16:33 The dice are thrown into the lap, 1
but their every decision 2 is from the Lord. 3
21:1 The king’s heart 4 is in the hand 5 of the Lord like channels of water; 6
he turns it wherever he wants.
1 tn Heb “the lot is cast.” Because the ancient practice of “casting lots” is unfamiliar to many modern readers, the imagery has been updated to “throwing dice.”
2 tn Heb “all its decision.”
3 sn The point concerns seeking God’s will through the practice. The
4 sn “Heart” is a metonymy of subject; it signifies the ability to make decisions, if not the decisions themselves.
5 sn “Hand” in this passage is a personification; the word is frequently used idiomatically for “power,” and that is the sense intended here.
6 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.”