In these verses the psalmist uses the figures of darkness and light to show how impossible it is to hide from Yahweh. In verse 11a the Hebrew verb translated cover is found elsewhere in the sense of crush, bruise (Gen 3.15; Job 9.17); here this is taken to mean, in a general sense, to overwhelm or to hide. New Jerusalem Bible has “conceal,” and New English Bible “steal over me.” Some, however, propose to change the Hebrew to a form of the verb which means “to cover” (so New American Bible). Most translations find that the Hebrew text as it is yields a satisfactory sense. In verse 11b instead of the Masoretic text “and the light around me (become) darkness,” the Qumran manuscript has “the night (become) a belt around me,” which Bible de Jérusalem, New Jerusalem Bible, and New English Bible follow. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project says: “There are two possible ways of interpreting this part of the V., either: ‘(… even darkness covers me,) and the light is night around me’, or: ‘(… even in darkness he [i.e. God] watches me,) and during the night he is light about me…’.” The Good News Translation form “ask the darkness to hide me” presents difficulties in translation, in that an inanimate object is being asked to perform an action. Biblia Dios Habla Hoy provides a model that may be more easily followed: “If I thought of hiding in the darkness, or that the light that surrounds me be turned into darkness….”

Not even the possibility of changing light into darkness would be of any help to the psalmist, were he to attempt to flee from Yahweh, for with Yahweh there is no difference between darkness and light (verse 12). Biblia Dios Habla Hoy goes on to say in verse 12a “the darkness would not hide me from you,” which can also be rendered “but I could not hide from you in the darkness.”

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 .