Discovery BoxPsalms 71:15 
Context71:15 I will tell about your justice,
and all day long proclaim your salvation, 1
though I cannot fathom its full extent. 2
Psalms 90:11
Context90:11 Who can really fathom the intensity of your anger? 3
Your raging fury causes people to fear you. 4
Psalms 139:6
Context139:6 Your knowledge is beyond my comprehension;
it is so far beyond me, I am unable to fathom it. 5
Psalms 139:17
Context139:17 How difficult it is for me to fathom your thoughts about me, O God! 6
How vast is their sum total! 7
1 tn Heb “my mouth declares your vindication, all the day your deliverance.”
2 tn Heb “though I do not know [the] numbers,” that is, the tally of God’s just and saving acts. HALOT 768 s.v. סְפֹרוֹת understands the plural noun to mean “the art of writing.”
3 tn Heb “Who knows the strength of your anger?”
4 tn Heb “and like your fear [is] your raging fury.” Perhaps one should emend וּכְיִרְאָתְךְ (ukhyir’otekh, “and like your fear”) to יִרְאָתְךְ (yir’otkh, “your fear”), understanding a virtual dittography (אַפֶּךָ וּכְיִרְאָתְךְ, ’apekha ukhyir’otekh) to have occurred. In this case the psalmist asserts “your fear [is] your raging fury,” that is, your raging fury is what causes others to fear you. The suffix on “fear” is understood as objective.
5 tn Heb “too amazing [is this] knowledge for me, it is elevated, I cannot attain to it.”
6 tn Heb “and to me how precious are your thoughts, O God.” The Hebrew verb יָקַר (yaqar) probably has the sense of “difficult [to comprehend]” here (see HALOT 432 s.v. יקר qal.1 and note the use of Aramaic יַקִּר in Dan 2:11). Elsewhere in the immediate context the psalmist expresses his amazement at the extent of God’s knowledge about him (see vv. 1-6, 17b-18).
7 tn Heb “how vast are their heads.” Here the Hebrew word “head” is used of the “sum total” of God’s knowledge of the psalmist.
