Your testimonies are wonderful; therefore my soul complies with them. Psalm 119:129 NASB Chabad translations פְּלָא֥וֹת עֵֽדְוֹתֶ֑יךָ עַל־כֵּ֜֗ן נְצָ֘רָ֥תַם נַפְשִֽׁי Your testimonies are hidden; therefore, my soul kept them. פֵּ֖תַח דְּבָרֶ֥יךָ יָאִ֗יר מֵבִ֥ין פְּתָיִֽים The commencement of Your words enlightens; You make the simple understand. פִּ֣י פָ֖עַרְתִּי וָאֶשְׁאָ֑פָה כִּ֖י לְמִצְוֹתֶ֣יךָ יָאָֽבְתִּי I opened my mouth and panted…
Knowledge is too wonderous for me, high above—I cannot attain it. Psalm 139:6 Robert Alter Too wonderous – The translators have taken a bit of poetic license here by rendering pilʾîy-yah with the superlative “too.” The verb is simply pālāʾ, that is, “be marvelous, wonderful.” In the derivative, pilʾî, it means “wonderful, incomprehensible,” but as…
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it. Psalm 139:6 NASB Too wonderful– What does “too wonderful” mean to a poet in the tenth century BCE? Well, not just any poet, but a poet who is saturated with a culture and a nation that believes YHVH to be the one true God. Perhaps…
