You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Parallel Translations
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You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
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Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
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Thou measurest my going about and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (17)
Passages linked to Psalms 139:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jeremiah 23:24 Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I can’t see him?” says Yahweh. “Don’t I fill heaven and earth?” says Yahweh.
- Job 31:4 Doesn’t he see my ways, and count all my steps?
- Genesis 28:10-17 Jacob went out from Beersheba, and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place, and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of the place, and put it under his head, and lay down in that place to sleep. He dreamed and saw a stairway set upon the earth, and its top reached to heaven. Behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. Behold, Yahweh stood above it, and said, “I am Yahweh, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. I will give the land you lie on to you and to your offspring. Your offspring will be as the dust of the earth, and you will spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south. In you and in your offspring, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Behold, I am with you, and will keep you, wherever you go, and will bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken of to you.” Jacob awakened out of his sleep, and he said, “Surely Yahweh is in this place, and I didn’t know it.” He was afraid, and said, “How awesome this place is! This is none other than God’s house, and this is the gate of heaven.”
- Proverbs 5:20-21 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another? For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
- 2 Samuel 11:27 When the mourning was past, David sent and took her home to his house, and she became his wife, and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased Yahweh.
- 2 Samuel 12:9-12 Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken Uriah the Hittite’s wife to be your wife.’ “This is what Yahweh says: ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he will lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did this secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.’ ”
- Psalms 121:3-8 He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Yahweh is your keeper. Yahweh is your shade on your right hand. The sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. Yahweh will keep you from all evil. He will keep your soul. Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.
- Psalms 139:18 If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.
- Ecclesiastes 12:14 For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.
- Job 14:16-17 But now you count my steps. Don’t you watch over my sin? My disobedience is sealed up in a bag. You fasten up my iniquity.
- Isaiah 29:15 Woe to those who deeply hide their counsel from Yahweh, and whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us?” and “Who knows us?”
- John 6:70-71 Jesus answered them, “Didn’t I choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Now he spoke of Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, for it was he who would betray him, being one of the twelve.
- Acts 5:3-4 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the price of the land? While you kept it, didn’t it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn’t it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven’t lied to men, but to God.”
- John 13:2 During supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him,
- John 13:21 When Jesus had said this, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, “Most certainly I tell you that one of you will betray me.”
- 2 Samuel 8:14 He put garrisons in Edom. Throughout all Edom, he put garrisons, and all the Edomites became servants to David. Yahweh gave victory to David wherever he went.
- 2 Samuel 11:2-5 At evening, David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to look at. David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, Uriah the Hittite’s wife?” David sent messengers, and took her; and she came in to him, and he lay with her (for she was purified from her uncleanness); and she returned to her house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, and said, “I am with child.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (15 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain So that they are evidently known to thee.
So that they are evidently known to thee.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 139:3 Thou compassest my path and my lying…
Psa 139:3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted [with] all my ways.
Ver. 3. Thou compassest my path] Or, Thou winnowest; if there be any chaff or trash, thou wilt make it fly; thou art at both ends of all my works and enterprises, both by day and by night, Perdius et pernox. Neither art thou only at my fingers’ ends, but at my tongue’s end too.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Thou compassest my path; thou watchest me on every…
Thou compassest my path; thou watchest me on every side, and therefore discernest every step which I take. It is a metaphor either from huntsmen watching all the motions and lurking-places of wild beasts, that they may catch them; or from soldiers besieging their enemies in a city, and setting watches round about them.
My lying down; me, when I lie down in my bed, where men oft contrive what they execute in the day time.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For there is not a word in my tongue,....…
For there is not a word in my tongue,.... Expressed by it or upon it, just ready to be spoken; or, as the Targum,
"when there is no word in my tongue:''
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so Aben Ezra,
"before it was perfect in my tongue:''
before it is formed there; while it is in the mind, and not expressed, and even before that;
but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether; the whole of it, from whence it springs; the reason of it, what is designed, or the ends to be answered by it. The Lord knows the good words of his people, which they speak to him in prayer, even before and while they are speaking them; and what they say to one another in private conversation, Isa 65:24. See an instance of words known by Christ before spoken, in Luk 19:31.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Compassest - Thou discernest every step I take. It…
Compassest - Thou discernest every step I take. It is a metaphor from soldiers besieging their enemies, and setting watches round about them.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. Thou compassest my path] זרית zeritha thou…
Verse 3. Thou compassest my path] זרית zeritha thou dost winnow, ventilate, or sift my path; and my lying down, רבעי 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.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Thou compassest my path ... - Margin, “winnowest.” The…
Thou compassest my path ... - Margin, “winnowest.” The Hebrew word - זרה zârâh - means properly “to scatter,” to cast loosely about - as the wind does dust; and then, to winnow - to wit, by throwing grain, when it is thrashed, up to the wind: Isa 30:24; Jer 4:11; Rth 3:2. Then it means “to winnow out;” that is, to winnow out all the chaff, and to leave all the grain - to save all that is valuable. So here it means that God, as it were, “sifted” him. Compare Isa 30:28; Amo 9:9; Luk 22:31. He scattered all that was chaff, or all that was valueless, and saw what there was that was real and substantial. When it is said that he did this in his “path and his lying down,” it is meant that he did it in every way; altogether; entirely.
And art acquainted with all my ways - All the paths that I tread; the whole course of my life. All that I do, in all places and at all times, is fully known to thee.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Compassest—That is, to watch and guard. The word…
3. Compassest—That is, to watch and guard. The word sometimes means to scatter by winnowing, as Jer_51:2. Thou winnowest my path, would denote a sifting out of evil, like chaff, that the way might be pure and safe; or, thou triest my path.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. Thou compassest] Rather, Thou hast examined, lit. thou…
3. Thou compassest] Rather, Thou hast examined, lit. thou hast winnowed, or sifted, subjecting my life to the closest and most discriminating investigation.
my path] Rather, my walking, contrasted with my lying down. Cp. Pro_6:22.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) Compassest.—There is some obscurity about this word. The…
(3) Compassest.—There is some obscurity about this word. The Hebrew verb means first to scatter, and is used of throwing corn about to winnow it (Isa_30:24; Jer_4:11; Rth_3:2). Hence by an easy metaphor it may mean to sift or search out. The LXX. and Theodotion, followed by the Vulg., have traced, investigated. Jerome has winnowed. The Authorised Version rendering appears to come from a mistaken etymology.
A most plausible suggestion connects the verb with zûr, to lodge, which makes a perfect parallelism with the verb to dwell, in the next clause. Literally,
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About my path and bed thou art a guest,
In all my ways thou dwellest;
i.e., art as familiar with all my life as one inhabiting the same house could be.
My path.—Literally, my going.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Thou compassest (rather, siftest) my path and my lying…
Thou compassest (rather, siftest) my path and my lying down; literally, my path and my couch the time of my activity and the time of my rest. And art acquainted with all my ways. (comp. Psa_119:168, "All my ways are before thee
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 3. Thou compassest my path and my lying…
Ver. 3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down. My path and my pallet, my running and my resting, are alike within the circle of thine observation. Thou dost surround me even as the air continually surrounds all creatures that live. I am shut up within the wall of thy being; I am encircled within the bounds of thy knowledge. Waking or sleeping I am still observed of thee. I may leave thy path, but you never leave mine. I may sleep and forget thee, but thou dost never slumber, nor fall into oblivion concerning thy creature. The original signifies not only surrounding, but winnowing and sifting. The Lord judges our active life and our quiet life; he discriminates our action and our repose, and marks that in them which is good and also that which is evil. There is chaff in all our wheat, and the Lord divides them with unerring precision.
And art acquainted with all my ways. Thou art familiar with all I do; nothing is concealed from thee, nor surprising to thee, nor misunderstood by thee. Our paths may be habitual or accidental, open or secret, but with them all the Most Holy One is well acquainted. This should fill us with awe, so that we sin not; with courage, so that we fear not; with delight, so that we mourn not.
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Ver. 3. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, etc. The words that I have read unto you, seem to be a metaphor, taken from soldiers surrounding the ways with an ambush, or placing scouts and spies in every corner, to discover the enemy in his march; "Thou compassest my path": thou hast (as it were) thy spies over me, wheresoever I go. By "path" is meant the outward actions and carriage of his ordinary conversation. By "lying down" is signified to us the private and close actions of his life; such as were attended only by darkness and solitude. In Ps 36:4, it is said of the wicked that "he deviseth mischief upon his bed", to denote not only his perverse diligence, but also his secrecy in it: and God is said to "hide his children in the secret of his pavilion", so that these places of rest and lying down are designed for secrecy and withdrawing. When a man retires into his chamber, he does in a manner, for a while, shut himself out of the world. And that this is the fine sense of that expression of lying down appears from the next words, "Thou art acquainted with all my ways"; where he collects in one word what he had before said in two; or, it may come in by way of entrance and deduction, from the former. As if he should say, Thou knowest what I do in my ordinary converse with men, and also how I behave myself when I am retired from them; therefore thou knowest all my actions, since a man's actions may be reduced either to his public or private deportment. By the other expression of "my ways" is here meant the total of a man's behaviour before God, whether in thoughts, words, or deeds, as is manifest by comparing this with other verses. Robert South.
Ver. 3. Thou compassest my path. This is a metaphor either from huntsmen watching all the motions and lurking places of wild beasts, that they may catch them; or from soldiers besieging their enemies in a city, and setting round about them. Matthew Pool.
Ver. 3. Thou compassest, or feignest, or wannest, my path; that is, discuss or try out to the utmost, even tracing the footsteps, as the Greek signifieth. Compare Job 31:4. Henry Ainsworth.
Ver. 3. Thou art acquainted with all my ways. God takes notice of every step we take, every right step, and every by step. He knows what rule we walk by, what end we walk toward, what company we walk with. Religious Tract Society's Commentary.
Ver. 3. Art acquainted, as by most familiar intercourse, as if thou hadst always lived with me Hebrew and thus become entirely familiar with my ways. Henry Cowles.
Ver. 3. The Psalmist mentions four modes of human existence; stationis, sessionis, itionis, cubationis; because man never stayeth long in one mood, but in every change the eyes of the Lord cease not to watch him. Geier.
Ver. 3. The encircling Presence, in our activities, meditations, secrecies, and movements.
Psalms 139:4*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and…
Psa_139:3
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
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God knows and takes strict and accurate notice of all our ways
This is so, because--
I. God rules and governs men. But this could not be without such knowledge. And so at times He governs mens secret projects.
1. By discovering them, making them known to others.
2. By preventing them.
3. By turning them to other ends than men purposed (Isa_7:7; Gen_45:5).
II. He gives laws to regulate them.
III. He will judge them.
1. He does so in this life where He often gives foretaste of the future (Deu_29:18),
2. In the day of judgment (Luk_12:2).
IV. He is omniscient and omnipresent (Pro_15:3; Heb_4:13). Then--
1. Presumptuous sin is atheism.
2. Let secret sinners be afraid.
Such are those who sin in thought and desire only. God judges such, for they are the roots of sin. Spiritual wickedness is worst wickedness. And they are the product of the man himself, as his actions sometimes are not. And there are secret sins not only thought, but acted, only concealed from men (2Sa_12:12; Hab_2:11; Gen_4:10). God will judge them.
3. Let sincere-hearted Christians be comforted. The same sun-rising and break of day that terrifies the robber is a comfort to the honest traveller. Thou that, art sincere, God sees that sincerity in thee that others cannot discern; perhaps thou canst not fully discern it thyself. And He will exalt thee. (R. South, D. D.)
The record of our lives: -
I. That record is complete.
II. That record may be presented to our condemnation. Men are making efforts to recover the secrets of anothers brain. It is hard to conceive what the possibility means, as suggested by the results of rapid photography in the vitascope. It is not position that is presented, but action; even the change of face with change of thought. It is the publication of a partial set of records. Who could risk the scrutiny of their whole lives with such publicity?
III. But that record can be blotted out. A photographer can remove the sensitive salts in a bath. The picture then has no existence and cannot be exhibited; But we cannot trust our forgetfulness to do this, nor mans charity. But God in mercy has provided a cleansing flood. (W. J. Gregory.)
Gods winnowing
The word in the Hebrew original for compassest is winnowest. This calls up before the mind an image which helps to illustrate the meaning of the verse in a most interesting manner. The mere compassing of our path by God is an elementary, commonplace truth which requires no argument or proof. It is a truism which loses very much the power of truth through our familiarity with it. But when we substitute the winnowing of our path by Gods dealings with us, we have not in that case a commonplace fact, but a most suggestive and instructive metaphor. Harvest operations in the East are all carried on in the open air, for the weather at that time of the year is uniformly fine. When the corn is reaped it is not piled into stocks, or gathered into barns, as with us, but threshed on the spot, on some piece of rising ground, beaten hard and smooth, and exposed to the wind. The sheaves are heaped on this spot, arranged in a circle, and over them are driven rude, heavy sledges of wood, having their under-surface stuck full of sharp pieces of hard basalt. Oxen are yoked to these sledges, and a man stands on them to increase their pressure, while another man drives the oxen round and round upon the sheaves until they are mashed to pieces, the straw being broken and crushed, and the grains of corn separated from it. When the grain is all threshed out in this manner, the heaps of mixed corn and broken straw are tossed up before the breeze with a shovel; and then the grain, being heaviest, falls straight down, and the broken straw and chaff, being lighter, is carried by the wind, and forms a heap a little farther on. This explanation will make perfectly clear the allusion of the psalmist: Thou compassest, or winnowest, my path. It refers to the oxen going round and round on the sheaves laid on the threshing-floor, in order to separate the corn from the straw and chaff. In like manner, the psalmist, by a bold figure, represents God going round and round our path by His dealings with us in providence and grace, in order to purify our nature, and to separate the good from the evil. God humbles Himself to do for us the work which the oxen do for the corn. We are valuable to Him as the corn is to the husbandman. How patiently do the oxen plod on hour after hour, going their constant round, treading down the corn until their task is accomplished. And so how patiently and unweariedly does God compass your path with His providences and gracious dealings, till He has fulfilled in you the good pleasures of His goodness, and prepared you for being presented faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. Life to every one is a common round of continual beginnings and endings. Each day is a little circle returning where it began. Our range is as narrow as that of the ox that treadeth out the corn among the heap of sheaves. And all this is apt to become monotonous and wearisome. Some are so consumed by ennui that life has lost all relish for them; and some have grown so tired of pacing the irksome daily round that they have put an end to it by violent means. But surely it gives a new zest to life if we realize that all this constant doing of the same things, this constant going round and round the same little circle of daily duties, is not a treadmill penance, a profitless labour like weaving ropes of sand, but is designed to bring out and educate to the utmost perfection of which we are capable all that is best and most enduring in us. And surely it heightens the interest immeasurably to be assured that God has not merely ordained this long ago as part of His great providential plan for the world, but that He is daily and hourly superintending the process of our discipline and education by His personal presence, compassing our path, going round with us in the circle of lifes toils and duties, and causing all our experiences, by His blessing, to work together for our good. He will not go round on your sheaves with His heavy dispensations oftener than is required to separate the chaff from the wheat; and you may be certain that not one grain of good in you will be destroyed, not one element of lasting benefit will be injured--only the chaff will be blown away and the straw removed. (H. Macmillan, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 my path and my lying down
my path and my lying down
Here "path" stands for one's behavior. "My path and my lying down" together represent everything about the psalmist. (See: Metaphor and Merism)
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before there is a word on my tongue
Here "word on the tongue" represents speech. AT: "before I say anything" (See: Metaphor)
Behind me and before me you surround me
This expression refers to God's presence everywhere.
place your hand upon me
This expression refers to guidance and help. AT: "you guide and help me" (See: Metaphor)
too much for me
"too much for me to understand"
it is too high, and I cannot reach it
Being high and out of reach is an expression, in this case, about some knowledge that human beings cannot have. AT: "it is too difficult to understand" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
word
hand
know
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 139:3-6 The Lord’s omniscience and omnipotence provide comfort to…
139:3-6 The Lord’s omniscience and omnipotence provide comfort to the godly, but they imprison the hearts of the wicked (2:3).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.