Psalms 139 · Verse 3

Psalms 139:3

Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
Psalms 139:3, King James Version

Psalms 139:3 in other translations

BSBYou search out my path and my lying down; You are aware of all my ways.
WEBYou search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
ASVThou searchest out my path and my lying down, And art acquainted with all my ways.
YLTMy path and my couch Thou hast fanned, And with all my ways hast been acquainted.
DARBYThou searchest out my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways;
BBEYou keep watch over my steps and my sleep, and have knowledge of all my ways.
WebsterThou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

What does Psalms 139:3 mean?

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 3 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.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Psalms 139:1-6

God has perfect knowledge of us, and all our thoughts and actions are open before him. It is more profitable to meditate on Divine truths, applying them to our own cases, and with hearts lifted to God in prayer, than with a curious or disputing frame of mind. That God knows all things, is omniscient; that he is every where, is omnipresent; are truths acknowledged by all, yet they are seldom rightly believed in by…

Read the full comment on Psalms 139:1-6 →

Psalms 139:3 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

אָרְחִ֣י'a.re.Chitraveling IH732
וְרִבְעִ֣יve.riv.'Iand lying down myH7252
זֵרִ֑יתָze.Ri.tayou siftH2219
וְֽכָל\־ve.kholand allH3605
דְּרָכַ֥יde.ra.Khaiways myH1870
הִסְכַּֽנְתָּה\׃his.Kan.tahyou know intimatelyH5532

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Psalms 139:3

  • Jeremiah 23:24

    Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord.

  • Job 31:4

    Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

  • Proverbs 5:20-21

    And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.

  • Genesis 28:10-17

    And Jacob went out from Beer–sheba, and went toward Haran. And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; …

  • 2 Samuel 11:27

    And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

  • Psalms 139:18

    If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

  • Ecclesiastes 12:14

    For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

  • Psalms 121:3-8

    He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand. The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night. …

  • 2 Samuel 12:9-12

    Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.

  • John 6:70-71

    Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil? He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve.

  • Isaiah 29:15

    Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

  • Acts 5:3-4

    But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
compassest. or, winnowest.
Job 13:26,27; 14:16,17; 31:4; Mt 3:12
my path.
18; 121:3-8; Ge 28:10-17; 2Sa 8:14; 11:2-5,27
and art acquainted.
2Sa 12:9-12; Pr 5:20,21; Ec 12:14; Isa 29:15; Jer 23:24
Joh 6:70,71; 13:2,21; Ac 5:3,4

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Psalms 139:2

    Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

  • Psalms 139:3

    Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

  • Psalms 139:4

    For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.

Read all of Psalms 139

Psalms 139:3 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909
Mi senda y mi acostarme has rodeado, y estás impuesto en todos mis caminos.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885
Tu connais mon sentier et mon coucher, et tu es au fait de toutes mes voies.
German
Elberfelder 1871
Du sichtest mein Wandeln und mein Liegen und bist vertraut mit allen meinen Wegen.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate
Qui cogitaverunt iniquitates in corde, tota die constituebant prælia.