Psalms 139:11-12

139:11 If I were to say, “Certainly the darkness will cover me,

and the light will turn to night all around me,”

139:12 even the darkness is not too dark for you to see,

and the night is as bright as day;

darkness and light are the same to you.


tn The Hebrew verb שׁוּף (shuf), which means “to crush; to wound,” in Gen 3:15 and Job 9:17, is problematic here. For a discussion of attempts to relate the verb to Arabic roots, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 251. Many emend the form to יְשׂוּכֵּנִי (yesukkeniy), from the root שׂכך (“to cover,” an alternate form of סכך), a reading assumed in the present translation.

tn Heb “and night, light, around me.”

tn The words “to see” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

tn Heb “shines like.”

tn Heb “like darkness, like light.”