Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being
unperfect
The word F17 for "substance" signifies a bottom
of yarn wound up, or any rude or unformed lump; and designs that
conglomerated mass of matter separated in the womb, containing
all the essentials of the human frame, but not yet distinguished
or reduced into any form or order; yet, even when in this state,
the eyes of the Lord see it and all its parts distinctly;
and in thy book all [my members] were written: [which] in
continuance
were fashioned, when [as yet there was] none of
them;
in the book of God's eternal mind, and designs, the plan of the
human body was drawn, all the parts of it described, and their
form, places, and uses fixed, even when as yet not one of them
was in actual being; but in due time they are all exactly formed
and fashioned according to the model of them in the mind of God;
who has as perfect knowledge of them beforehand as if they were
written down in a book before him, Or "in thy book are written
all [of them], what days they should be fashioned"; not only each
of the members of the body were put down in this book, but each
of the days in which they should be formed and come into order:
"when" as yet there was "none of them"; none of those days,
before they took place, even before all time; the Targum is,
``in the book of thy memory all my days are written, in the day the world was created, from the beginning that all creatures were created.''