1 Corinthians 12:6

12:6 And there are different results, but the same God who produces all of them in everyone.

Daniel 4:35

4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ¹ 

He does as he wishes with the army of heaven

and with those who inhabit the earth.

No one slaps ²  his hand

and says to him, ‘What have you done?’

Matthew 11:26

11:26 Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will. ³ 

Matthew 20:15

20:15 Am I not ⁴  permitted to do what I want with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ ⁵ 

John 3:8

3:8 The wind ⁶  blows wherever it will, and you hear the sound it makes, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ⁷ 

John 5:21

5:21 For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, ⁸  so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. ⁹ 

Romans 9:18

9:18 So then, ¹⁰  God ¹¹  has mercy on whom he chooses to have mercy, and he hardens whom he chooses to harden. ¹² 

Ephesians 1:11

1:11 In Christ ¹³  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ¹⁴  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

Hebrews 2:4

2:4 while God confirmed their witness ¹⁵  with signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed ¹⁶  according to his will.

James 1:18

1:18 By his sovereign plan he gave us birth ¹⁷  through the message of truth, that we would be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

¹ tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew MSS, rather than כְּלָה (kÿlah) of BHS.

² tn Aram “strikes against.”

³ tn Grk “for (to do) thus was well-pleasing before you,” BDAG 325 s.v. ἔμπροσθεν 1.b.δ; speaking of something taking place “before” God is a reverential way of avoiding direct connection of the action to him.

⁴ tc ‡ Before οὐκ (ouk, “[am I] not”) a number of significant witnesses read ἤ (h, “or”; e.g., א C W 085 Ë^1,13 33 and most others). Although in later Greek the οι in σοι (oi in soi) – the last word of v. 14 – would have been pronounced like ἤ, since ἤ is lacking in early mss (B D; among later witnesses, note L Z Θ 700) and since mss were probably copied predominantly by sight rather than by sound, even into the later centuries, the omission of ἤ cannot be accounted for as easily. Thus the shorter reading is most likely original. NA²⁷ includes the word in brackets, indicating doubts as to its authenticity.

⁵ tn Grk “Is your eye evil because I am good?”

⁶ tn The same Greek word, πνεύματος (pneumatos), may be translated “wind” or “spirit.”

⁷ sn Again, the physical illustrates the spiritual, although the force is heightened by the word-play here on wind-spirit (see the note on wind at the beginning of this verse). By the end of the verse, however, the final usage of πνεύματος (pneumatos) refers to the Holy Spirit.

⁸ tn Grk “and makes them live.”

⁹ tn Grk “the Son makes whomever he wants to live.”

¹⁰ sn There is a double connective here that cannot be easily preserved in English: “consequently therefore,” emphasizing the conclusion of what he has been arguing.

¹¹ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹² tn Grk “So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.”

¹³ tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

¹⁴ tn Grk “we were appointed by lot.” The notion of the verb κληρόω (klhrow) in the OT was to “appoint a portion by lot” (the more frequent cognate verb κληρονομέω [klhronomew] meant “obtain a portion by lot”). In the passive, as here, the idea is that “we were appointed [as a portion] by lot” (BDAG 548 s.v. κληρόω 1). The words “God’s own” have been supplied in the translation to clarify this sense of the verb. An alternative interpretation is that believers receive a portion as an inheritance: “In Christ we too have been appointed a portion of the inheritance.” See H. W. Hoehner, Ephesians, 226-27, for discussion on this interpretive issue.

¹⁵ tn Grk “God bearing witness together” (the phrase “with them” is implied).

¹⁶ tn Grk “and distributions of the Holy Spirit.”

¹⁷ tn Grk “Having willed, he gave us birth.”