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Selected Verse: Psalms 139:3 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Ps 139:3 |
King James |
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Thou compassest my path ... - Margin, "winnowest." The Hebrew word - זרה zârâh - means properly "to scatter," to cast loosely about - as the wind does dust; and then, to winnow - to wit, by throwing grain, when it is thrashed, up to the wind: Isa 30:24; Jer 4:11; Rut 3:2. Then it means "to winnow out;" that is, to winnow out all the chaff, and to leave all the grain - to save all that is valuable. So here it means that God, as it were, "sifted" him. Compare Isa 30:28; Amo 9:9; Luk 22:31. He scattered all that was chaff, or all that was valueless, and saw what there was that was real and substantial. When it is said that he did this in his "path and his lying down," it is meant that he did it in every way; altogether; entirely.
And art acquainted with all my ways - All the paths that I tread; the whole course of my life. All that I do, in all places and at all times, is fully known to thee. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Compassest - Thou discernest every step I take. It is a metaphor from soldiers besieging their enemies, and setting watches round about them. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Thou compassest my path - זרית zeritha thou dost winnow, ventilate, or sift my path; and my lying down, רבעי ribi, my lair, my bed.
And art acquainted - Thou treasurest up. This is the import of סכן sachan. Thou hast the whole number of my ways, and the steps I took in them. |
31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat:
9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.
28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, shall reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there shall be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err.
2 And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor.
11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,
24 The oxen likewise and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender, which hath been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan.