My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, [and] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
Ver. 15. My substance was not hid from thee] Ossatio mea, id est, ossium et artuum compages, the structure of my bones and joints. But was not he a wise man (and yet wise enough otherwise) who, being asked upon his death bed what his soul was? seriously answered, that he knew not well; but he thought it was a great bone in the middle of his body? (Pemble's Mischief of Ignorance).
Was not hid from thee] For thou hast both the names and number of every part, to a nerve or an artery. Aquinas saith that at the resurrection the bodies of the saints shall be so clear and transparent that all the veins, humours, nerves, and bowels shall be seen, as in a glass. It is sure that they are so to God when first formed in the womb.
When I was made in secret] That is, in the womb of my mother. As curious workmen, when they have some choice piece in hand, they perfect it in private, and then bring it forth to light for men to gaze at; so here.
And curiously wrought] Variegatus, et quasi acu pictus, Embroidered and wrought as with the needle; whence man is called a microcosm, or little world. Bodine observeth that there are three regions within man's body (besides all that is seen without), answerable to those three regions of the world: elementary, ethereal, and celestial (Vide Lactant. de Dei Opificio; Galen. de Usa Part.; Song of Solomon 2, de Nat. Deor.). His entrails and whatsoever is under his heart resemble the elementary region, wherein only there is generation and corruption; the heart and vitals, that are divided from those entrails by the diaphragm, resemble the ethereal region; as the brain doth the heavenly, which consisteth of intelligible creatures.
In the lowest parts of the earth] That is, in my mother's womb, as before. See Ephesians 4:9. The Syriac interpreteth it (but not so well), when I shall die, and be buried, and my bones turned to ashes, yet thou shalt know them.