No Soul Life in Womb, Bible Cites, and why

So, it's not so surprising that, even in the few verses which actually talk about conception, God takes the 'credit' away from the procreative act He Himself authors viz., when David exults about being knitted together by God, NOT his mother, and how he had NO life in the womb, Ps139:13-17, esp. v.16. David's point is that God knew David BEFORE he was alive; that's why v.16 is climactic, how David was written in the Book BEFORE he was even alive, while ONLY a fetus, merely a POTENTIAL human being; that God would go to so much trouble. What a gorgeous passage this is.

Here's why. It's a classical a fortiori faith celebration: if God would Personally go to so much trouble just to get David to be BORN, how much more is He willing to do, now that David is a HUMAN BEING? That's why there are those poetic words for the developing BODY PARTS. It's like the sparrows parable in Gospels. If God is so loving for a nothing, how much more, for a HUMAN BEING? See, if you don't recognize David's calling his fetal "substance" a NOTHING, you don't get the tremendous statement-of-God's-Faithfulness out of the passage. He's just praising His Creator, Who is GOD, no one else. It's a comparison, an awesome before-and-after statement of how very much God loves us.

David's praising God; but his praise is instead being used as political weapon, in 'famous' pulpits today. (That's a type of treason against God, and God punishes it severely. We can't afford this kind of punishment, k? We are all one in Christ, so if pain happens to you, it's therefore happening to me; and vice versa. So punishment on one is punishment on all!) For, I 'just happened' (yeah, right, no accidents in the Christian's life) to hear someone on 'Christian' TV quote this passage in the KJV to justify urging an anti-abortion crusade, even going so far as to claim (and how the heck can he know), that there are more abortions than all the deaths of men on battlefields and holocausts in history! That's an abuse of the pulpit, at very least. Pastors are supposed to Teach The Word, not politically crusade. Rev17 harlot.

Be against abortion if your conscience dictates, but please: Do your homework, so you won't someday prove a fool before millions on television, like this famous guy just did. We need pastors who research before they quote; sadly, when a pastor gets famous, he has no time to check out what he says before going onstage. Of course, if he's not famous, he's constrained to go along with his crowd of fellow pastors, so might not teach properly. Might not, frankly, even know. We're all human: pastors are under more attack by Satan&Co., so need our most fervent prayer. Because, prayer is a Vote For Truth To Be Taught, in cases like this. Your votes are critical. ["Thinking Out Loud" webseries, accessible from the Home page, explores Our Vast Importance In Christ Which Father Purposed For Us To Benefit Himself And Christ. Read Ephesians a few dozen times in a quiet place, if you want to see better the Bible's statement on this fact.]

So don't get mad about bad teaching -- pray instead. Use 1Jn1:9, ask Father in Son's name to help those stuck in some kind of bad teaching find the Biblical Justification In Scripture to get out of that rut. "Help" is the operative word, since God never coerces volition. (Obviously only the Holy Spirit causes understanding of Scripture, so if 1Jn1:9 is not used, the person won't understand Scripture, no matter how hard he tries.)

This is one of the frankest passages about how no life is in the womb, used in order to show a bigger praise of God. For, if David were human and in the womb, this entire passage would ring hollow. Let's go over this passage so you can see why.

You probably can only work with a translation. Translations of this passage are incredibly bad, so the verses 13-16 make no sense as a result, nor do the conclusions. But, let's try to work with the translation you have. Use 1Jn1:9 and your brain and read v.13, so you are in the Spirit when you read it.

Oh: for v.13 you need to know that inspired Greek LXX DOESN'T say "in" the womb, but OUT FROM the womb, which is normal. In the Masoretic text, usually the same OUT FROM, OUTSIDE, SEPARATED FROM the womb phrase is used, "mi beten" (me-BET-en). In good English, we'd translate that phrase "from birth". But here in 139:13, "be beten" (buh-BET-en) is used. Phrase does mean "inside the womb", But first note Who is the Creator. Since God is the Subject, now think: David can't be saying the womb is the subject, at the same time. So his mother is NOT his creator.

The fact that God, not the womb, is the Subject; the fact that God not the womb is being called CREATOR, is your first clue that David is saying the OPPOSITE of human life IN the womb. This is also, when you look at similar passages, a recounting of the mechanics of Adam's original creation. David's point is that God personally MAKES a human, human. There's no automatic process which 'contributes'. So, corollary for our day, no evolutionary, auto-pilot process is used at all, in the making of man. Only GOD creates man.

1. Note v.13 is in two separate clauses. This is Hebrew style poetic discourse. It uses couplets, with (generally) the more-important (or main) theme First.

2. First clause is SEPARATE from the second, and is not saying that the first is IN the second. That's why they are separate clauses. Note God is SUBJECT in both clauses. GOD is doing something, not the womb. If the womb were in fact producing life, then IT not God would be the Subject. God doesn't lie. God doesn't steal 'credit'. So something unusual is being said, here.

3. Let's look now at the first clause in v.13. Hebrew verb qanah is mistranslated as "formed" or "created". Instead, use the word "ACQUIRED" or (better), "DECREED", or even "ORDERED", in the sense of ordering something to buy. "POSSESSED" is okay, too, but the ACT OF PURCHASE is really the focus of the verb's action, not its result of ownership. Greek LXX confirms this meaning, rather than 'create' because the Greek word is ktaomai, meaning to acquire or purchase (ktizw means 'create', so the LXX translators knew better than modern scholars -- pity the latter don't compare both inspired manuscripts before going off and using a meaning which qanah in Bible never once connotes). [Of the so-called 6 uses of qanah to mean 'create' according to TWOT, not even one is on the topic of creating, but on producing and purchasing and especially, REDEEMING: Ps74:2, Gen14:19,22 Deut 32:6,13. The other two cited were Gen4:1, which is clearly also not 'create', and our passage here, Ps139:13. So it's arbitrary to say Ps139:13's qanah means 'create', the other verses having also been eliminated from that claim -- especially, since the Greek LXX didn't use ktizw. Funny how God anticipated this political-correctness problem, by providing a Greek inspired OT, which the Lord and those contemporary to Him, used...]

   That precision matters, for David is stressing GOD'S WILL by his choice of words. Actually, he's playing on the birth of Cain (acquirer, possessor, gainer), the first person born of a woman, and the first murderer: see Heb and Greek of Gen4:1. For, David is awestruck that God would 'purchase' his existence, knowing in advance that he, like Cain, would be a murderer (of Uriah).

   For, other words he could have used, focus on the action of creating. Hebrew words for the actual creating of a thing are asah (to create something out of other materials); banah (lit., to build something from something, used of the woman being 'built" (heh) from Adam's rib); bara (i.e., Gen1:1, to create something out of nothing); yatser (for creating one inanimate thing out of another inanimate thing, like Adam's body, in Gen2:7). Greek, ktizw (all or any of those Hebrew meanings), poiew (lit. to do, but used much like English uses "to do"), etc.

   Really, to translate qanah as an ordering-to-buy seems a more apt translation. For, qanah is in the qal perfect (completed reality, 'a done deal'), an is an ACQUISITION verb, buying something else which already exists, or DECREEING its existence, in the case of God. In the LXX (Greek OT, which the Lord and Scripture writers used), this Psalm verse is numbered 138:13, and its translation of qanah is rendered ktaomai, which has the same acquisition meaning. Look up those words. As you think them over, you'll hopefully get a sense of ordering something to be made and then paying for it once it is made. Perfect picture of Our Redeemer, Who is First Our Creator, huh...

   Hebrew QANAH is the main operative verb for our salvation and our redemption, especially considering the wordplay in Gen4:1 (Eve is making a very funny statement using qanah and qayin). Wordplay on qayin, qanah, halal and hallel, wordplay on salvation, the Gen3 curse to the woman, the woman being delivered by delivery, redemption, Him being pierced for our sins to result in the praise of God, Isa53:5 and 11 piercing and pregnancy analogies (depicting Cross mechanics -- Isaiah alludes back to Ps139:13 via halal in 53:5, via amal in 53:11, explaining Why we could BE purchased -- Messiah was born OUT FROM David, so salvation is born OUT from Him who was pierced, made pregnant with sin, ties also to 2Cor5:21); then there's the play on Gen4:1 and Gen17:5, Abram's circumcision, the "spear" which speared (halal) for all time, bought (qanah) for all time, our sanctification (hagios, as related to hallel)as Bride! delivered to Him by delivery OUT from The Labor Pains of The Man, the Spear of Spears! -- wordplay goes on forever. Too much to even list as a mnemonic paragraph for later research! Astounding perfection of wordplay. Knocks me flat!

4. David's not using the word "soul" or "life" in the first clause: term literally means "kidneys", and often in Bible's poetic or dramatic metaphor, "kidneys" represents the emotions. Now think: emotions are not in the soul, but the body -- your BODY is what feels emotion, But if no soul gets that feedback, there's no recognized FEELING. Why? Because NO SOUL EXISTS YET. After all, only God can create a soul.
   Body and soul have to be able to 'talk' to each other. So you can control how you feel. Do this experiment: yell nastily for at least two minutes, and watch how your body reacts. There's a sort of shock, then other feelings tack on. Then, talk nicely to yourself and watch how the body reacts. See? it's the body which feels, and your soul is TELLING it how to feel. When music is played, the music is telling your body how to feel. Because you have a soul, the body feeds the feeling to your soul. We humans mistake feeling for some kind of truth, which is a tragedy. No different from drugs.

5. If we pretend (and we can, because Scripture is multilevel in meaning) that David is talking about the soul here in the first clause, the first clause should be translated, YOU DECREED/ ORDERED MY BODY PARTS.
   Obviously only God can create a soul, but in this clause that's not the point being made. God Owns Life. It's even stronger, really: GOD BUYS LIFE. It's a You-are-My-Redeemer wordplay: only God has the money! How precious is this punning word! See, one of the running themes in the OT for Israel is that Israel is God's 'special possession', a treasure FOR HIMSELF. David's also got that theme in mind. Utterly beautiful. See, since only God creates, there's a second issue which arises: HOW MUCH DOES HE CHERISH what He creates? If, at all? You can buy something because you should, or must, or for other reasons than how much you WANT the thing you buy, see.

6. Yet another layer of meaning in this first clause: God is depicted as CHOOSING for the body parts to BECOME a human being. It's a contract purchase metaphor, very beautiful. God orders you to be made. Because, qanah and ktaomai are in tenses which stress REALITY OF ACQUISITION: the qal perfect has a connotation of never-was-a-time-when-this-acquisition-wouldn't-be-chosen. It's a really strong statement about being always ELECTED BY GOD in eternity past, and sets up the dramatic climax in v.16. Greek aorist indicative has the same essential meaning: time-divorced-from-time is how you first learn about that tense's root meaning, when studying Biblical Greek.

7. Note the precision: first clause, God ORDERS. Second clause, God makes the HOUSE/CLOTHING to CONTAIN what He has ordered, by means of, through, in the womb. We'll cover that second clause, in a minute, but here the chronological order, is important. It's the same as the making of Adam, body-first. Bible is always consistent. The real you is your soul. Body is not you, not your soul.

8. Note Narrator Perspective: this is a key hermeneutical principle in all Scripture. You have to make sure you note the POSITION of the speaker relative to the action he speaks about. For example, John's 'position' in Revelation is not in any of the worldly events he narrates, after Rev4:1, the Rapture. So, look here: David himself, obviously, is OUTSIDE the womb and writing about it, so his BODY is now outside the womb so he is a "me" OUTSIDE. He's LOOKING BACK on the exact mechanics of how GOD made him a "him", see. It's yet another syntactical tool (and a frequent one) Bible uses to show no soul is ever in a womb, because David is not in the womb when he says it, and he's not using any words which would say he HAD been.
   Here's how you know. If the narrator was saying his soul was IN the womb, he'd use other words to indicate that: particularly, the Bible words nephesh or ruach. Nephesh means "life" or "soul". Ruach means "Spirit" (as in Holy Spirit), breath or breathing, wind, puff, etc.; sometimes ruach is used to mean "life", with emphasis on the aliveness (breathing). (Greek equivalents are psuche and pneuma.) So we know he is talking about feeling, not soul. Of course, NO FETUS BREATHES IN THE WOMB, so we shouldn't be surprised that neither ruach nor nephesh are used. [Talk to an OB/GYN, and you'll learn that a fetus' nostrils are PLUGGED UP. One of the first things an obstretician/midwife must do after a fetus is pulled out from a womb, is clear its nostrils so the (now) baby can EXHALE. If no exhale, stillborn. Exhale is often a cry, to clear the lungs, which for the first time, start working. Bible uses the same EXHALING terminology in "spirit" verses, and death verses (e.g., how Ananias dies in Acts 5, Greek expsuche, lit., breathe-out-soul).]

   So because those words aren't used, but instead the body word of kilyah (Gk: nephros), lit. kidneys, as noted above, we know David's talking about his BODY, not his soul. Hence, by using a physical word, lit., kidneys, with a known metaphorical usage to indicate feeling, God conveys PHYSICAL being. That "physical being" is the best translation, also best fits the second clause, as you'll see later on. So: again, both Masoretic Text and LXX use the same word, "kidneys". So, to translate it 'innermost being' is misleading as a term, in English. It's 'innermost', alright, but What kind of 'being' are we talking about? See how important precision is, in translating?

   For, he could have chosen different words. God inspired David to write this: surely God is aware how a verse can be interpreted, since God is omniscient. Since God never tempts, He'd take great care in what words He gives David to write. So the student of the Word should take great care, too. Again, you can find a whole lot of passages with "womb" in them, and carefully examine the original Hebrew or Greek, like we're doing here, to check consistency. For God is perfect, and one verse will never contradict another. Always but always compare Scripture with Scripture, so you can protect yourself from hallucinating a meaning.

   Again, words matter. Position words matter. John keeps on stressing how he's Not On Earth in the Revelation vision he recounts, after the Rapture "door" opens, in Rev4:1. Here's another example: look at Heb10:5. That verse is literally saying that the Lord spoke the very second He was born. It's not figurative, and it's not a looking-back quote; actually, the writer of Hebrews is telling us about the fulfillment of a prophecy in Ps40:5ff, and is using dramatic/pictorial tense, to convey it live.

   Actually, Heb10:5 confirms our passage here, because it uses the verb katartizw, in the "A Body YOU HAVE PREPARED" verse. Capped letters are that verb. To make a thing prepared or ready is not the same thing as creating it. "PREPARED FOR ME". Not not not not "'prepared' EQUALS 'Me'." Note the differentiation between body, and "me". God is precisely consistent, in His Word. Ps139:14,16 likewise differentiate, as you'll see below.

9. So now we have a workable translation (Masoretic=LXX Text) of the first clause of v.13, which of course you can now freely dispute, since you are armed with the data yourself:
   "For You, Oh Lord, DECREED my physical being;"

   For fun, cycle through the other meanings of the verb, like "acquired", "possessed", "purchased", "ordered", etc. Because, it's often true that when Bible uses a multi-meaninged verb, it's giving you a skyscraper of meaning, not just a single floor. Because, Omniscience, Truth, GOD! Is Infinitely High.

10. Let's now look at the second clause. Its main verb is plagued by bad scholarship. You'll see something like "helped" or "wove", or "knitted", ALL of which are horribly misleading. Bible Hebrew verb is SAKAK (saw-KHAK). It's a COVERING, CLOTHING, PROTECTING, HOUSING type of verb. AN OUTER COVERING, and specifically a BOOTH -- because David is playing on the Feast of Booths, in this verse. So SAKAK at best, is a 'weaving' like you do for CLOTH, or any kind of INTRICATE construction of an INANIMATE object, like shingling for a roof, bricklaying, etc. Idea of fitting together many parts in a precise way so all form a FUNCTIONING OR structurally-secure) UNIT. In every case where this verb is used, the OBJECT is some kind of COVER or CONTAINER. So the verb has a root action of MAKING a COVER, CONTAINER, HOUSE. You should really trace this word in the OT, because when you do you'll realize how it cannot mean soul life. For, God uses SAKAK about the clouds 'covering' Him (Lam3:44). We know that's figurative, but again -- note how the clouds are NOT LIFE, and NOT GOD. So get a good lexicon on this.

    Here's another important thing, the TENSE. Verb tense tells you where-in-time, how-long-in-time, dependency-on-something-else, and similar stuff. Hebrew imperfect and perfect tenses aren't like other languages' perfect and imperfect, fundamentally. Usually, the imperfect tense stresses something's ACTION, without reference to completion; or, WITH REFERENCE to its GOING ON, AND implying that it didn't GET completed. Spanish is particulary keen on this usage. PERFECT tense in nearly all languages stresses the COMPLETION of an action, and usually there's some communication about the RESULTS of the completion.

    Hebrew (and Hebraistic use of Greek in the Bible, viz., in John 1) takes a different approach, especially when GOD is the SUBJECT. The Hebrew differentiates between NON-TIME and TIME. A real good brief on this is written by the well-respected scholar, Thorlief Boman, Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek, which you can buy for only $12 from Amazon. Here's the point: when using the IMPERFECT but God is the SUBJECT, stress is on NON-TIME, with the tandem idea that NOTHING ELSE EXISTS. When using PERFECT but God is the SUBJECT, the stress is on either or both IN TIME, FOR TIME, or, DECREE.

    So here, the IMPERFECT of SAKAK is used. Contrast that with the PERFECT of QANAH in the first clause, and you can see a causal relationship is stressed. David DOESN'T exist; God ORDERED his existence, and as a result, a HOUSE/ WARDROBE is constructed. All this, before there is existence; at least, before DAVID's existence. You get that meaning from the way the qal (mood of reality) is used first as PERFECT, then IMPERFECT. Now, if you factor in the 'normal' meaning of the imperfect (for sakak), you get still the idea of something not yet existent, but IN PROGRESS, or under-development. Like, a house under construction.

11. LXX's main verb in the second clause of v.13 is very different from the Hebrew, at least in its focus, though its "aorist" tense conveys existence DIVORCED from time. (Well, better said: in time or out of time is not relevant, only the action of the verb is relevant; not whatever else is around it or affected by it.) Modern Russian has an aorist, but English doesn't. It's impossible to translate this tense in English with its real meaning. [Translators often resort to the PAST or PERFECT or simple present tense, depending on what the translator thinks of the REST of the context. Frankly, I wish they'd just stick in other English words to convey the tense, because often in English ADVERBS or adverbial phrases will convey the tense.]

    The very common Bible Greek verb "antilambanomai" (or antilabou, shortened version) doesn't seem to get a lot of attention in the lexicons, so let's break down the components of this compound verb. "Anti" is a preposition which means "instead of", and hence often "against", as in "hostile". But also, "against" as in "close", which is probably more the meaning here, due to what "lambano" means, in Greek. "Lambano" has a variety of meanings and uses, but stresses the ACQUISITION, a taking. So, is often translated "receive", but with stress on the subject's taking action TO RECEIVE something. "Help" is a really bad translation! Look: if you take a cookie, you are helping yourself to the cookie. That's the idea: verb is in the "middle voice", which has the root meaning of, as my pastor puts it, "acting with reference to oneself, for the benefit of oneself". There are other uses of the middle voice (the "omai" suffix is reflexive, a kind of passive, a participating-in), but clearly God is acting for Himself. Doing something to benefit Himself.

    However, there's a special meaning of this verb, in Mosaic Law: it means to DEVOTE SOMETHING. That is, consecration. So God DEVOTES TO HIMSELF, David. And -- the Greek says EK GASTROS -- OUTSIDE his mother's womb. Not inside. [Everywhere I could find this verb used in Bible, it has a dedication sense, way stronger than 'help', for crying out loud. Even when negative, as in dedicated-to-evil. Translations of it vary greatly, though.]

    Now you see why "anti" is attached in front of lambano. For, lambano alone would only mean taking something to receive benefit to self. But, the "anti" shows you the object being taken is benefitted BY being taken. What's Best for God, IS IS IS what's Best for us! For Father, or forget it: if it's not to benefit FATHER, not DEVOTED to FATHER, it's of no desirable benefit to Me whatsoever. THE CROSS! If you look at Psalm 138 (137 in LXX), knowing that David was lying prostrate on the threshing floor or maybe even on Petra (bedrock on which Isaac was laid, later becomes the seat of the Ark, Holy of Holies); if you realize there he was seeing the FUTURE Son of David being sacrificed for our sins; then you realize NOW that this, too, is a prophetic recognition: CHRIST DEVOTED TO FATHER FROM BIRTH. Heb10:5.

12. So, using the LXX, we'd best translate this second clause of v.13,
    "You DEVOTED me TO YOURSELF from OUTSIDE my mother's womb."Big difference in the translation, huh. Really, "from birth" would be a more idiomatic English translation, as my pastor likes to remind us, but I'm not using him as a source, for this table's exegesis, but only BibleWorks reference materials. (Just their text and lexicons, not their commentaries.)
13. What about the Masoretic text's translation? What would that be? Well, let's look:
    "You constructed my 'house' INSIDE my mother's womb." Note how we have to add a noun to convey that an INANIMATE TYPE OF CONSTRUCTION is meant by the verb. This is what the translators should have done! For, when you take the time to look at all the other "womb" verses, you'll find they ALL talk about life OUTSIDE the womb; but this one is talking about INSIDE and uses a verb of INANIMATE construction. So if you don't add an INANIMATE noun, you make Scripture look like it contradicts itself.

    To say "my house" is idiomatic English: "house for me" is closer to the Hebrew, because the verb is a housing-verb, and the object is "me". Maybe it's disputable whether "house" should be used, since SAKAK is more especially concerned with only COVERINGS, like roofs or clothing or clouds But we know from other verses in Scripture that the body is but a house, so I followed that convention here. Also, the Hebrew word for HOUSE is "Beth" : really, just the letter B, which is named "Beth" (soft "t" sound, not "the" sound) is a picture of a house (with a person inside, if a dagesh is put in there). So it's a kind of wordplay to use "womb", for the Hebrew word is "beten", get it? A house for a house.

    Of course, the sad thing is, translations in English reverse the meaning of the preposition "out from", "from OUTSIDE" (Hebrew "min", Greek "ek"), with "womb" verses, yet conveniently remember to say from OUTSIDE or similar correct meanings, with other objects. Hmmm.

14. So now let's combine both clauses to get variant translations of all Ps139:13:
    "For You, Oh Lord, DECREED my physical being;"
    "You DEVOTED me TO YOURSELF from OUTSIDE my mother's womb." Or,
    
    "For You, Oh Lord, DECREED my physical being;"
    "You constructed my 'house' INSIDE my mother's womb."

    Look at all the trouble we had to go to, just to get a corrected translation of only one verse. See what pastors are supposed to do? They should get paid a Bizillion dollars a year, to translate and teach Scripture, because surely we'll never be able to come up with a right translation in sellable print; because surely Bible verses should be taught in the original languages! Look how much extra meaning is in just this one verse, compared to the translation you have? No offense, but: which is worse, to abort a fetus, or the Living Word Of God?

    So for you to get more value out of it, play with the other meanings of the verbs, etc. Because, this is one of the strongest ways to claim the promise that God loves you, protects you, guides you, has a plan for your life. You weren't the product of some mindless process: you were Devoted. Decreed. Elected. Bought in advance. One can probably spend all day "in" just this verse's many floors of meaning.

    One more thing: notice how the two very different second clauses do not contradict each other, now. In the English translations, "help" and "wove" contradict, and since LXX uses OUTSIDE the womb, but Masoretic "inside", it's a real problem. But not now. So which is the real Bible verse of the second clause? Well, I don't know. Both accord with all the other verses, in the original languages, so far as I can tell. And, the two don't contradict each other, in the original. Nor now, in the corrected translation, no matter which 'floor' of the verbs' meanings, you use. Heh.

15. Because both the LXX and the Masoretic text are recognized as inspired texts; because each text uses two seemingly-contradictory verbs in the second clause of v.13; because (probably) this verse is soooo strong, translators have a problem with it. Translators either choose the LXX or the Masoretic text as their base for translating. So, you find "wove" or "knitted", in translations using the Masoretic text, to translate SAKAK. In English, the non-life construction meaning of the verb is not recognized. There's no English verb I can think of to even convey that this is a verb used for intricate/weave-type constructing of INANIMATE things. Its poetic usage thus misleads, unless you add a noun. Of course, if a translation is using the LXX, it mistranslates antilambanomai as "help", and mistranslates as "in", the Greek preposition ek, which is only PARTITIVE (separatist) -- as even Mounce's basic Biblical Greek text would tell you (see his Appendix on prepositions). [Nerd note: older seminary texts developed an eight-case system for classifying Greek cases. It's really the better system, because Latin was a common tongue at the time the NT was written, so it's easier to catch meanings which God might have also intended due to the Latin construction then. No language is free from having nuances from other languages within the people's borders. So Hebraisms, Latinisms, other Greek dialects, Aramaisms, abounded in the NT. In the 8-case system, this "partitive" is called "the ablative of separation", and is the more apt description for how "ek" is commonly used. Not always, but commonly.]
    Obviously more words should be put into the English, to show what the Living God says. But, oh no! Don't break the horrible tradition of one-word-for-one-word translation! As a translator, you'd be executed if you followed a rule like that, even in Caesar's day. Look: the meaning of a word in a language is not usually clear on its own, but only by context. If I say to you "I save", which kind of save am I talking about? If another language uses different words for different kinds of SAVING, which word do they use? What if I am playing on more than one meaning at the same time, by my word choice? You'd know that in the original language I use because of context. But if you tyrannize the translation mechanic to just one of many different words for "save", then the reader of the translation won't really get out of the translation, what the speaker meant.

16. So the second clause of v.13 is a blatant statement that God doesn't make life in the womb, but instead makes only a 'covering', a testudo, a shell, a house. A covering for the soul. David's likening his body to clothing or shelter. Not soul life, but a shell.

17. Ps139:14 is handled poorly, because David uses sounds and wordplay not converted over into English, so you miss key information in the verse. The sounds after "ki"=because go like this "nofra'ot neph'leiti neph'la'im". David plays on sound. The verb shown here as "neph'leiti" means to separate, spotlight, highlight. For example, David uses neph'leiti to make a distinction between being ALIVE, and being in the womb; the divider being "distinction", idea of being OUTSIDE the womb and even weaned. He makes a FFF'ing (like breathing) sound. What's rendered above "neph'la'im" is a verb also: "be wonderful", in Hebrew. It's WONDERFUL to be OUTSIDE, see. You can 'hear' the FFAH-Beh-AFFFya sound used at the end of Gen2:7, when God breathes lives into the nostrils of the previously-formed-from-ground body of Adam. It's extremely witty, since the word for nose also means ANGER, and Omniscience knows full well what commitment is being made: He'll be hearing the anger forever!
    In Ps139:14, the niphal FEMININE PLURAL of yare (=fear/respect/awe) is a PARTICIPLE; that's the key to understanding the SEPARATION PRODUCING LIFE. [Obviously you can't fear/have awe until born. Naphesh, to breath life, only takes the niphal. So David's playing on Gen2:7. LIVES were breathed into Adam, spiritual and soul. David is saved, so he has "lives", too. But he DOESN'T use the verb here to reference himself, but rather it references GOD's WORKS, because it's in the masculine plural. So you know right away that the translation in 139:14 is wrong.]
    It's important, also, because "separated" has a connotation under the Mosaic law of "consecrated" -- tying again to v.13's qanah, God's DECREEING David's existence in eternity past. David is born to WONDER, AWE of SEEING GOD. It's another seeing-Son-of-David-Messiah expression, more than how David's body is made. No end of future wonders!

    Also, this is the only verse in the passage which uses "nephesh", ("soul", here, because only a SOUL can KNOW something).

    Let's do a rough translation of the Hebrew of this verse, because it's too beautiful to pass up. It will be awkwardly done, to bring in stuff which translations miss. It translates better poetically in five English clauses, taking into account meanings of stems (hiphil of "praise" is causative and imperfect, for example, so it's unending, playing on his unending soul; and causation is a stressed theme of this couplet). Well, here goes:

    I am CAUSED to unendingly THANK You;
    BECAUSE YOU CAUSE ME,
    [separated to] marked out for unending WONDERS,
    YOUR WONDEROUS WORKS!
    My soul's overflowing with knowledge [of You, of Your Truth]!"

    [First English 'verse' here is just the first two Hebrew words. You could leave out the "YOU CAUSE", if you're a stickler for the words being in the verse but they are in the meaning; moreover, that meaning ties to v.13, plus (covered below) v.15's use of min+God; and there's a doubling-of-cause due to the ki and hiphil in v.14, plus the niphal is stressed in v.14. So you almost have to create an extra English clause, to reference all that causational stress. "Overflowing" is, by contrast, the concatenation of yadah-me'od, to know something exceedingly strongly. me'od has an unending, overflowing connotation to it, not merely "well". Ties to Paul's Eph3:20. Finally, David's interjecting. That is, he's stopped looking back at his body being made, and is reacting to his status quo. In v.15 he returns to a look-back stance.]

18. Verse 15 talks about the parts of David's "shell" house. He's making two points about his body's creation, which in translation you should be able to notice: it's a happy mysterY to him (not a secret, for crying out loud), a) how God Could Want To Go To All This Trouble; and b) how his organic components are made. But, as the verse poetically notes, they are no mystery to the God who made Adam. Really, there's much more to this verse, especially the first clause, than I have time to point out. Hebrew has more in it than being translated.
    If you are a prolifer, you do want to investigate the meaning of the Masoretic text's "khahad" (first word in the verse), for that verb is the closest justification for counselling against abortion you'll ever find. Verse is not saying abortion is murder, but (imo) something far more accurate, and far more important: God makes the choice. To say khahad means "hidden", does go with "seter", hiding place (womb, earth parallel); but look more closely at what khahad really means: kicked AWAY, cast off, so 'hidden' in the sense of unwanted. Also, protection is more in view, with David's use of the term "secret". Also look up the many meanings of (y)otsem, usu.translated merely "bones" or "frame", so you can better enjoy the wordplay of the verse.

    Here, I'd bet money David's saying more his amazement that God didn't abort his fetus. Remember, this is the guy who in Ps32 was really hurting over his loss of Bathsheba's firstborn. That punishment was awesome, according to my pastor's exegesis of Ps32:1-5. So, although David's not claiming soul life is in the womb, still: why would God have wanted that fetus, which became David's body; David, a big sinner.. why would God have wanted that fetus to come to term? See, it took nine months; God had time to change His mind, so to speak. If you don't read the Hebrew of this verse, you'll really miss a lot of treasure.

    To try to convey the flavor, here's a very rough poetic translation of the Hebrew of Ps139:15: "Not cast off, all my bones, from your min-making; but crafted in 'hiding', [like] the bowels of the earth." [David uses either 12 or 14 syllables per clause, depending on how you count the vowels. I could have used "Cast away" and then make both clauses have 12 syllables, to match the number of the tribes of Israel; but "cast off" in English is stronger, imo, so I sacrificed a syllable in the first clause.]

    There's an alternate meaning; which, given the fondness of OT for double-entendre (to always reference the coming Messiah), might be even more intended, due to the min+God construction in Hebrew. The difference is capitalized: "Not cast off, all my bones, MADE APART FROM YOU; but crafted in 'hiding', [like] the bowels of the earth." (This second rendering pays closer attention to word proximity in Hebrew. I had to sacrifice a syllable in the second clause.)

    Note how both layers of meaning fit beautifully. What a Genius God is. Of course, to say "min-making" isn't quite right, because the verb "asah" is more a Decree than an actual making: see Gen1:26-27, and track its usage in Gen1 as a synonym for "and God said" (Hebrew likes to vary expressions, just as in English we shy from repeating the same keywords too closely together: "I did what I did because I did it" sounds childish, for example. God's Bible, though, always adds key information when it varies expression.) Min, as a noun, always means SEPARATE lifeform type (or type-group): see its use in Genesis. So, too, as a preposition: always means OUT FROM, SEPARATED FROM, AWAY FROM, FROM OUTSIDE: it's the key Biblical Hebrew preposition of birth.

    Which means Ps139:15's use of min as a preposition, with God's PERSON attached to it, stresses God's CHOICE even more than it stresses His Apartness from what's happening in the womb. We know that because the personal suffix designating God is ATTACHED to the preposition, rather than the normal method of designating 'person', attaching to the verb! God is soo precise!

    But the English doesn't even translate the preposition! But in the Hebrew, its APARTNESS is stressed! I really don't know how anyone can miss this, when translating. After all, I'm only using BibleWorks. Look: word order goes like this. Slashes are put between the English words to denote one Hebrew word, because Hebrew compounds persons etc. to words in a way English doesn't. (I believe Hebrew is classed as an "agglutinative" language, but my brain might be out on the term.) So: Not cast off/ my bones/ APART FROM YOU/ which/ were made/ in hiding place/ skillfully wrought/ beneath/ the earth. See how "APART FROM YOU" interrupts sentence flow? Stressing apartness? Not to mention, the normal Hebrew verb PREfixes the SUBJECT of the verb. But never here. Instead, God is 'suffixed' to the preposition min.

    Finally, does no one recognize David's looking down the road at the future Messiah, Son Of david, here? Grateful to God that he gets to be used as a progenitor of that Body? See what a difference it makes, to realize what the original languages of Scripture themselves say? To cheapen the Word of God for a political crusade is monstrous enough. But, at least, get the words, right! What if God wants that fetus to come to term? That's what amazes David. See, you don't have to lie against the Word of God to have a Biblical reason to avoid abortion...

19. So in Ps139:15, we also know David's talking about organic components, because "made" is "asah", the same creation decision word used for the creation of Adam, in Genesis 1:26. Reinforcing this fact is the keyphrase, "Lower parts of the earth" (or however your translation reads). Again, this refers to how God made Adam "from the dust of the ground" (or however your Genesis translation of Adam's creation reads), in Gen2:7. That's also echoed in the Bible refrain, "from ashes to ashes, from dust to dust" or the famous "from dust I came, to dust I shall return". (Again, translations vary.) Note how dust is inanimate. Note how when one is buried (as in DEAD), one is buried under the earth. So the fetus is like a corpse. Not breathing, get it?
    David keeps using INANIMATE verbs. In fact, I can't find anywhere in Gen2:7, nor anywhere in Bible, an animate verb that [God, obviously] 'creates' a soul. Even all the creation verbs, like bara, banah, asah and jatser always have NON-SOUL components as objects used in the creating (bara, being from nothingness). However, God BREATHING the soul INTO a body at birth is the phrasing He chooses FOR the creation of the soul, as in Gen2:7.

    Whew. God is consistent in His Word. And, of course with common sense, for God Always Makes Sense: for, the soul is immaterial, so nothing physical can make iT. Duh. So, now it makes sense why no creation verb is used with "soul" in Bible, but rather only a breathing-verb. [Or, onomopoetic sound of EXHALE, as in v.15's first clause, and v.14's ffff'ing with the nephel-sounds. (Hebrew letters are how-to-use-your-mouth phonetic diagrams.)] So we know now for a fact that no soul life is in the womb, for no creation verb is ever used WITH "soul". God's mechanism for physical creation always uses some fashioning verb, but HE never uses those verbs to indicate soul life is created; rather, only BREATHING-INTO verbs are used, for soul creation.

    Same style, when describing the Gen1:2 rehab'ing of the world by the Holy Spirit (can't miss the 'breath' connotation in the speaking metaphor, which even sounds like our "rehab" in English -- Hebrew word translated "hover" is "me rehafah"); same style, for the Lord as Creator, in Jn1 ("Word", again breathe-speak is all God need 'do'), Matt4:3 or Heb1:1-4; same style, when describing the mechanics of our spiritual births and spiritual lives in John 3, Titus 3:5, 2Tim3:16 (well, theopneustos, don't remember exact location), etc. Can't make the mechanic plainer, than that. Now I understand why my pastor has always stated soul creation as breathing-into! Just a word from the Word, and it is. All else, is a nothingness (note that bara is used three times in Gen1:27). [Gen1:7 uses asah, but note the decree connotation in the last clause, which in English Bibles is rendered something like "and it was so." That is a common refrain for the Enactment Of A King's DecreE.]

    Commentaries I have say the "lower parts..earth" is figurative for womb, which is TRUE. The word rendered "Secret" is sether, in Hebrew, and kruphe, in Greek. Term has the connotation of invisibility, hiding place, unseen, but most especially, unknowable, beyond comprehension, past finding out. But the way it's used, is from David's WONDER about it (see v.14 for context). The Hebrew raqam is another 'making' verb that again means weaving an INANIMATE 'covering' within that 'hidden place'. The wordplay is so dazzling, when you think it over.

    Commentaries use the verb raqam to also justify saying it's the womb that's in view. Yes. But they neglect to say that this verse uses wordplay to depict the exact same Hebrew/Greek procedure as in Gen2:7, Adam's body creation, which is very distinctly first; and then very distinctly life is breathed into him, AFTERwardS.

    Bible writers reference other Scripture when they take care to use the keywords of that Scripture. So the translator should have noticed this and taken it into account in his translation. Or at very least, the commentators should have! (This same kind of omission is common. So you miss, for example in John 1, how John is making a play on the Sacred Tetragrammaton; on the Indwelling of the Glory of the Lord in the OT Temple, etc. Pity.)

    We also know they're organic components from the LXX, which uses "hupostasis", the quintessential principle on which all the universe is constructed, if you look into Greek science or any modern scientific law you like. Unity of opposites. The Lord's Human Nature is a hupostasis with His Divine Nature. (DueDisclosure.htm says a lot on this topic.) Translated usually "substance", it misleads.

    So "bones" now makes sense, doesn't it? Of course, if you want to pretend David is not talking about his physical being, you'd use words like "frame" instead of "bones" (for, it's SKELETON, get it?), and "substance", nice and fuzzy as it is, is safely mistaken. Boy-zhyamoy. Jewish rabbis will tell you that abortion is not murder, but they always counsel against abortion; Talmudic rabbis decided to say that after 40 days, it was considered 'life', so to best apply the Law (so gershom of undernet's #hebrew once informed me). It's their interpretation which the Catholic Church picked up, not Scripture. And translations were screwed up, as a result. Clearly, no one wants an abortion. But that's not the issue: What does GOD want? Not the state, not someone else. All this, prompted the Talmudic rabbis. All this, prompted David's wonder. Why take a sacred FAITH question, and profane it on the altar of politics?

20. One more comment about v.15: translations of the second clause's verb are very bad: for David again is talking about the INANIMATE INTRICATE construction of his 'house'. Verb in Hebrew is raqam, and that term is again used for WEAVING CLOTH. This time, the SKILL is emphasized. Greek word is much more generalized, poiew, to do/make; so the Greek adds a noun to denote the weaver-skill. Like we should do, when we translate the Hebrew verb, for crying out loud, to make it clear INANIMATE object is being 'embroidered'! Masoretic version of this verse has TWO verbs, asah and raqam. Greek verb doubles for BOTH clauses, so there's no Greek verb in the second clause, in the LXX. But they translate nearly the same in meaning.

21. Now to v.16. NIV is pretty close to the actual meaning, so we'll just stick with its rendering, except "came to be" is really "before the days themselves were FORMED", or something similar, again stressing David had NO existence while in the womB. He's playing on his unformed body being part of the unformed days. Greek is plauso, future passive indicative 3rd plural (because "days" is the subject). Goes with akatergastos, UNFORMED fetus. Obviously a day does not exist until it DAWNS, is BORN. So too, a fetus. Hebrew construction is similar: YATSER is used, so again it's wordplay on Gen2:7, the forming of INANIMATE Adam's body. Golem is used to denote the fetus. Again, David's drawing a parallel between a non-life and non-day, nonetheless in the mind of God. Decreed. Devoted.

    So now, do you see why Verse 13 is not talking about soul life? All this time David was talking ONLY of his physical house, his body. Whatever version you have of Ps139:16, it should be clear almost even in translation that David's saying he had NO life in the womb. Take this logic test of the translation you have: note the distinction he makes between his "unwrought substance" or "form" (or however your Bible translates it) and himself: do you see he distinguishes what is not life, there? If he as HUMAN and the fetal 'substance' were the same, there'd be no distinction needed..a body God prepared for him. Ps40:5ff, and especially, Heb10:5 now tie perfectly to.. MESSIAH!

22. There's more wit to show. Again, this passage is one of God's bald statements that I, not the womb, CONCEIVED you, so next note 139:17 with that italic meaning in mind. Well, wait: gotta say something about the ending of that verse. You probably have something like "how great are the sum of them [the thoughts of God]" at the end of your verse. What's sooooo cool about the Hebrew and Greek there is wordplay on HEAD, a body part, and HEAD, the idea of ruling. Sovereign. Thinking. Will. Alive. God is alive. Now David is alive. OUTSIDE THE WOMB. So, David has a will. So David is a Ruler. So David too, can THINK. All this, MADE BY GOD, no one else.

    So watch how delicious is his wordplay, which depends on you knowing no soul life was in the womb: David's playing on how he was IN THE MIND-WOMB of God in eternity past; once on the inside, shut in, not alive, 'secret', just a bucket of bones and tissue, only 'alive' in the Mind of God, only God could see all that biology forming; but now, David himself is really alive! So, (heh) on the OUTSIDE, looking 'out' at the Beautimous Emeth (Truth, Doctrine, Thoughts) of His Creator. It's a fantastic way to say that the entire and only meaning life is TO HEAR/SEE GOD'S THOUGHTS. Else, better to never be born. Amen.