Psalms 74:17

74:17 You set up all the boundaries ¹  of the earth;

you created the cycle of summer and winter. ² 

Psalms 94:9

94:9 Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?

Does the one who forms the human eye not see? ³ 

Psalms 139:16

139:16 Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. ⁴ 

All the days ordained for me

were recorded in your scroll

before one of them came into existence. ⁵ 

[74:17]  ¹ tn This would appear to refer to geographical boundaries, such as mountains, rivers, and seacoasts. However, since the day-night cycle has just been mentioned (v. 16) and the next line speaks of the seasons, it is possible that “boundaries” here refers to the divisions of the seasons. See C. A. Briggs and E. G. Briggs, Psalms (ICC), 2:156.

[74:17]  ² tn Heb “summer and winter, you, you formed them.”

[94:9]  ³ tn Heb “The one who plants an ear, does he not hear? The one who forms an eye, does he not see?”

[139:16]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ 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).