Bible Strands
Psalms 139:11
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light become night around me”—
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks to God, presenting a hypothetical claim about seeking concealment in darkness immediately after affirming God’s guiding presence in verse 10.
The words — חֹשֶׁךְ (cho-shekh) translates as “darkness,” paired with יְשׁוּפֵנִי (ye-shu-ffi-ni), literally “it will crush me,” which describes the imagined force of night to obscure and overwhelm.
The thread — The motif of futile concealment recurs in Job 12:22, where God exposes the deep things of darkness, and Jeremiah 23:24, which questions whether any human can hide from God’s omnipresence.
Why it lands — The text states that darkness cannot conceal or crush the speaker from divine sight, requiring the reader to abandon any assumption of privacy before God.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
Cross-references
- Job 12:22 He reveals the deep things of darkness and brings deep shadows into light.
- Jeremiah 23:24 “Can a man hide in secret places where I cannot see him?” declares the LORD. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?” declares the LORD.
- Psalms 94:7 They say, “The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob pays no heed.”
- Job 22:12 Is not God as high as the heavens? Look at the highest stars, how lofty they are!
- Psalms 10:11 He says to himself, “God has forgotten; He hides His face and never sees.”
- Isaiah 29:15 Woe to those who dig deep to hide their plans from the LORD. In darkness they do their works and say, “Who sees us, and who will know?”