Psalms 139:8
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.
American King James Version (AKJV)
If I ascend up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there.
American Standard Version (ASV)
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
If I go up to heaven, you are there: or if I make my bed in the underworld, you are there.
Webster's Revision
If I ascend into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
World English Bible
If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!
English Revised Version (ERV)
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there.
Definitions for Psalms 139:8
Clarke's Psalms 139:8 Bible Commentary
If I ascend - Thou art in heaven, in thy glory; in hell, in thy vindictive justice; and in all parts or earth, water, space, place, or vacuity, by thy omnipresence. Wherever I am, there art thou; and where I cannot be, thou art there. Thou fillest the heavens and the earth.
Barnes's Psalms 139:8 Bible Commentary
If I ascend up into heaven - The word "heaven" here, in the original is in the plural number - "heavens," - and includes all that there is above the earth - the highest worlds.
If I make my bed - Properly, "If I strew or spread my couch." If I should seek that as the place where to lie down.
In hell - Hebrew, "Sheol." See the notes at Isaiah 14:9, where the word is fully explained. The word here refers to the under-world - the abodes of the dead; and, in the apprehension of the psalmist, corresponds in depth with the word "heaven" in height. The two represent all worlds, above and below; and the idea is, that in neither direction, above or below, could he go where God would not be.
Thou art there - Or, more emphatically and impressively in the original, "Thou!" That is, the psalmist imagines himself in the highest heaven, or in the deepest abodes of the dead - and lo! God is there also! he has not gone from "him"! he is still in the presence of the same God!
Wesley's Psalms 139:8 Bible Commentary
139:8 Hell - If I could hide myself in the lowest parts of the earth.