¹ Then Ahithophel said to Absalom, Let me take out twelve thousand men and this very night I will go after David:

³ But your strength, O Lord, is round me, you are my glory and the lifter up of my head.

⁴ I send up a cry to the Lord with my voice, and he gives me an answer from his holy hill. (Selah.)

⁵ I took my rest in sleep, and then again I was awake; for the Lord was my support.

⁸ I will take my rest on my bed in peace, because you only, Lord, keep me safe.

² For the mouth of the sinner is open against me in deceit: his tongue has said false things against me.

³ Words of hate are round about me; they have made war against me without cause.

⁴ For my love they give me back hate; but I have given myself to prayer.

¹⁶ For they take no rest till they have done evil; their sleep is taken away if they have not been the cause of someone's fall.

⁷ Their feet go quickly to evil, and they take delight in the death of the upright; their thoughts are thoughts of sin; wasting and destruction are in their ways.

⁸ They have no knowledge of the way of peace, and there is no sense of what is right in their behaviour: they have made for themselves ways which are not straight; whoever goes in them has no knowledge of peace.

¹⁶ For their feet are running after evil, and they are quick to take a man's life.