Bible Strands
Psalms 139:8
If I ascend to the heavens, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist speaks to God, posing a rhetorical inquiry about fleeing divine presence. The speaker frames the moment as a hypothetical search for spatial escape.
The words — אֶסַּ֣ק ('e.Sak) translates literally to "I will ascend," while שְּׁא֣וֹל (she.'ol) denotes the grave or underworld. These terms establish the vertical extremes of the speaker's imagined journey.
The thread — The text claims God's presence reaches both heights and depths, a claim echoed in Amos 9:2 and Jonah 2:2 where divine intervention operates in heaven and Sheol. Job 34:21 extends this by stating God's eyes observe every human action without geographic restriction.
Why it lands — The verse asserts that no physical location removes one from divine awareness. It requires the reader to abandon the premise that geography can provide refuge from accountability.
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 ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
Cross-references
- Amos 9:2 Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down.
- Job 34:21 For His eyes are on the ways of a man, and He sees his every step.
- Jonah 2:2 saying: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me. From the belly of Sheol I called for help, and You heard my voice.
- Proverbs 15:11 Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD—how much more the hearts of men!
- Obadiah 1:4 Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD.
- Job 26:6 Sheol is naked before God, and Abaddon has no covering.
- Ezekiel 28:12 “Son of man, take up a lament for the king of Tyre and tell him that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.