Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 139:15

"My frame was not hidden from thee, When I was made in secret, [And] curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth." — Psalms 139:15 (ASV)

Substance.— Aquila “bones,” Septuagint and Vulgate “bone,” Symmachus “strength.” Perhaps, generally, body. But the common Hebrew word for bone differs only in the pointing.

In secret.— Compare Æ sch. Eum. 665.

Curiously wrought.— From the use of the verb in Exodus 26:36; Exodus 27:16, it plainly refers to some kind of tapestry work, but whether of the nature of weaving or embroidery is matter of controversy. The English sufficiently suggests the figure.

In the lowest parts of the earth.— This figurative allusion to the womb is intended, no doubt, to heighten the feeling of mystery attaching to birth. There may also be a covert allusion to the creation from dust, as Sirach 40:1 states, From the day that they go out of their mother’s womb, till the day that they return to the mother of all things. This allusion falls in with the view which meets us in other parts of the Old Testament, that the creation of Adam is repeated at every birth (Job 33:6; and see above, Psalms 139:13).

Others, since the expression lowest places of the earth is used of the unseen world (Psalms 63:9), see here a confirmation of the view that the state before birth and after death are in this poem regarded as the dark void of night, with all of whose recesses, however, God is acquainted. (Compare the expressions Womb of Sheôl, Belly of hell, Jonah 2:2; Sirach 51:5.)