Psalms 139:13
in Psalms 139For You formed my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
For thou didst form my inward parts: Thou didst cover me in my mother’s womb.
KJV
For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
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This verse in Psalms 139
Commentary
9 notes on this verseA commentator
Ambrose of MilanInterrogation of Job and David, Book 2, Chapter 5 · Written before 397.
Therefore the Lord supported us when he fashioned us; he supports us also when he bids us to be born. Consequently, the just person says, "You have supported me from my mother's womb." Whose mother's? "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you." Those, whom the Lord forms, he also supports; he supports them even in their coming forth: "And before you came forth from your mother's womb, I sanctified you." He is our supporter, for he has supported us with his hands. He is called a supporter as the Creator of the human race.
This site's exposition
You formed my inmost being
on Psalms 139:13-14
The word behind the inmost being is kilyah, the kidneys, used of the organ and of the interior self it stands for. The next verb is sakak, to entwine, so the knitting the psalm names is weaving done inside the mother. The praise follows the making, fearfully and wonderfully made.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"For Thou, O Lord, hast possessed my reins" [Psalm 139:13]. The Possessor is within; He occupies not only the heart, but also the reins; not only the thoughts, but also the delights: He then possesses that whence I should feel delight at any light in this world: He occupies my reins: I know not delight, save from the inward light of His Wisdom. What then? Do you not delight that your affairs are very prosperous, times fortunate to you? Do you not delight in honour, in riches, in your family? "I do not," says he. Wherefore? Because "You have possessed my reins, O Lord; You have taken me up from my mother's womb." While I was in my mother's womb, I did not regard with indifference the darkness of that night and the light of that night....Now, having been taken up from the womb of that our mother, we look on them with indifference, and say, "As is His darkness, so is also His light." Neither does earthly prosperity make us happy, nor earthly adversity wretched. We must maintain righteousness, love faith, hope in God, love God, love our neighbours also. After these toils we shall have unfailing light, day without setting. Fleeting is all the light and darkness of this night.
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
But it was God himself that thus covered us, and therefore he can, when he pleases, discover us; when he hid us from all the world he did not intend to hide us from himself. Concerning the formation of man, of each of us, 1. The glory of it is here given to God, entirely to him; for it is he that has made us and not we ourselves.
For thou hast possessed my reins,....
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou art the owner of my inmost parts and passions: not the indweller and observer only, but the acknowledged lord and possessor of my most secret self.
For thou hast possessed my reins. Thou art the owner of my inmost parts and passions: not the indweller and observer only, but the acknowledged lord and possessor of my most secret self. The word "reins" signifies the kidneys, which by the Hebrews were supposed to be the seat of the desires and longings; but perhaps it indicates here the most hidden and vital portion of the man; this God doth not only inspect, and visit, but it is his own; he is as much at home there as a landlord on his own estate, or a proprietor in his own house. Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb. There I lay hidden—covered by thee. Before I could know thee, or aught else, thou hadst a care for me, and didst hide me away as a treasure till thou shouldest see fit to bring me to the light. Thus the Psalmist describes the intimacy which God had with him. In his most secret part—his reins, and in his most secret condition—yet unborn, he was under the control and guardianship of God.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
Thou hast possessed my reins - As the Hebrews believed that the reins were the first part of the human fetus that is formed, it may here mean, thou hast laid the foundation of my being.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
For thou hast possessed my reins - The word here rendered “possessed” means properly to “set upright,” to “erect,” and hence, the derivative of the verb is applied to a cane or reed, as being erect. Then the word means to found, to create, Gen 14:19, Gen 14:22 - as the heavens and the earth; and then, to get, to gain, to purchase, etc. Here the word seems to be used in its original sense, to make, create, etc. The idea is, not as in our translation, that God “possessed” or “owned” them but that he had “made” them, and that, “therefore,” he knew all about them. The word “reins” means literally the “kidneys;” and then, it comes to denote the inward part, the mind, the soul, the seat of the desires, affections, and passions. Jer 11:20. See Psa 7:9, note; Job 19:27, note. The meaning here is, that God had made him; that the innermost recesses of his being had been constituted as they are by God; and that, “therefore,” he must be able to see all that there is in the very depths of the soul, however it may be hidden from the eye of man. Thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb - The word here rendered “cover” means properly to interweave; to weave; to knit together, and the literal translation would be, “Thou hast “woven” me in my mother’s womb, meaning that God had put his parts together, as one who weaves cloth, or who makes a basket. So it is rendered by DeWette and by Gesenius (Lexicon). The original word has, however, also the idea of protecting, as in a booth or hut, woven or knit together - to wit, of boughs and branches. The former signification best suits the connection; and then the sense would be, that as God had made him - as he had formed his members, and united them in a bodily frame and form before he was born - he must be able to understand all his thoughts and feelings. As he was not concealed from God before he saw the light, so he could not be anywhere.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
Even there I have no asylum, for no darkness will obscure [anything] from You.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 7 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| כִּֽי־ | ki- | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| אַ֭תָּה | ʾatah | you | H859 → | 1094 times |
| קָנִ֣יתָ | kanita | you created | H7069 → | 84 times |
| כִלְיֹתָ֑י | khilyotai | kidneys my | H3629 → | 31 times |
| תְּ֝סֻכֵּ֗נִי | tesukeni | you wove together me | H5526 → | 24 times |
| בְּבֶ֣טֶן | beveten | in [the] womb of | H990 → | 72 times |
| אִמִּֽי׃ | ʾimi | mother my | H517 → | 220 times |
כִּֽי־for
ki-H3588 →4482 times
אַ֭תָּהyou
ʾatahH859 →1094 times
קָנִ֣יתָyou created
kanitaH7069 →84 times
כִלְיֹתָ֑יkidneys my
khilyotaiH3629 →31 times
תְּ֝סֻכֵּ֗נִיyou wove together me
tesukeniH5526 →24 times
בְּבֶ֣טֶןin [the] womb of
bevetenH990 →72 times
אִמִּֽי׃mother my
ʾimiH517 →220 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 44:2This is the word of the LORD, your Maker, who formed you from the womb and who will help you: “Do not be afraid, O Jacob My servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 1:5
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
- Isaiah 43:1
Now this is what the LORD says— He who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your…
- Isaiah 46:3–4
“Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been sustained from the womb, carried along since birth.
- Isaiah 44:24
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: “I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who by Myself spread out the earth,
- Isaiah 43:7
everyone called by My name and created for My glory, whom I have indeed formed and made.”
- Jeremiah 1:5
Through
Jeremiah 1:5“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
it leads to
- Psalms 139:16
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be.
- Isaiah 49:1
Listen to Me, O islands; pay attention, O distant peoples: The LORD called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me.
- Galatians 1:15–16
But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased
- Psalms 139:16
Where this verse is studied
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About Psalms
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, Interrogation of Job and David, Book 2, Chapter 5; Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 139; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 7; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.