International Standard Version
Psalm 139
1 LORD, you have examined me; you have known me.
2 You know when I rest a and when I am active. b You understand what I am thinking when I am distant from you. c
3 You scrutinize my life and my rest; d you are familiar with all of my ways.
4 Even before I have formed a word with my tongue, you, LORD, know it completely!
5 You encircle me from back to front, placing your hand upon me.
6 Knowledge like this is too amazing for me. It is beyond my reach, and I cannot fathom it.
7 Where can I flee from your spirit? Or where will I run from your presence?
8 If I rise to heaven, there you are! If I lay down with the dead, e there you are!
9 If I take wings with the dawn and settle down on the western horizon f
10 your hand will guide me there, too, while your right hand keeps a firm grip on me.
11 If I say, “Darkness will surely conceal me, and the light around me will become night,” g
12 even darkness isn’t dark to you, darkness and light are the same to you. h
13 It was you who formed my internal organs, i fashioning me within my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, because you are fearful and wondrous! j Your work is wonderful, and I am fully aware of it.
15 My frame was not hidden from you while I was being crafted in a hidden place, knit together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes looked upon my embryo, and everything was recorded in your book. The days scheduled k for my formation were inscribed, even though not one of them had come yet. l
17 How deep m are your thoughts, God! How great is their number!
18 Were I to count them, they would number more than the sand. When I awake, I will be with you.
19 God, if only you would execute the wicked, so that n the men guilty of bloodshed would get away from me,
20 who speak against you with evil motives, your enemies who are acting in vain.
21 I hate those who hate you, LORD, do I not? I loathe those who rebel against you, do I not ?
22 With consummate hatred I hate them; I consider them my enemies.
23 Examine me, God, and know my mind, test me, and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive tendency o in me, and lead me in the eternal way.