Psalms Chapter 139 verse 11 Holy Bible
If I say, Surely the darkness shall overwhelm me, And the light about me shall be night;
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If I say, Only let me be covered by the dark, and the light about me be night;
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And if I say, Surely darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night;
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If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
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read chapter 139 in WBT
If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me; The light around me will be night;"
read chapter 139 in WEB
And I say, `Surely darkness bruiseth me, Then night `is' light to me.
read chapter 139 in YLT
Psalms 139 : 11 Bible Verse Songs
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerses 11, 12. - If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. If I think to escape thee by plunging into darkness, and say to myself, "Surely the darkness shall screen me, and night take the place of light about me," so that I cannot be seen, even then my object is not accomplished; even the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day. Thy essential light penetrates every dark place, and makes the deepest gloom as radiant as the brightest sunshine. The darkness and the light are both alike to thee; literally, as the darkness, so the light; but the paraphrase of the Authorized Version gives the true sense.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(11) If I say . . .--Rather,I say only let darkness crush me,And light become night around me.Commentators have mostly been frightened by the metaphor in the first line, though it has been preserved both by the LXX. and Vulg., and can only be avoided either by forcing the meaning of the verb from what it bears in Genesis 3:15, Job 9:17, or altering the text. Yet the Latins could speak even in prose of a region "oppressed by darkness" (Sen. Ep. 82); and when night was used as figurative of death, nocte premi was a common poetical figure. Indeed, the word rendered darkness here is actually, in Psalm 88:6, used of death, and if we understood this figure here we might render the word trample, illustrating by Horace"Jam te premet nox fabulaeque Manes."Such a view would suit the thought to which the poet immediately passes--to God the darkness of death and the nothingness before birth are alike. On the other hand, as the main thought is that nowhere is there escape from God's sight in height, or depth, or distance so to exhaust the possibilities we seem to need, darkness. . . .
