Proverbs 19:21

19:21 There are many plans 1  in a person’s mind, 2 

but it 3  is the counsel 4  of the Lord which will stand.

Acts 28:16

28:16 When we entered Rome, Paul was allowed to live 5  by himself, with the soldier who was guarding him.

Romans 15:24

15:24 when I go to Spain. For I hope to visit you when I pass through and that you will help me 6  on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while.

1 sn The plans (from the Hebrew verb חָשַׁב [khashav], “to think; to reckon; to devise”) in the human heart are many. But only those which God approves will succeed.

2 tn Heb “in the heart of a man” (cf. NAB, NIV). Here “heart” is used for the seat of thoughts, plans, and reasoning, so the translation uses “mind.” In contemporary English “heart” is more often associated with the seat of emotion than with the seat of planning and reasoning.

3 tn Heb “but the counsel of the Lord, it will stand.” The construction draws attention to the “counsel of the Lord”; it is an independent nominative absolute, and the resumptive independent pronoun is the formal subject of the verb.

4 tn The antithetical parallelism pairs “counsel” with “plans.” “Counsel of the Lord” (עֲצַת יְהוָה, ’atsat yehvah) is literally “advice” or “counsel” with the connotation of “plan” in this context (cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “purpose”; NCV “plan”; TEV “the Lord’s will”).

5 tn Or “to stay.”

6 tn Grk “and to be helped by you.” The passive construction was changed to an active one in the translation.