Deuteronomy 23:5

23:5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves you.

Psalms 76:10

76:10 Certainly your angry judgment upon men will bring you praise;

you reveal your anger in full measure.

Proverbs 21:1

21:1 The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord like channels of water;

he turns it wherever he wants.

Isaiah 10:7

10:7 But he does not agree with this,

his mind does not reason this way,

for his goal is to destroy,

and to eliminate many nations. 10 

Isaiah 46:10

46:10 who announces the end from the beginning

and reveals beforehand 11  what has not yet occurred,

who says, ‘My plan will be realized,

I will accomplish what I desire,’


tn Heb “the Lord your God changed.” The phrase “the Lord your God” has not been included in the translation here for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy. Moreover, use of the pronoun “he” could create confusion regarding the referent (the Lord or Balaam).

tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”) here and commonly elsewhere in the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s elective grace toward Israel. See note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.

tn Or “for.”

tn Heb “the anger of men will praise you.” This could mean that men’s anger (subjective genitive), when punished by God, will bring him praise, but this interpretation does not harmonize well with the next line. The translation assumes that God’s anger is in view here (see v. 7) and that “men” is an objective genitive. God’s angry judgment against men brings him praise because it reveals his power and majesty (see vv. 1-4).

tn Heb “the rest of anger you put on.” The meaning of the statement is not entirely clear. Perhaps the idea is that God, as he prepares for battle, girds himself with every last ounce of his anger, as if it were a weapon.

sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.

sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.

tn “Channels of water” (פַּלְגֵי, palge) is an adverbial accusative, functioning as a figure of comparison – “like channels of water.” Cf. NAB “Like a stream”; NIV “watercourse”; NRSV, NLT “a stream of water.”

tn Heb “but he, not so does he intend, and his heart, not so does it think.”

10 tn Heb “for to destroy [is] in his heart, and to cut off nations, not a few.”

11 tn Or “from long ago”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “from ancient times.”