Not In the Beginning

For You formed my inward parts; You wove me in my mother’s womb.  Psalm 139:13  NASB

Formed– Did you read this as a statement about your creation?  Did you imagine a parallel with Genesis 1 and 2?  When we read “formed,” we probably think the poet is enlisting imagery from the initial creation of human beings.  We think he’s really saying, “God, you made me as a human while I was yet in my mother’s womb.”  But something strange is happening in this verse; something we can’t see in English but reveals itself in Hebrew.  The sentence uses the wrong verb.

In the Genesis account, the verb for the creation of human beings is either ʿāśâ (“to do, fashion, make”— Genesis 1:26), yāṣar (“to form, fashion, frame”— Genesis 2:7) or (rarely) bārāʾ(“to make, create”— Genesis 1:27).  But none of these is found in this psalm.  Instead, the poet uses qānâ.  Why?  Well, the first instance of qānâ is found in Genesis 4:1, a significant verse about the intention and operation of birthing after the Fall.  The verb appears in the woman’s statement, “I have gotten a manchild with the help of the Lord.”  As we know, everything about this statement is wrong.  First, Havvah (ḥǎw·wā(h)) says that she now has a new ʾîš (ish), not the word for a child but rather for an adult male, a man. Clearly she believes that she has a substitute for Adam.  Secondly, she implies that God is the sub-contractor in this arrangement (see David Fohrman’s work in The Beast That Crouches At The Door).  Finally, she uses the verb qānâ.  This is not a verb for conception and birth.  This is a verb for bartering, negotiating: “In qānâ we discern one root denoting a commercial financial acquisition of moveable goods.”^[1]  In other words, she strikes a deal with God to procure a replacement man.

Is that what the poet wants us to understand?  Consider the context. The poet is describing what it’s like to be under the ever-watchful eye of God, no matter how we struggle to find a secret place.  In fact, he has just acknowledged that even in the darkest recesses of our conscience, God is still present.  Now he asserts that we are bartered souls.  We don’t even own ourselves.  We have been negotiated into existence, an arrangement between the Spirit and physical creation.  In spite of the fact that we like to think of ourselves as independently existing beings, even our common saying betrays our real dependency.  We live “on borrowed time.”  Nothing is really ours.  Why?  The Psalmist tells us: “You made a deal with my inner parts.”

“You wove me.”  Perhaps, “You knitted me.”  But neither one actually captures the Hebrew idea.  This verb is sûk. It has two separate roots. We will need both to understand it.   TWOT provides the follow:

The root means primarily “anoint,” “pour, in anointing,” a meaning found also in Akkadian sāk. As a pouring, it differs from its most common synonym māsþah. which includes the idea of “smearing” or “spreading.”

This root is to be distinguished from the homonymic sûk II, “hedge in,” (q.v.) and probably from still a third root (only Pilpel) meaning “instigate,” “incite” (cf. Tigrinya säsäkä, “move unceasingly,” “stir”), found in Isa 9:11 [H 10]; 19:2.^[2]

The second root, spelled exactly the same way, has a different connotation:

The primary meaning of the word conveys the idea of putting up a hedge or a fence. It is to be differentiated from two homonyms, one meaning “incite,” “instigate,” found only in Isa 9:10; 19:2 and the more common word “anoint” (see sûk I). sûk II is probably a by-form of śûk I “hedge in” (cf. mĕśūkâ, hedge).^[3]

Now read the verse again, substituting both meanings for the English words.

“You anointed/fenced me in my mother’s womb.” Which meaning applies?  Ah, maybe both.  Maybe we really are “anointed” before we are born as regents of the Most High God to serve His purposes on earth, and at the same time, we are fenced in, hedged about, constrained because we are born human, born with limitations, born under obligation. Maybe Luzzatto is right.  To be born is to inherit an infinite debt.

Is this comforting or concerning?  Do you feel free or tied down?  Hebrew let’s you decide how to read the text and maybe that’s the real point.

Topical Index: qānâ, formed, bartered, sûk, anoint, hedge in, Psalm 139:13

^[1]Coppes, L. J. (1999). 2039 קָנָה. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (803). Chicago: Moody Press.

^[2]Patterson, R. D. (1999). 1474 סוּך. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer, Jr. & B. K. Waltke, Ed.) (electronic ed.) (619). Chicago: Moody Press.

^[3]Ibid.