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.

Psalm 139:2

אַתָּ֣ה יָ֭דַעְתָּ שִׁבְתִּ֣י וְקוּמִ֑י בַּ֥נְתָּה לְ֝רֵעִ֗י מֵרָחֹֽוק׃

אַתָּה Pronoun 2ms "you"

יָדַעְתָּ Qal perfect 2ms "you have known"

שִׁבְתִּי Qal infinitive construct with 1ms suffix "the sitting of me"

וְקוּמִי Conjunction with Qal infinitive construct and 1ms suffix "the rising of me"

בַּנְתָּה Qal perfect 2ms "you understand"

לְרֵעִי preposition with masc. noun with 1s suffix "to the thought or purpose of me"

מֵרָחוֹק preposition with adjective "from a distant [place]"

Notes on Psalm 139:1

What follows are notes from Dr. Gary Staats on Psalm 139:1 which I am transcribing from an audio tape.

Psalm 139 is a great psalm concerning God’s great omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence. He knows us. He knows all about us. He’s always with us, and He is all powerful. This is a text of reassurance of the Lord’s constant knowledge of us including our every thought and word. It is an intimate, personal relationship that we see from this psalm.

It begins,לַמְנַצֵּחַ לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר for the leader by David a Psalm. לַ is a preposition. Notice the patha under it showing the definite article “For the” and then מְנַצֵּחַ is a piel participle meaning “leader” or “preeminent one.” Notice we have a shewa followed by a patha and then the doubling of the middle radical in the tsade with a furtive patha under the chet. We would render it, “For the preeminent one, or leader, to David, or belonging to David, - a Psalm.”
The lamed here is probably a lamed autholis, a lamed of authorship. It shows that David is the author of the Psalm. דָוִד is just David, a proper name. מִזְמוֹר is a noun that means “song.”

יְהוָה חֲקַרְתַּנִי וַתֵּדָע
Oh, Lord, you have searched me and you have known me.

יְהוָה is the tetragammaton meaning “the eternal covenant God,” or “Yahweh,” and חֲקַרְתַּנִי is a Qal perfect 2nd masculine singular with the fist person singular pronominal suffix נִי meaning “me.”
וַתֵּדָע “and you know me.” The waw is a conjunction, “and,” followed by the verb תֵּדָע which is a Qal imperfect 2nd masculine singular with a waw conversive from the root ידע “he knows.” Notice the yod has dropped out here or elided and we have compensatory lengthening from what was historically a pe waw verb, תִודָע becoming תֵּדָע when the waw dropped out.

Psalm 139:1

לַמְנַצֵּחַ לְדָוִד מִזְמוֹר יְהוָה חֲקַרְתַנִי וַתֵדָע׃

Rough Word-by-word:
To the director by David a song LORD you have searched me and you have known.

Smooth Translation:
To the director a song by David. Lord you have searched me and known.

לַמְנַצֵּחַ preposition with piel participle masculine singular "To the overseer, or To the director"

לְדָוִד preposition with proper noun "for David, or by David"

מִזְמוֹר noun "[a] song"

יְהוָה Tetragrammaton "Adoni, or Lord"

חֲקַרְתַנִי Qal perfect 2ms from חקר (he searched) "you searched" 1cs suffix "me"

וַתֵדָע conversive conjunction "and" Qal imperfect 2ms from ידע (he knows) "you know"

Good Morning

I'm back, but I'm sick. I picked up some kind of bug in Israel.
10 days in Israel and I spoke with almost no Jews. Evidently the group I went with had strong Palestinian leanings, so we spent almost all our time in Palestinian areas.

I did hear one Jewish woman say "Good Morning."

בקֶר תוֹב

Headed to Israel

I am heading to Israel tomorrow and will not return until 11-22 -2010.
I plan (at this point) to begin the transcription of Psalm 139 on the blog when I return.
Dr. Staats is working on the audio for me to transcribe. Once complete, it will go up on Google Books with the rest of his works.

To quote Numbers 6:24 -

יְבָרֶכְךָ יְהוָה וְיִשְׁמְרֶךָ

Give

נָתַן