You understand how to attach me from afar You understand from afar [how] to attract me to Your friendship and to Your love.

to attach me Heb. לרעי, to attach me to You.

My going about and my lying down You encompassed My way, my lying down, and my dwelling You have encompassed with a wall, for I can do nothing without Your knowledge. You encompassed heb. זרית, an expression of (Exod. 25:24): “a gold crown (זר).” Menachem associated it in this manner (p. 82). Our Sages, however, interpreted it (Nid. 31a, Mid. Ps. 139:3) as referring to the droplet of [semen, transmitted in] sexual intercourse, from whose choicest part the fetus is formed, and the meaning of זֵרִיתָ (זורה) is an expression of winnowing the grain to purify it of the refuse it contains.

You are accustomed Heb. הִסכנתה, you are accustomed.

From the rear and the front My face and my back.

Your pressure your coercion and your ruling, destroit in Old French.

Knowledge is hidden from me, etc. A place to escape from You is covered up and hidden from me. (I found this.)

and if I make my bed Heb. ואציעה, an expression of a spread (מצע) and a bed.

[If] I take up the wings of dawn If I take up for myself the wings of dawn, which shine at once from one end of the world to the other, so will I fly swiftly until I dwell at the end of the sea.

I said, “Darkness will darken me” If I said, “I will be hidden in the darkness, and the darkness will envelop me so that You will not see me.” יְשׁוּפֵנִי is an expression of נֶשֶׁף, evening.

“and the night will be dark about me” Heb. אור, lit. light. And the night will darken before me. This אוֹר is an expression of darkness, like (Job 37:11): “he spreads his clouds of darkness (אור)”; similarly (below 148:3), “all stars of the night (אור)”; similarly (Exod. 14:20), “and it darkened (ויאר) the night.”

Even there I have no asylum, for no darkness will obscure [anything] from You.

as darkness, so is the light Both are the same to You.

For You created my reins which think all my thoughts.

You covered me Heb. תסכני, [equivalent to] תסוֹככני.

I was made in secret In sexual intercourse.

in the lowest parts of the earth In the lowest compartment in my mother’s womb.

Your eyes saw my unformed body From the time that You created the world, Your eyes saw all the forms of the coming generations.

My unformed body Heb. גלמי. My splendor and the pattern of my form, before I was born and before I came into the world, Your eyes saw.

and on Your book they were all written And all the creatures of the world, like me, like them, even all of them, before they were created, were together revealed before You.

days have been formed and one of them All man’s deeds and the end of the days are revealed before You as if they were already formed, although not one of them was in existence, and not one was yet in the world. These are the wonders of God’s works and the way of His might, that future events are revealed to Him before they come. And so, Scripture says (Jer. 1:5): “When I had not yet formed you in the womb, etc.”

and on Your book, they were all written The book of the generations of man, which You showed to Adam.

written lit. all of them will be written, like נכתבוּ.

days were formed without one of them Ultimately, many days were destined to be created, but not one of them was yet created. According to the masoretic text, in which לא is written, this is its explanation. And according to the readingfor it is read לו this is its explanation: days have been formed—He showed the days that were destined to be created, and for His share, He chose one of them, viz. the Sabbath day. Another explanation: This is the Day of Atonement, for forgiveness.

And to me, how dear are Your friends The congregation of Israel says, “How esteemed in my eyes are the righteous in every generation!”

How great is their sum! The calculation of their counting, an expression of (Exod. 30:12): “When you take the sum (ראש) of the children of Israel.”

I shall count them...than sand If I came to count the good of their deeds, they would be more numerous than sand.

I have come to the end, and I am still with You Behold I have now come to the end of the generations that You allotted from then until today, and this generation is still with You and in fear of You, and I have not turned away from following You.

If only You would slay the wicked If only You would slay the wicked.

Who mention You with wicked thought They mention Your name regarding all the thoughts of their evil and call their deities with Your name.

took it up Heb. נשוא, like נשאו, they took up.

Your enemies...in vain Your enemies took up Your name in vain.

whether there is any vexatious way about me Whether there is a way of vexation and deterioration in me.