The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; They are knit together, they are come up on my neck; he has made my strength to fail: The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.
(139) All the versions agree in rendering נשקד in the sense of watching; and when they agree, there is a strong presumption that they are right. And all agree as to על being a preposition, and not a noun, “yoke,” except the Vulg., which hardly gives any meaning. The Rabbins have invented a new meaning for the verb, which it has in no other place, and some have followed them. It is rendered impersonally by the Sept. , “there has been watching,” but by the Vulg. , “he hath watched.” To “watch over transgressions,” is similar to “watch upon (or over) the evil,” in Daniel 9:14; it is to watch over them in order to punish them. The whole verse I render thus, — 