Psalm 139:1-24
For the director. Of David. A melody.
139 O Jehovah, you have searched through me, and you know [me].+
2 You yourself have come to know my sitting down and my rising up.+You have considered my thought from far off.+
3 My journeying and my lying outstretched you have measured off,+And you have become familiar even with all my ways.+
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,+But, look! O Jehovah, you already know it all.+
5 Behind and before, you have besieged me;And you place your hand upon me.
6 [Such] knowledge is too wonderful for me.+It is so high up that I cannot attain to it.+
7 Where can I go from your spirit,*+And where can I run away from your face?+
8 If I should ascend to heaven, there you would be;+And if I should spread out my couch in Sheʹol,* look! you [would be there].+
9 Were I to take the wings+ of the dawn,That I might reside in the most remote sea,+
10 There, also, your own hand would lead me+And your right hand would lay hold of me.+
11 And were I to say: “Surely darkness itself will hastily seize me!”+Then night would be light about me.+
12 Even the darkness itself would not prove too dark for you,+But night itself would shine just as the day does;+The darkness might just as well be the light.*+
13 For you yourself produced my kidneys;+You kept me screened off in the belly of my mother.+
14 I shall laud you because in a fear-inspiring way I am wonderfully made.+Your works are wonderful,+As my soul is very well aware.+
15 My bones were not hidden from you+When I was made in secret,+When I was woven in the lowest parts*+ of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw even the embryo of me,+And in your book all its parts were down in writing,As regards the days when they were formed+And there was not yet one among them.
17 So, to me how precious your thoughts are!+O God,* how much does the grand sum of them amount to!+
18 Were I to try to count them, they are more than even the grains of sand.+I have awaked,* and yet I am still with you.+
19 O that you, O God,* would slay the wicked one!+Then even the bloodguilty men*+ will certainly depart from me,
20 Who say things about you according to [their] idea;+They have taken up [your name] in a worthless way+—your adversaries.+
21 Do I not hate those who are intensely hating you, O Jehovah,+And do I not feel a loathing for those revolting against you?+
22 With a complete hatred I do hate them.+They have become to me real enemies.+
23 Search through me, O God,* and know my heart.+Examine me, and know my disquieting thoughts,+
24 And see whether there is in me any painful way,+And lead me in the way+ of time indefinite.
Footnotes
^ “From your spirit.” Heb., me·ru·cheʹkha; Gr., pneuʹma·tosʹ; Lat., spiʹri·tu.
^ “Sheol.” Heb., sheʼohlʹ; Gr., haiʹden; Syr., la·shiul; Lat., in·ferʹnum. See App 4B.
^ Lit., “like the darkness, like the light”; or, “as the darkness, so the light.”
^ “Lowest parts.” Compare 63:9 ftn.
^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
^ “I have come to my end,” three Heb. mss.
^ Or, “bloodthirsty men.” Lit., “men of bloods.”
^ “God.” Heb., ʼElohʹah.
^ “God.” Heb., ʼEl.
