| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1O LORD, you have searched me and known me! | 1O LORD, you have examined my heart and know everything about me. |
| 2You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. | 2You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. |
| 3You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. | 3You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. |
| 4Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether. | 4You know what I am going to say even before I say it, LORD. |
| 5You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. | 5You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. |
| 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it. | 6Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! |
| 7Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? | 7I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! |
| 8If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! | 8If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. |
| 9If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, | 9If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, |
| 10even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. | 10even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. |
| 11If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” | 11I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— |
| 12even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you. | 12but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. |
| 13For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. | 13You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. |
| 14I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. | 14Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. |
| 15My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. | 15You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. |
| 16Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them. | 16You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. |
| 17How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! | 17How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! |
| 18If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. | 18I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me! |
| 19Oh that you would slay the wicked, O God! O men of blood, depart from me! | 19O God, if only you would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers! |
| 20They speak against you with malicious intent; your enemies take your name in vain. | 20They blaspheme you; your enemies misuse your name. |
| 21Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? | 21O LORD, shouldn’t I hate those who hate you? Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you? |
| 22I hate them with complete hatred; I count them my enemies. | 22Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies. |
| 23Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! | 23Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. |
| 24And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! | 24Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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