They can't wait to do something bad. They're always ready to kill.

The words of the wicked are murderous, but the words of the righteous rescue those who are threatened.

There are people who take cruel advantage of the poor and needy; that is the way they make their living.

They gather in hiding places and watch everything I do, hoping to kill me.

They encourage each other in their evil plots; they talk about where they will place their traps. "No one can see them," they say.

They make evil plans and say, "We have planned a perfect crime." The human heart and mind are a mystery.

"Evildoers live among my people; they lie in wait like those who lay nets to catch birds, but they have set their traps to catch people.

There is not an honest person left in the land, no one loyal to God. Everyone is waiting for a chance to commit murder. Everyone hunts down their own people.

Now then, you and the Council send word to the Roman commander to bring Paul down to you, pretending that you want to get more accurate information about him. But we will be ready to kill him before he ever gets here."

to do them the favor of having Paul come to Jerusalem, for they had made a plot to kill him on the way.

but people like that are setting a trap for themselves, a trap in which they will die.

They hide themselves in the villages, waiting to murder innocent people. They spy on their helpless victims;

The helpless victims lie crushed; brute strength has defeated them.

They are like lions, waiting for me, wanting to tear me to pieces.

Without any reason they laid a trap for me and dug a deep hole to catch me.

I was like a trusting lamb taken out to be killed, and I did not know that it was against me that they were planning evil things. They were saying, "Let's chop down the tree while it is still healthy; let's kill him so that no one will remember him any more."

Then the people said, "Let's do something about Jeremiah! There will always be priests to instruct us, the wise to give us counsel, and prophets to proclaim God's message. Let's bring charges against him and stop listening to what he says."

Is evil the payment for good? Yet they have dug a pit for me to fall in. Remember how I came to you and spoke on their behalf, so that you would not deal with them in anger.

Then the chief priests and the elders met together in the palace of Caiaphas, the High Priest,

and made plans to arrest Jesus secretly and put him to death.

This, however, was bound to happen so that what is written in their Law may come true: 'They hated me for no reason at all.'