Logos Bible Study

Psalm 139:11–12

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139:11If I were to say, “Certainly the darkness will cover me,13

and the light will turn to night all around me,”14

139:12even the darkness is not too dark for you to see,15

and the night is as bright as16 day;

darkness and light are the same to you.17

Read in Logos
Psalm 139:12: … even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.

Footnotes

  1. 13 The Hebrew verb שׁוּף (shuf), which means “to crush; to wound,” in Gen 3:15 and Job 9:17, is problematic here. For a discussion of attempts to relate the verb to Arabic roots, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101–150 (), . Many emend the form to יְשׂוּכֵּנִי (yesukkeniy), from the root שׂכך (“to cover,” an alternate form of סכך), a reading assumed in the present translation.
  2. 14 Heb “and night, light, around me.”
  3. 15 The words “to see” are supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.
  4. 16 Heb “shines like.”
  5. 17 Heb “like darkness, like light.”

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me,

and the light around me will be night”—

even the darkness is not dark to you.

The night shines like the day;

darkness and light are alike to you.

NLTNew Living Translation

I could ask the darkness to hide me

and the light around me to become night—

but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.

To you the night shines as bright as day.

Darkness and light are the same to you.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

And if I should say, “Surely darkness will cover me,

and the light around me will be as night,”

even the darkness is not too dark for you,

and the night shines as the day—

the darkness and the light are alike for you.

KJV 1900King James Version

If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me;

Even the night shall be light about me.

Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee;

But the night shineth as the day:

The darkness and the light are both alike to thee.