⁷ Where could I go to get away from your spirit?
    Where could I go to escape your presence?
⁸ If I went up to heaven, you would be there.
    If I went down to the grave,^[a] you would be there too!
⁹ If I could fly on the wings of dawn,
    stopping to rest only on the far side of the ocean—
¹⁰         even there your hand would guide me;
        even there your strong hand would hold me tight!
¹¹ If I said, “The darkness will definitely hide me;
        the light will become night around me,”
¹²     even then the darkness isn’t too dark for you!
        Nighttime would shine bright as day,
        because darkness is the same as light to you!

¹³ You are the one who created my innermost parts;
    you knit me together while I was still in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I give thanks to you that I was marvelously set apart.
    Your works are wonderful—I know that very well.
¹⁵ My bones weren’t hidden from you
    when I was being put together in a secret place,
    when I was being woven together in the deep parts of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my embryo,
    and on your scroll every day was written that was being formed for me,^[b]
    before any one of them had yet happened.^[c]
17 God, your plans are incomprehensible to me!
    Their total number is countless!
¹⁸ If I tried to count them—they outnumber grains of sand!
    If I came to the very end—I’d still be with you.^[d]

¹⁹ If only, God, you would kill the wicked!
    If only murderers would get away from me—
²⁰     the people who talk about you, but only for wicked schemes;
        the people who are your enemies,
        who use your name as if it were of no significance.^[e]
21 Don’t I hate everyone who hates you?
    Don’t I despise those who attack you?
²² Yes, I hate them—through and through!
    They’ve become my enemies too.

²³ Examine me, God! Look at my heart!
    Put me to the test! Know my anxious thoughts!
²⁴ Look to see if there is any idolatrous way^[f] in me,
    then lead me on the eternal path!