Psalms 71:6

71:6 I have leaned on you since birth; ¹ 

you pulled me ²  from my mother’s womb.

I praise you continually. ³ 

Psalms 139:15-16

139:15 my bones were not hidden from you,

when ⁴  I was made in secret

and sewed together in the depths of the earth. ⁵ 

139:16 Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. ⁶ 

All the days ordained for me

were recorded in your scroll

before one of them came into existence. ⁷ 

Isaiah 49:1-2

Ideal Israel Delivers the Exiles

49:1 Listen to me, you coastlands! ⁸ 

Pay attention, you people who live far away!

The Lord summoned me from birth; ⁹ 

he commissioned me when my mother brought me into the world. ¹⁰ 

49:2 He made my mouth like a sharp sword,

he hid me in the hollow of his hand;

he made me like a sharpened ¹¹  arrow,

he hid me in his quiver. ¹² 

[71:6]  ¹ tn Heb “from the womb.”

[71:6]  ² tc The form in the MT is derived from גָזָה (gazah, “to cut off”), perhaps picturing God as the one who severed the psalmist’s umbilical cord. Many interpreters and translators prefer to emend the text to גֹחִי (gokhiy), from גוּח (gukh) or גִיח, (gikh, “pull out”; see Ps 22:9; cf. the present translation) or to עוּזִּי (’uzziy, “my strength”; cf. NEB “my protector since I left my mother’s womb”).

[71:6]  ³ tn Heb “in you [is] my praise continually.”

[139:15]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew term אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “which”) should probably be emended to כֲּאַשֶׁר (ka’asher, “when”). The kaf (כ) may have been lost by haplography (note the kaf at the end of the preceding form).

[139:15]  ⁵ sn The phrase depths of the earth may be metaphorical (euphemistic) or it may reflect a prescientific belief about the origins of the embryo deep beneath the earth’s surface (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament, 96-97). Job 1:21 also closely associates the mother’s womb with the earth.

[139:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “Your eyes saw my shapeless form.” The Hebrew noun גֹּלֶם (golem) occurs only here in the OT. In later Hebrew the word refers to “a lump, a shapeless or lifeless substance,” and to “unfinished matter, a vessel wanting finishing” (Jastrow 222 s.v. גּוֹלֶם). The translation employs the dynamic rendering “when I was inside the womb” to clarify that the speaker was still in his mother’s womb at the time he was “seen” by God.

[139:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “and on your scroll all of them were written, [the] days [which] were formed, and [there was] not one among them.” This “scroll” may be the “scroll of life” mentioned in Ps 69:28 (see the note on the word “living” there).

[49:1]  ¹⁰ tn Or “islands” (NASB, NIV); NLT “in far-off lands.”

[49:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “called me from the womb.”

[49:1]  ¹² tn Heb “from the inner parts of my mother he mentioned my name.”

[49:2]  ¹³ tn Or perhaps, “polished” (so KJV, ASV, NAB, NIV, NRSV); NASB “a select arrow.”

[49:2]  ¹⁴ sn The figurative language emphasizes the servant’s importance as the Lord’s effective instrument. The servant’s mouth, which stands metonymically for his words, is compared to a sharp sword because he will be an effective spokesman on God’s behalf (see 50:4). The Lord holds his hand on the servant, ready to draw and use him at the appropriate time. The servant is like a sharpened arrow reserved in a quiver for just the right moment.