For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
For thou (emphatic) hast possessed my reins. The "For" implies, it is no wonder that nothing appertaining to me is hidden from thee, seeing that it is THOU who ownest my reins (the hidden seat of my feelings-properly, the kidneys), by the right of creation (we Christians may add, and of redemption). So the Septuagint, Vulgate, Ethiopic, and Chaldaic. So the Hebrew usually means. The Syriac and Arabic, from a secondary meaning, acquire in any way, as by creation, translate, 'Thou hast formed my reins.' But it is better to adhere, with the English version, to the ordinary sense of the Hebrew, kaanah (H3655) (cf. Proverbs 8:22). Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb - a place dark as night. As thou hast protected me the dark womb at the first, so there is no night-darkness (Psalms 139:11-12) that can so overwhelm me as to be beyond the reach of thy light and life-giving protection. The kindred psalm, Psalms 140:7, which uses the Hebrew, Sakak, in the same sense, establishes the English version. "Thou hast covered me:" not as Maurer, from Job 10:11, 'Thou hast women me' - i:e., artfully elaborated the several parts of my body, as a weaver does a web. So the Chaldaic Targum. 'Thou hast founded me.' The covering consists in God's oversight of the germ of life, impotent in itself (Job 10:11-12; Psalms 22:9).