Salmos 119:109

La Biblia Reina-Valera Gomez

De continuo está mi alma en mi mano; mas no me he olvidado de tu ley.

Parallel Translations

La Biblia de las Americas
En peligro continuo está mi vida, con todo, no me olvido de tu ley.

La Biblia Reina-Valera
De continuo está mi alma en mi mano: Mas no me he olvidado de tu ley.

Sagradas Escrituras (1569)
De continuo está mi alma en mi mano; mas no me he olvidado de tu ley.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

My soul: Rather, "My life naphshee is continually in my hand;" i.e., it is in constant danger; every hour I am on the confines of death. The LXX, Syriac, and Ethiopic read, "in thy hand;" but this is a conjectural and useless alteration. Judges 12:3, 1 Samuel 19:5, 1 Samuel 20:3, Job 13:14, Romans 8:36, 1 Corinthians 15:31, 2 Corinthians 11:23

yet do I not: Psalms 119:83, Psalms 119:117, Psalms 119:152

Reciprocal: Psalms 119:16 - not forget Psalms 119:141 - yet do Psalms 119:153 - for I Jeremiah 26:21 - the king sought Hebrews 12:5 - ye have forgotten

Gill's Notes on the Bible

My soul [is] continually in my hand,.... In the utmost jeopardy, always exposed to danger, ever delivered unto death; killed all the day long, or liable to be so: this is the sense of the phrase; see Judges 12:3; for what is in a man's hands may easily fall, or be taken out of them: so the Targum,

"my soul is in danger upon the back of my hands continually;''

the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions, read, "in thy hands"; but wrongly;

yet do I not forget thy law; it was written on his heart, and fixed in his mind; he had a true affection for it, and a hearty desire to keep it; and no danger could divert him from his duty; as Daniel, though he carried his life in his hand, yet continued to pray to his God as usual; nor could anything move the Apostle Paul from the doctrine of the Gospel, and preaching it.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My soul is continually in my hand - The Septuagint renders this, “My soul is always in thy hands,” but the Hebrew will not admit of this construction. The idea in the original is that his soul - his life - was always in jeopardy. The expression seems to be proverbial. Anything taken in the hand is liable to be rudely snatched away. Thus a casket of jewels, or a purse of gold in the hand, may at any moment be seized by robbers. See the notes at Job 13:14. Compare 1 Samuel 19:5; Judges 12:3. The meaning here is, that his life was constantly in danger.

Yet do I not forget thy law - Notwithstanding the danger to which I am exposed, and the care necessary to defend my life, I do not allow my mind to be turned from meditating on thy law, nor do I suffer any danger to deter me from obeying it. Compare the notes at Psalms 119:61.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Psalms 119:109. My soul is continually in my hand — נפשי naphshi, my life; that is, it is in constant danger, every hour I am on the confines of death. The expression signifies to be in continual danger. So Xenarchus in Athenaeus, lib. xiii., c. 4: Εν τῃ χειρι την ψυχην εχοντα, "having the life in the hand;" which signifies continual danger and jeopardy. There is some thing like this in the speech of Achilles to Ulysses, HOM. Il. ix., ver. 322: -

Αιει εμην ψυχην παραβαλλομενος πολεμιζειν·

"Always presenting my life to the dangers of the fight."

My soul is in thy hand, is the reading of the Syriac, Septuagint, AEthiopic, and Arabic; but this is a conjectural and useless emendation.