This verse in Hebrew is fairly clear: “my skeleton was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately arranged in the depths of the earth.” Most commentators agree that the depths of the earth is a figure for the mother’s womb. Dahood, however, takes it to mean Sheol, and Toombs states that “the ancient world believed that the children were formed in mother earth before they entered the womb.” Anderson and McCullough support the view that this may be the thought here. Most translations are quite literal, “the depths of the earth” (New American Bible, Oxford Revised Standard Version, and Oxford New English Bible have a footnote indicating that the mother’s womb is meant); Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates “the womb of the earth”; Good News Translation has “womb.”

Good News Translation has rearranged the material in this verse for greater ease of understanding. “Carefully put together” (Revised Standard Version intricately wrought) translates a verb that is used only eight other times, in Exodus, of the decorated embroidery of the various items in the Tent of the LORD’s Presence.

Quoted with permission from Bratcher, Robert G. and Reyburn, William D. A Handbook on the Book of Psalms. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1991. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .