Notes on Psalm 139:2

אַתָּ֣ה יָ֭דַעְתָּ שִׁבְתִּ֣י וְקוּמִ֑י בַּ֥נְתָּה לְ֝רֵעִ֗י מֵרָחֹֽוק׃

You know my downsitting and my uprising and you understand my thought from afar off.


Notice אַתָּ֣ה here is emphatic. It is a personal pronoun second person singular followed by יָ֭דַעְתָּ which is a Qal perfect second person singular from יָדַע "you know." Notice the תָּ is indicating the second masculine singular pronominal suffix. "You know my sitting."

The verb יָשַׁב becomes in the infinitive construct שֶׁבֶת. The Yod drops out and we have a double segholate, but when we add the hireq yod, the first person common singular pronominal suffix, we end up with שִׁבְתִּי. "You know intimately my sitting..." וְקוּמִי notice the וְ conjunction followed by the infinitive construct קוּם from the root קָם, to arise, a bi-radical root and we add the hireq yod which is the first common singular pronominal suffix.

Here we have two infinitive constructs. You know intimately my sitting and my arising, meaning, "All of my daily activities, you, Lord are intimately familiar with."

Then בַּ֥נְתָּה לְ֝רֵעִ֗י מֵרָחֹֽוק. "You undertand my thought from afar," or literally, "from a distant place," probably understood. Notice בַּנְתָּה is from the root בָּנ, or בִּינ a bi-radical, hollow verb, a Qal perfect second masculine singular from the bi-radical root בִּינ notice the תָּ with the ה following it. Sometimes that will happen where we have a ה, sometimes it will not be there. "You understand."

לְ is a preposition that goes with the verb בִינ meaning to give understanding to something.

You understand רֵעִי "my thought," or "my purpose."
רֵעַ is the noun meaning thought or purpose and the י ִ is the pronominal suffix 1st common singular. "You give thought to, you understand my purpose..." מֵרָחֹֽוק.

מֵרָחֹֽוק begins with the preposition מִנ where the נ has elided or dropped out because it cannot double with the ר so we have compensatory lengthening to a ֵ under the מ. "You understand my thoughts from..."

Then, "... a distant," and then we must understand "place." רְחֹוק is an adjective meaning "distant."
"You understand my thought from a distant place or from far off."

What a beautiful text that we can know that the Lord knows all about our daily activities. He knows our reclining and our rising and, even though he lives in heaven, he is also everywhere being omniscient, all knowing.

God is not confined to heaven, but from afar off, the imagery is, he can understand my thought, everything I'm thinking. What a beautiful assurance that we can know that the Lord knows our thoughts even before we speak. I'm reminded of the Lord, Jesus who knew what was in the heart of people in John 2 even before they would speak. Jesus shares the same attribute of omniscience as the Father.