 13:18. So that the psalmist may well be supposed to have compared the wisdom of the Divine Artificer particularly with that specimen of human art, whose dignity was through religion the highest, and whose elegance (Exodus 35:30-35) was so exquisite, that the sacred writer seems to attribute it to a Divine inspiration."

In the lowest parts of the earth. — The womb of the mother, thus expressed by way of delicacy.


 
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