Psalm 139:16
New International Version
Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

New Living Translation
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

English Standard Version
Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Berean Standard Bible
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.

King James Bible
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.

New King James Version
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.

New American Standard Bible
Your eyes have seen my formless substance; And in Your book were written All the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

NASB 1995
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

NASB 1977
Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Thy book they were all written, The days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

Legacy Standard Bible
Your eyes have seen my unshaped substance; And in Your book all of them were written The days that were formed for me, When as yet there was not one of them.

Amplified Bible
Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; And in Your book were all written The days that were appointed for me, When as yet there was not one of them [even taking shape].

Christian Standard Bible
Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in your book and planned before a single one of them began.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Your eyes saw me when I was formless; all my days were written in Your book and planned before a single one of them began.

American Standard Version
Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance; And in thy book they were all written, Even the days that were ordained for me, When as yet there was none of them.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And my eyes saw my germination upon your Scriptures; all these things were written; behold, the days were cut short, and there was no person in them.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Thine eyes saw my unwrought substance, and all men shall be written in thy book; they shall be formed by day, though there should for a time be no one among them.

Contemporary English Version
but with your own eyes you saw my body being formed. Even before I was born, you had written in your book everything about me.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Thy eyes did see my imperfect being, and in thy book all shall be written: days shall be formed, and no one in them.

English Revised Version
Thine eyes did see mine unperfect substance, and in thy book were all my members written, which day by day were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Your eyes saw me when I was only a fetus. Every day [of my life] was recorded in your book before one of them had taken place.

Good News Translation
you saw me before I was born. The days allotted to me had all been recorded in your book, before any of them ever began.

International Standard Version
Your eyes looked upon my embryo, and everything was recorded in your book. The days scheduled for my formation were inscribed, even though not one of them had come yet.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Thine eyes did see mine unformed substance, And in Thy book they were all written-- Even the days that were fashioned, When as yet there was none of them.

Literal Standard Version
Your eyes saw my unformed substance, | And all of them are written on Your scroll, | The days they were formed—And not one among them.

Majority Standard Bible
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.

New American Bible
Your eyes saw me unformed; in your book all are written down; my days were shaped, before one came to be.

NET Bible
Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. All the days ordained for me were recorded in your scroll before one of them came into existence.

New Revised Standard Version
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed.

New Heart English Bible
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.

Webster's Bible Translation
Thy eyes saw my substance, yet being imperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

World English Bible
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.

Young's Literal Translation
Mine unformed substance Thine eyes saw, And on Thy book all of them are written, The days they were formed -- And not one among them.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
You Have Searched Me and Known Me
15My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16Your eyes saw my unformed body; all my days were written in Your book and ordained for me before one of them came to be. 17How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God, how vast is their sum!…

Cross References
Job 10:8
Your hands shaped me and altogether formed me. Would You now turn and destroy me?

Job 14:5
Since his days are determined and the number of his months is with You, and since You have set limits that he cannot exceed,

Psalm 56:8
You have taken account of my wanderings. Put my tears in Your bottle--are they not in Your book?

Psalm 119:73
Your hands have made me and fashioned me; give me understanding to learn Your commandments.

Ecclesiastes 11:5
As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the bones are formed in a mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.

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."


Treasury of Scripture

Your eyes did see my substance, yet being imperfect; and in your book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

in thy book

Psalm 56:8
Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?

Malachi 3:16
Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name.

Revelation 20:12
And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

all my members.

Jump to Previous
Beheld Body Book Continuance Eyes Fashioned Formed Imperfect Members Ordained Purposed Recorded Substance Unformed Written
Jump to Next
Beheld Body Book Continuance Eyes Fashioned Formed Imperfect Members Ordained Purposed Recorded Substance Unformed Written
Psalm 139
1. David praises God for his all-seeing providence
17. And for this infinite mercies
19. He defies the wicked
23. He prays for sincerity














(16) This difficult verse, rendered word for word, gives--

"My f?tus (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 word--literally, rolled, or wrapped, used in 2Kings 2:8, "of a mantle," in Ezekiel 27:24, "bales" (Authorised Version, "clothes;" margin, "foldings")--almost scientifically describes. (Comp. Job 10:8-12; 2 Maccabees 7:22.) . . .

Verse 16. - Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; or, "my embryo." The Hebrew text has but the single word גלמי, which probably means, "the still unformed embryonic mass" (Hengstenberg). And in thy book all my members were written; literally, all of them; but the pronoun has no antecedent. Professor Cheyne and others suspect the passage to have suffered corruption. But the general meaning can scarcely have been very different from that assigned to the passage in the Authorized Version. Which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. Modern critics mostly translate "the days," or "my days," "were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them;" i.e. "my life was planned out by God, and settled, before I began to be."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Your eyes
עֵינֶ֗יךָ (‘ê·ne·ḵā)
Noun - cdc | second person masculine singular
Strong's 5869: An eye, a fountain

saw
רָ֘א֤וּ (rā·’ū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 7200: To see

my unformed body;
גָּלְמִ֤י ׀ (gā·lə·mî)
Noun - masculine singular construct | first person common singular
Strong's 1564: A wrapped

all
כֻּלָּ֪ם (kul·lām)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person masculine plural
Strong's 3605: The whole, all, any, every

my days
יָמִ֥ים (yā·mîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 3117: A day

were written
יִכָּ֫תֵ֥בוּ (yik·kā·ṯê·ḇū)
Verb - Nifal - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 3789: To grave, to write

in
וְעַֽל־ (wə·‘al-)
Conjunctive waw | Preposition
Strong's 5921: Above, over, upon, against

Your book
סִפְרְךָ֮ (sip̄·rə·ḵā)
Noun - masculine singular construct | second person masculine singular
Strong's 5612: A missive, document, writing, book

and ordained for me
יֻצָּ֑רוּ (yuṣ·ṣā·rū)
Verb - Pual - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 3335: To mould into a, form, as a, potter, to determine

before one of them came to be.
אֶחָ֣ד (’e·ḥāḏ)
Number - masculine singular
Strong's 259: United, one, first


Links
Psalm 139:16 NIV
Psalm 139:16 NLT
Psalm 139:16 ESV
Psalm 139:16 NASB
Psalm 139:16 KJV

Psalm 139:16 BibleApps.com
Psalm 139:16 Biblia Paralela
Psalm 139:16 Chinese Bible
Psalm 139:16 French Bible
Psalm 139:16 Catholic Bible

OT Poetry: Psalm 139:16 Your eyes saw my body (Psalm Ps Psa.)
Psalm 139:15
Top of Page
Top of Page