Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 139:16
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all [my members] were written, [which] in continuance were fashioned, when [as yet there was] none of them.
16. my substance, yet being unperfect ] R.V. mine unperfect substance. The word ( glem) is a different one from that in Psa 139:15, and denotes the undeveloped embryo. Cp. Aram, glm, an unfinished vessel.
all my members] Lit. all of them, which A.V. and R.V. interpret to mean all the members into which the embryo was to develop. But it is better (cp. R.V. marg.) to regard the pronoun as anticipatory, and to render,
And in thy book were all of them written,
Even days which were formed,
When as yet there was none of them.
Each day of his life with all its history was pre-determined by the Creator and recorded in His book, before one of them actually was in existence: a clear expression of the truth that there is an ideal plan of life providentially marked out for every individual. (Eph 2:10.)
The Q’r or traditional reading of the Hebrew text, reads l, ‘for it’ instead of l’ ‘not’ (see note on Psa 100:3), giving the sense, and for it there was one among them: one of them was pre-ordained as ‘its day,’ the day of its birth. Cp. ‘his day,’ Job 3:1.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect – This whole verse is very obscure, but the idea in this expression clearly is, Before I had shape or form thou didst see what I was to be. The single word in the original translated my substance, yet being unperfect, is golem. It occurs only in this place, though the verb – galam – is found in 2Ki 2:8, where it is used in reference to the mantle of Elijah: And Elijah took his mantle, and wrapped it together, etc. That is, he rolled it up, or he folded it. The noun, then, means that which is rolled or wrapped together; that which is folded up, and hence, is applicable to anything folded up or undeveloped; and would thus most aptly denote the embryo, or the foetus, where all the members of the body are as yet folded up, or undeveloped; that is, before they have assumed their distinct form and proportions. This is undoubtedly the idea here. Before the embryo had any such form that its future size, shape, or proportions could be marked by the eye of man, it was clearly and distinctly known by God.
And in thy book – Where thou recordest all things. Perhaps the allusion here would be to the book of an architect or draftsman, who, before his work is begun, draws his plan, or sketches it for the direction of the workmen.
All my members were written – The words my members are not in the original. The Hebrew is, as in the margin, all of them. The reference may be, not to the members of his body, but to his days (see the margin on the succeeding phrase) – and then the sense would be, all my days, or all the periods of my life, were delineated in thy book. That is, When my substance – my form – was not yet developed, when yet an embryo, and when nothing could be determined from that by the eye of man as to what I was to be, all the future was known to God, and was written down – just what should be my form and vigor; how long I should live; what I should be; what would be the events of my life.
Which in continuance were fashioned – Margin, What days they should be fashioned. Literally, Days should be formed. DeWette renders this, The days were determined before any one of them was. There is nothing in the Hebrew to correspond with the phrase in continuance. The simple idea is, The days of my life were determined on, the whole matter was fixed and settled, not by anything seen in the embryo, but before there was any form – before there were any means of judging from what I then was to what I would be – all was seen and arranged in the divine mind.
When as yet there was none of them – literally, And not one among them. Before there was one of them in actual existence. Not one development had yet occurred from which it could be inferred what the rest would be. The entire knowledge on the subject must have been based on Omniscience.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 16. Thine eyes did see my substance] golmi, my embryo state-my yet indistinct mass, when all was wrapped up together, before it was gradually unfolded into the lineaments of man. “Some think,” says Dr. Dodd, “that the allusion to embroidery is still carried on. As the embroiderer has still his work, pattern, or carton, before him, to which he always recurs; so, by a method as exact, revere all my members in continuance fashioned, i.e., from the rude embryo or mass they daily received some degree of figuration; as from the rude skeins of variously coloured silk or worsted, under the artificer’s hands, there at length arises an unexpected beauty, and an accurate harmony of colours and proportions.”
And in thy book all my members were written] “All those members lay open before God’s eyes; they were discerned by him as clearly as if the plan of them had been drawn in a book, even to the least figuration of the body of the child in the womb.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Yet being unperfect; when I was a mere embryo, a rude and shapeless lump, when I was first conceived.
In thy book; in thy counsel and providence, by which thou didst contrive and effect this great work, and all the parts of it, according to that model which thou hadst appointed. This is a metaphor taken from workmen, who when they are to make some curious structure, they first draw a rude draught or delineation of it, by which they govern themselves in the building of it.
All my members; all the several parts of my substance.
When in continuance were fashioned; which in due time and by degrees were formed into bones, fleshy sinews, &c. Or, as it is in the margin, what days (and the days in which) they were or should be fashioned; by what steps, in what order and time, each part of the body should receive its proper form. This also was written or appointed by God.
When as yet there was none of them, Heb. and not one of them; understand either yet was, as it is in our translation; or, was lacking, to wit, in thy book. All my parts without exception were written by thee. But then these words are not to bc joined with those immediately foregoing, but with the former, and the words are to be read thus, in thy book all my members were written, (which in continuance were fashioned,) when as yet, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect,…. The word q for “substance” signifies a bottom of yarn wound up, or any rude or unformed lump; and designs that conglomerated mass of matter separated in the womb, containing all the essentials of the human frame, but not yet distinguished or reduced into any form or order; yet, even when in this state, the eyes of the Lord see it and all its parts distinctly;
and in thy book all [my members] were written: [which] in continuance were fashioned, when [as yet there was] none of them; in the book of God’s eternal mind, and designs, the plan of the human body was drawn, all the parts of it described, and their form, places, and uses fixed, even when as yet not one of them was in actual being; but in due time they are all exactly formed and fashioned according to the model of them in the mind of God; who has as perfect knowledge of them beforehand as if they were written down in a book before him, Or “in thy book are written all [of them], what days they should be fashioned”; not only each of the members of the body were put down in this book, but each of the days in which they should be formed and come into order: “when” as yet there was “none of them”; none of those days, before they took place, even before all time; the Targum is,
“in the book of thy memory all my days are written, in the day the world was created, from the beginning that all creatures were created.”
q “informe meum”, Montanus; “glomus meam”, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
16. Thine eyes beheld my shapelessness, etc. The embryo, when first conceived in the womb, has no form; and David speaks of God’s having known him when he was yet a shapeless mass, τὸ κύημα , as the Greeks term it; for τὸ εμβρυον is the name given to the foetus from the time of conception to birth inclusive. The argument is from the greater’ to the less. If he was known to God before he had grown to certain definite shape, much less could he now elude his observation. He adds, that all things were written in his book; that is, the whole method of his formation was well known to God. The term book is a figure taken from the practice common amongst men of helping their memory by means of books and commentaries. Whatever is an object of God’s knowledge he is said to have registered in writing, for he needs no helps to memory. Interpreters are not agreed as to the second clause. Some read ימים, yamim, in the nominative case, when days were made; the sense being, according to them — All my bones were written in thy book, O God! from the beginning of the world, when days were first formed by thee, and when as yet none of them actually existed. The other is the more natural meaning, That the different parts of the human body are formed in a succession of time; for in the first germ there is no arrangement of parts, or proportion of members, but it is developed, and takes its peculiar form progressively. (216) There is another point on which interpreters differ. As in the particle לא, lo, the א, aleph, is often interchangeable with ו vau; some read לו , to him, and others לא not. According to the first reading, the sense is, that though the body is formed progressively, it was always one and the same in God’s book, who is not dependent upon time for the execution of his work. A sufficiently good meaning, however, can be got by adhering’ without change to the negative particle, namely, that though the members were formed in the course of days, or gradually, none of them had existed; no order or distinctness of parts having been there at first, but a formless substance. And thus our admiration is directed to the providence of God in gradually giving’ shape and beauty to a confused mass. (217)
(216) “ They (my members) have been daily formed, or forming. They were not formed at once, but gradually; each day increasing in strength and size. This expression is probably parenthetical, so that the last words of the verse will refer to the writing of those things previously mentioned in God’s register.” — Phillips.
(217) “The meaning is,” says Warner, “there was a time when none of those curious parts, of which my form consists, existed. The germ of them all was planted by thee in the first instance; and gradually matured, by thy power, wisdom, and goodness, into that wonderful piece of mechanism which the human form exhibits.” Phillips gives a different turn to the clause: “ And not one of them, or among them, was omitted. Not one of the particulars concerning my formation has been left out of thy record.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(16) This difficult verse, rendered word for word, gives
My ftus (literally, rolled) saw thine eyes,
And on thy book all of them were written;
Days were formed, and not (or, as the Hebrew margin, to him) one in them.
The reading substance yet being imperfect of the Authorised Version follows the LXX. and Vulg., and (Symmachus, shapeless thing) periphrastically denotes the embryo, which the Hebrew wordliterally, rolled, or wrapped, used in 2Ki. 2:8, of a mantle, in Eze. 27:24, bales (Authorised Version, clothes; margin, foldings)almost scientifically describes. (Comp. Job. 10:8-12; 2Ma. 7:22.)
Others take it of the ball of the threads of destiny; but this is not a Hebrew conception. By inserting the word members, the Authorised Version suggests a possible, but not a probable, interpretation. The Hebrew language likes to use a pronoun before the word to which it refers has occurred (see Note, Psa. 68:14); and, in spite of the accents, we must refer all of them to days (Authorised Version, in continuance).
Thine eyes beheld my embryo,
And in thy book were written
All the days, the days
Which were being formed,
When as yet there were none of them.
But a much more satisfactory sense is obtained by adopting one slight change and following Symmachus in the last line
The days which are all reckoned, and not one of them is wanting.
All the ancient versions make that which is written in Gods book either the days of life, or men born in the course of these days, each coming into being according to the Divine will.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 139:16. Thine eyes did see my substance, &c. Or, Thine eyes did see my rude mass; and on thy books were all written, as they were daily fashioned, when, &c. Before any of his limbs were in being, they were all written down, he says, in God’s book, and the very days upon which they were afterwards actually formed. Some think that the allusion to embroidery is here carried on. “As the embroiderer hath still his book or pattern before him, to which he always recurs; so, by a method as exact, were all my members in continuance fashioned; i.e. from the rude embryo, or mass, they daily received some degree of figuration, as, from the rude skeins of silk under the artificer’s hands, there at length arises an unexpected beauty, and an accurate harmony of colours and proportions: all those members lay open before God’s eyes, they were discerned by him as clearly as if the plan of them had been drawn in a book, even to the least figuration of the body of the child.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Psa 139:16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all [my members] were written, [which] in continuance were fashioned, when [as yet there was] none of them.
Ver. 16. Thine eyes did see my subtsance ] Galmi; est semen coagulatum ante formationem membrorum, saith Kimchi; when I was but an embryo, or hardly so much. Disponit Deus membra culicis, et pulicis, saith Austin; how much more of man? The word signifieth my wound up, or unwrought up, mass.
And in thy book all my members were written
Which in continuance
When as yet there was none of them
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
substance . . . unperfect = unfinished substance. Not the same word as in Psa 139:15. One word in Hebrew.
unperfect. Not imperfect.
Which in continuance = the days which were ordered, or in which they should be fashioned.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
in thy book: Psa 56:8, Mal 3:16, Rev 20:12
all my members: Heb. all of them
which in continuance were fashioned: or, what days they should be fashioned
Reciprocal: Exo 32:32 – blot me Psa 22:9 – that took Psa 71:6 – thou art Eph 4:16 – fitly Col 2:19 – by
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 139:16. Thine eyes did see my substance Hebrews , my rude mass, as Dr. Waterland renders the word: massa rudis et intricata adhuc, says Buxtorf, neque in veram formam evoluta, a mass, yet rude and entangled, and not unfolded into proper form. When the matter, out of which I was made, was an unshapen embryo, without any form, it was visible to thee how every part, however minute, would be wrought; and in thy book all my members were written Before any of them were in being they lay open before thy eyes, and were discerned by thee as clearly as if the plan of them had been drawn in a book. Thy eternal wisdom formed the plan, and according to that, thy almighty power raised the structure. The allusion to the needlework seems to be still carried on. As the embroiderer hath his book or pattern before him, to which he always recurs; so by a method as exact were all my members in continuance fashioned; and as from the rude skeins of silk, under the artificers hands, there at length arises an unexpected beauty, and an accurate harmony of colours and proportions; so, by the skill of the divine workman, is a shapeless mass wrought into the most curious texture of parts, most skilfully interwoven and connected with each other, until it becomes a body harmoniously diversified with all the limbs and lineaments of a man, not one of which at first appeared, any more than the figures were to be seen in the ball of silk. But then, (which is the chief thing here insisted on by the psalmist,)
whereas the human artificer must have the clearest light, whereby to accomplish his task, the divine work-master seeth in secret, and effecteth all his wonders within the dark and narrow confines of the womb. Horne.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
139:16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; {l} and in thy book all [my members] were written, [which] in continuance were fashioned, when [as yet there was] none of them.
(l) Seeing that you knew me before I was composed of either flesh or bone, much more now must you know me when you have fashioned me.