Psalms 139:5
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
You have beset me behind and before, and laid your hand on me.
American King James Version (AKJV)
You have beset me behind and before, and laid your hand on me.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Thou hast beset me behind and before, And laid thy hand upon me.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
I am shut in by you on every side, and you have put your hand on me.
Webster's Revision
Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me.
World English Bible
You hem me in behind and before. You laid your hand on me.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
Clarke's Psalms 139:5 Bible Commentary
Thou hast beset me behind and before - אחור וקדם צרתני achor vekodam tsartani, "The hereafter and the past, thou hast formed me." I think Bishop Horsley's emendation here is just, uniting the two verses together. "Behold thou, O Jehovah, knowest the whole, the hereafter and the past. Thou hast formed me, and laid thy hand upon me."
Barnes's Psalms 139:5 Bible Commentary
Thou hast beset me behind and before - The word rendered "beset" - צור tsûr - means properly to press; to press upon; to compress. It has reference commonly to the siege of a city, or to the pressing on of troops in war; and then it comes to mean to besiege, hem in, closely surround, so that there is no way of escape. This is the idea here - that God was on every side of him; that he could not escape in any direction. He was like a garrison besieged in a city so that there was no means of escape. There is a transition here (not an unnatural one), from the idea of the Omniscience of God to that of His Omnipresence, and the remarks which follow have a main reference to the latter.
And laid thine hand upon me - That is, If I try to escape in any direction I find thine band laid upon me there. Escape is impossible.
Wesley's Psalms 139:5 Bible Commentary
139:5 Beset me - With thy all - seeing providence. And laid - Thou keepest me, as it were with a strong hand, in thy sight and under thy power.