Psalms 16:2 - Exposition

O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord . The ordinary Hebrew text, אָמַרְתְּ , "thou hast said," requires the insertion of "O my soul," or something similar. But if we read אמרתי with a large number of manuscripts, with the LXX ; the Vulgate, the Syriac, and most other versions, no insertion will be necessary. The meaning will then be, I have said to Jehovah. Thou art my Lord ; Hebrew, adonai —"my Lord and Master." My goodness extendeth not to thee . This meaning cannot be elicited from the Hebrew words. Tobah is not "goodness," but "prosperity" or "happiness" (comp. Psalms 106:5 ); and 'aleyka is best explained as "beside thee," "beyond thee." The psalmist means to say that he has no happiness beside (or apart from) God. (So Ewald, Hengstenberg, Cheyne, the 'Speaker's Commentary,' and the Revised Version.)