Psalms 139:11

If I were to say, “Certainly the darkness will cover me, ¹  and the light will turn to night all around me,” ² 

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,"

If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,"

I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night––

Then I said to myself, "Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I'm immersed in the light!"

If I say, Only let me be covered by the dark, and the light about me be night;

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light around me become night,"

If I say, "Surely the darkness shall fall on me," Even the night shall be light about me;

If I were to say, “Certainly the darkness will cover me, ¹  and the light will turn to night all around me,” ² 

¹ tn The Hebrew verb שׁוּף (shuf), which means “to crush; to wound,” in Gen 3:15 and Job 9:17, is problematic here. For a discussion of attempts to relate the verb to Arabic roots, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 251. Many emend the form to יְשׂוּכֵּנִי (yesukkeniy), from the root שׂכך (“to cover,” an alternate form of סכך), a reading assumed in the present translation.

² tn Heb “and night, light, around me.”