Grace Abounds Where Sin Increased Most

1. Joab was told, “Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Absalom.” 2. The victory that day was turned into mourning among all the people; for the people heard it said that day, “The king grieves for his son.” 3. The people sneaked into the city that day, as people who are ashamed steal away when they flee in battle. 4. The king covered his face, and the king cried with a loud voice, “My son Absalom, Absalom, my son, my son!” 5. Joab came into the house to the king, and said, “Today you have shamed the faces of all your servants, who today have saved your life, and the lives of your sons and of your daughters, and the lives of your wives, and the lives of your concubines; 6. in that you love those who hate you, and hate those who love you. For you have declared today, that princes and servants are nothing to you. For today I perceive that if Absalom had lived, and all we had died today, then it would have pleased you well. 7. Now therefore arise, go out, and speak to comfort your servants; for I swear by Yahweh, if you don’t go out, not a man will stay with you this night. That would be worse to you than all the evil that has happened to you from your youth until now.” 8. Then the king arose, and sat in the gate. They told to all the people, saying, “Behold, the king is sitting in the gate.” All the people came before the king. Now Israel had fled every man to his tent. 9. All the people were at strife throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, “The king delivered us out of the hand of our enemies, and he saved us out of the hand of the Philistines; and now he has fled out of the land from Absalom. 10. Absalom, whom we anointed over us, is dead in battle. Now therefore why don’t you speak a word of bringing the king back?” 11. King David sent to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, saying, “Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, ‘Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house? Since the speech of all Israel has come to the king, to return him to his house. 12. You are my brothers. You are my bone and my flesh. Why then are you the last to bring back the king?’ 13. Say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my bone and my flesh? God do so to me, and more also, if you aren’t captain of the army before me continually instead of Joab.’” 14. He bowed the heart of all the men of Judah, even as one man; so that they sent to the king, saying, “Return, you and all your servants.” 15. So the king returned, and came to the Jordan. Judah came to Gilgal, to go to meet the king, to bring the king over the Jordan. 16. Shimei the son of Gera, the Benjamite, who was of Bahurim, hurried and came down with the men of Judah to meet king David. 17. There were a thousand men of Benjamin with him, and Ziba the servant of Saul’s house, and his fifteen sons and his twenty servants with him; and they went through the Jordan in the presence of the king. 18. A ferry boat went to bring over the king’s household, and to do what he thought good. Shimei the son of Gera fell down before the king, when he had come over the Jordan. 19. He said to the king, “Don’t let my lord impute iniquity to me, or remember that which your servant did perversely the day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king should take it to his heart. 20. For your servant knows that I have sinned. Therefore behold, I have come today as the first of all the house of Joseph to go down to meet my lord the king.” 21. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah answered, “Shouldn’t Shimei be put to death for this, because he cursed Yahweh’s anointed?” 22. David said, “What have I to do with you, you sons of Zeruiah, that you should be adversaries to me today? Shall any man be put to death today in Israel? For don’t I know that I am king over Israel today?” 23. The king said to Shimei, “You will not die.” The king swore to him. 24. Mephibosheth the son of Saul came down to meet the king; and he had neither groomed his feet, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace. 25. When he had come to Jerusalem to meet the king, the king said to him, “Why didn’t you go with me, Mephibosheth?” 26. He answered, “My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. For your servant said, I will saddle me a donkey, that I may ride on it, and go with the king; because your servant is lame. 27. He has slandered your servant to my lord the king, but my lord the king is as an angel of God. Do therefore what is good in your eyes. 28. For all my father’s house were but dead men before my lord the king; yet you set your servant among those who ate at your own table. What right therefore have I yet that I should cry any more to the king?” 29. The king said to him, “Why do you speak any more of your matters? I say, you and Ziba divide the land.” 30. Mephibosheth said to the king, “Yes, let him take all, because my lord the king has come in peace to his own house.” 31. Barzillai the Gileadite came down from Rogelim; and he went over the Jordan with the king, to conduct him over the Jordan. 32. Now Barzillai was a very aged man, even eighty years old. He had provided the king with sustenance while he stayed at Mahanaim; for he was a very great man. 33. The king said to Barzillai, “Come over with me, and I will sustain you with me in Jerusalem.” 34. Barzillai said to the king, “How many are the days of the years of my life, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? 35. I am eighty years old, today. Can I discern between good and bad? Can your servant taste what I eat or what I drink? Can I hear the voice of singing men and singing women any more? Why then should your servant be a burden to my lord the king? 36. Your servant would but just go over the Jordan with the king. Why should the king repay me with such a reward? 37. Please let your servant turn back again, that I may die in my own city, by the grave of my father and my mother. But behold, your servant Chimham; let him go over with my lord the king; and do to him what shall seem good to you.” 38. The king answered, “Chimham shall go over with me, and I will do to him that which shall seem good to you. Whatever you request of me, that I will do for you.” 39. All the people went over the Jordan, and the king went over. Then the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned to his own place. 40. So the king went over to Gilgal, and Chimham went over with him. All the people of Judah brought the king over, and also half the people of Israel. 41. Behold, all the men of Israel came to the king, and said to the king, “Why have our brothers the men of Judah stolen you away, and brought the king, and his household, over the Jordan, and all David’s men with him?” 42. All the men of Judah answered the men of Israel, “Because the king is a close relative to us. Why then are you angry about this matter? Have we eaten at all at the king’s cost? Or has he given us any gift?” 43. The men of Israel answered the men of Judah, and said, “We have ten parts in the king, and we have also more claim to David than you. Why then did you despise us, that our advice should not be first had in bringing back our king?” The words of the men of Judah were fiercer than the words of the men of Israel. 1. There happened to be there a wicked fellow, whose name was Sheba, the son of Bichri, a Benjamite; and he blew the trumpet, and said, “We have no portion in David, neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to his tents, Israel!” 2. So all the men of Israel went up from following David, and followed Sheba the son of Bichri; but the men of Judah joined with their king, from the Jordan even to Jerusalem. 3. David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in custody, and provided them with sustenance, but didn’t go in to them. So they were shut up to the day of their death, living in widowhood. 4. Then the king said to Amasa, “Call me the men of Judah together within three days, and be here present.” 5. So Amasa went to call the men of Judah together; but he stayed longer than the set time which he had appointed him. 6. David said to Abishai, “Now Sheba the son of Bichri will do us more harm than Absalom did. Take your lord’s servants, and pursue after him, lest he get himself fortified cities, and escape out of our sight.” 7. Joab’s men went out after him, and the Cherethites and the Pelethites, and all the mighty men; and they went out of Jerusalem, to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri. 8. When they were at the great stone which is in Gibeon, Amasa came to meet them. Joab was clothed in his apparel of war that he had put on, and on it was a sash with a sword fastened on his waist in its sheath; and as he went along it fell out. 9. Joab said to Amasa, “Is it well with you, my brother?” Joab took Amasa by the beard with his right hand to kiss him. 10. But Amasa took no heed to the sword that was in Joab’s hand. So he struck him with it in the body, and shed out his bowels to the ground, and didn’t strike him again; and he died. Joab and Abishai his brother pursued Sheba the son of Bichri. 11. One of Joab’s young men stood by him, and said, “He who favors Joab, and he who is for David, let him follow Joab!” 12. Amasa lay wallowing in his blood in the middle of the highway. When the man saw that all the people stood still, he carried Amasa out of the highway into the field, and cast a garment over him, when he saw that everyone who came by him stood still. 13. When he was removed out of the highway, all the people went on after Joab, to pursue Sheba the son of Bichri. 14. He went through all the tribes of Israel to Abel, and to Beth Maacah, and all the Berites. They were gathered together, and went also after him. 15. They came and besieged him in Abel of Beth Maacah, and they cast up a mound against the city, and it stood against the rampart; and all the people who were with Joab battered the wall, to throw it down. 16. Then a wise woman cried out of the city, “Hear, hear! Please say to Joab, ‘Come near here, that I may speak with you.’” 17. He came near to her; and the woman said, “Are you Joab?” He answered, “I am.” Then she said to him, “Hear the words of your servant.” He answered, “I’m listening.” 18. Then she spoke, saying, “They used to say in old times, ‘They shall surely ask counsel at Abel;’ and so they settled a matter. 19. I am among those who are peaceable and faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a mother in Israel. Why will you swallow up Yahweh’s inheritance?” 20. Joab answered, “Far be it, far be it from me, that I should swallow up or destroy. 21. The matter is not so. But a man of the hill country of Ephraim, Sheba the son of Bichri by name, has lifted up his hand against the king, even against David. Just deliver him, and I will depart from the city.” The woman said to Joab, “Behold, his head will be thrown to you over the wall.” 22. Then the woman went to all the people in her wisdom. They cut off the head of Sheba the son of Bichri, and threw it out to Joab. He blew the trumpet, and they were dispersed from the city, every man to his tent. Then Joab returned to Jerusalem to the king. 23. Now Joab was over all the army of Israel, Benaiah the son of Jehoiada was over the Cherethites and over the Pelethites, 24. Adoram was over the men subject to forced labor, Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud was the recorder, 25. Sheva was scribe, and Zadok and Abiathar were priests, 26. and Ira the Jairite was chief minister to David. 1. There was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of Yahweh. Yahweh said, “It is for Saul, and for his bloody house, because he put the Gibeonites to death.” 2. The king called the Gibeonites, and said to them (now the Gibeonites were not of the children of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the children of Israel had sworn to them; and Saul sought to kill them in his zeal for the children of Israel and Judah); 3. and David said to the Gibeonites, “What should I do for you? And with what should I make atonement, that you may bless Yahweh’s inheritance?” 4. The Gibeonites said to him, “It is no matter of silver or gold between us and Saul, or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel.” He said, “Whatever you say, that I will do for you.” 5. They said to the king, “The man who consumed us, and who devised against us, that we should be destroyed from remaining in any of the borders of Israel, 6. let seven men of his sons be delivered to us, and we will hang them up to Yahweh in Gibeah of Saul, the chosen of Yahweh.” The king said, “I will give them.” 7. But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan the son of Saul, because of Yahweh’s oath that was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul. 8. But the king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Michal the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adriel the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. 9. He delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before Yahweh, and all seven of them fell together. They were put to death in the days of harvest, in the first days, at the beginning of barley harvest. 10. Rizpah the daughter of Aiah took sackcloth, and spread it for herself on the rock, from the beginning of harvest until water poured on them from the sky. She allowed neither the birds of the sky to rest on them by day, nor the animals of the field by night. 11. David was told what Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, the concubine of Saul, had done. 12. So David went and took the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son from the men of Jabesh Gilead, who had stolen them from the street of Beth Shan, where the Philistines had hanged them, in the day that the Philistines killed Saul in Gilboa; 13. and he brought up from there the bones of Saul and the bones of Jonathan his son. They also gathered the bones of those who were hanged. 14. They buried the bones of Saul and Jonathan his son in the country of Benjamin in Zela, in the tomb of Kish his father: and they performed all that the king commanded. After that, God answered prayer for the land. 15. The Philistines had war again with Israel; and David went down, and his servants with him, and fought against the Philistines. David grew faint; 16. and Ishbibenob, who was of the sons of the giant, the weight of whose spear was three hundred shekels of brass in weight, he being armed with a new sword, thought he would kill David. 17. But Abishai the son of Zeruiah helped him, and struck the Philistine, and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, “Don’t go out with us to battle any more, so that you don’t quench the lamp of Israel.” 18. After this, that there was again war with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbecai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was of the sons of the giant. 19. There was again war with the Philistines at Gob; and Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed Goliath the Gittite’s brother, the staff of whose spear was like a weaver’s beam. 20. There was again war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on every hand, and six toes on every foot, twenty four in count; and he also was born to the giant. 21. When he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimei, David’s brother, killed him. 22. These four were born to the giant in Gath; and they fell by the hand of David, and by the hand of his servants.

1. Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the Good News of God, 2. which he promised before through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3. concerning his Son, who was born of the offspring of David according to the flesh, 4. who was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5. through whom we received grace and apostleship, for obedience of faith among all the nations, for his name’s sake; 6. among whom you are also called to belong to Jesus Christ; 7. to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 8. First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, that your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world. 9. For God is my witness, whom I serve in my spirit in the Good News of his Son, how unceasingly I make mention of you always in my prayers, 10. requesting, if by any means now at last I may be prospered by the will of God to come to you. 11. For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to the end that you may be established; 12. that is, that I with you may be encouraged in you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13. Now I don’t desire to have you unaware, brothers, that I often planned to come to you, and was hindered so far, that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14. I am debtor both to Greeks and to foreigners, both to the wise and to the foolish. 15. So, as much as is in me, I am eager to preach the Good News to you also who are in Rome. 16. For I am not ashamed of the Good News of Christ, because it is the power of God for salvation for everyone who believes; for the Jew first, and also for the Greek. 17. For in it is revealed God’s righteousness from faith to faith. As it is written, “But the righteous shall live by faith.” 18. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19. because that which is known of God is revealed in them, for God revealed it to them. 20. For the invisible things of him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being perceived through the things that are made, even his everlasting power and divinity; that they may be without excuse. 21. Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened. 22. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23. and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things. 24. Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to uncleanness, that their bodies should be dishonored among themselves; 25. who exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. 26. For this reason, God gave them up to vile passions. For their women changed the natural function into that which is against nature. 27. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural function of the woman, burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men, and receiving in themselves the due penalty of their error. 28. Even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting; 29. being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderers, 30. backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31. without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unforgiving, unmerciful; 32. who, knowing the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them. 1. Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. 2. We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things. 3. Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God? 4. Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 5. But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God; 6. who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:” 7. to those who by perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life; 8. but to those who are self-seeking, and don’t obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation, 9. oppression and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 10. But glory, honor, and peace go to every man who does good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 11. For there is no partiality with God. 12. For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. 13. For it isn’t the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified 14. (for when Gentiles who don’t have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, 15. in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them) 16. in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ. 17. Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God, 18. and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, 19. and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, 20. a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth. 21. You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal? 22. You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23. You who glory in the law, do you dishonor God by disobeying the law? 24. For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written. 25. For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. 26. If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision? 27. Won’t the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? 28. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; 29. but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God. 1. Then what advantage does the Jew have? Or what is the profit of circumcision? 2. Much in every way! Because first of all, they were entrusted with the revelations of God. 3. For what if some were without faith? Will their lack of faith nullify the faithfulness of God? 4. May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar. As it is written, “That you might be justified in your words, and might prevail when you come into judgment.” 5. But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do. 6. May it never be! For then how will God judge the world? 7. For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner? 8. Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned. 9. What then? Are we better than they? No, in no way. For we previously warned both Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin. 10. As it is written, “There is no one righteous; no, not one. 11. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks after God. 12. They have all turned away. They have together become unprofitable. There is no one who does good, no, not so much as one.” 13. “Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have used deceit.” “The poison of vipers is under their lips”; 14. “whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.” 15. “Their feet are swift to shed blood. 16. Destruction and misery are in their ways. 17. The way of peace, they haven’t known.” 18. “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” 19. Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. 20. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. 21. But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets; 22. even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction, 23. for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; 24. being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; 25. whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; 26. to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. 27. Where then is the boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? Of works? No, but by a law of faith. 28. We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. 29. Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, 30. since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith. 31. Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law. 1. What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh? 2. For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God. 3. For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” 4. Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed. 5. But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. 6. Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works, 7. “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 8. Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.” 9. Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. 10. How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. 11. He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them. 12. He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision. 13. For the promise to Abraham and to his offspring that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. 14. For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect. 15. For the law produces wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience. 16. For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. 17. As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were. 18. Besides hope, Abraham in hope believed, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your offspring be.” 19. Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. 20. Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God, 21. and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. 22. Therefore it also was “credited to him for righteousness.” 23. Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone, 24. but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead, 25. who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

1. Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. 2. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar. 3. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. 4. For there is not a word on my tongue, but, behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether. 5. You hem me in behind and before. You laid your hand on me. 6. This knowledge is beyond me. It’s lofty. I can’t attain it. 7. Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence? 8. If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there! 9. If I take the wings of the dawn, and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10. Even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me. 11. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me; the light around me will be night”; 12. even the darkness doesn’t hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness is like light to you. 13. For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14. I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well. 15. My frame wasn’t hidden from you, when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth. 16. Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them. 17. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is their sum! 18. If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you. 19. If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men! 20. For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain. 21. Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you? 22. I hate them with perfect hatred. They have become my enemies. 23. Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts. 24. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.