Jeremiah 4:28

4:28 Because of this the land will mourn

and the sky above will grow black. ¹ 

For I have made my purpose known ² 

and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.” ³ 

Jeremiah 51:29

51:29 The earth will tremble and writhe in agony. ⁴ 

For the Lord will carry out his plan.

He plans to make the land of Babylonia ⁵ 

a wasteland where no one lives. ⁶ 

Isaiah 14:24-27

14:24 ⁷ The Lord who commands armies makes this solemn vow:

“Be sure of this:

Just as I have intended, so it will be;

just as I have planned, it will happen.

14:25 I will break Assyria ⁸  in my land,

I will trample them ⁹  underfoot on my hills.

Their yoke will be removed from my people,

the burden will be lifted from their shoulders. ¹⁰ 

14:26 This is the plan I have devised for the whole earth;

my hand is ready to strike all the nations.” ¹¹ 

14:27 Indeed, ¹²  the Lord who commands armies has a plan,

and who can possibly frustrate it?

His hand is ready to strike,

and who can possibly stop it? ¹³ 

Isaiah 46:10-11

46:10 who announces the end from the beginning

and reveals beforehand ¹⁴  what has not yet occurred,

who says, ‘My plan will be realized,

I will accomplish what I desire,’

46:11 who summons an eagle ¹⁵  from the east,

from a distant land, one who carries out my plan.

Yes, I have decreed, ¹⁶ 

yes, I will bring it to pass;

I have formulated a plan,

yes, I will carry it out.

Daniel 4:35

4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ¹⁷ 

He does as he wishes with the army of heaven

and with those who inhabit the earth.

No one slaps ¹⁸  his hand

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

Acts 4:28

4:28 to do as much as your power ¹⁹  and your plan ²⁰  had decided beforehand ²¹  would happen.

Ephesians 1:11

1:11 In Christ ²²  we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, ²³  since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will

[4:28]  ¹ sn The earth and the heavens are personified here and depicted in the act of mourning and wearing black clothes because of the destruction of the land of Israel.

[4:28]  ² tn Heb “has spoken and purposed.” This is an example of hendiadys where two verbs are joined by “and” but one is meant to serve as a modifier of the other.

[4:28]  ³ tn Heb “will not turn back from it.”

[51:29]  ⁴ sn The figure here is common in the poetic tradition of the Lord going forth to do battle against his foes and the earth’s reaction to it is compared to a person trembling with fear and writhing in agony, agony like that of a woman in labor (cf. Judg 5:4; Nah 1:2-5; Hab 3:1-15 [especially v. 6]).

[51:29]  ⁵ tn Heb “For the plans of the Lord have been carried out to make the land of Babylon…” The passive has been turned into an active and the sentence broken up to better conform with contemporary English style. For the meaning of the verb קוּם (qum) in the sense used here see BDB 878 s.v. קוּם 7.g and compare the usage in Prov 19:21 and Isa 46:10.

[51:29]  ⁶ tn The verbs in this verse and v. 30 are all in the past tense in Hebrew, in the tense that views the action as already as good as done (the Hebrew prophetic perfect). The verb in v. 31a, however, is imperfect, viewing the action as future; the perfects that follow are all dependent on that future. Verse 33 looks forward to a time when Babylon will be harvested and trampled like grain on the threshing floor and the imperatives imply a time in the future. Hence the present translation has rendered all the verbs in vv. 29-30 as future.

[14:24]  ⁷ sn Having announced the downfall of the Chaldean empire, the Lord appends to this prophecy a solemn reminder that the Assyrians, the major Mesopotamian power of Isaiah’s day, would be annihilated, foreshadowing what would subsequently happen to Babylon and the other hostile nations.

[14:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “to break Assyria.”

[14:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “him.” This is a collective singular referring to the nation, or a reference to the king of Assyria who by metonymy stands for the entire nation.

[14:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and his [i.e., Assyria’s] yoke will be removed from them [the people?], and his [Assyria’s] burden from his [the nation’s?] shoulder will be removed.” There are no antecedents in this oracle for the suffixes in the phrases “from them” and “from his shoulder.” Since the Lord’s land and hills are referred to in the preceding line and the statement seems to echo 10:27, it is likely that God’s people are the referents of the suffixes; the translation uses “my people” to indicate this.

[14:26]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and this is the hand that is outstretched over all the nations.”

[14:27]  ¹² tn Or “For” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[14:27]  ¹³ tn Heb “His hand is outstretched and who will turn it back?”

[46:10]  ¹⁴ tn Or “from long ago”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “from ancient times.”

[46:11]  ¹⁵ tn Or, more generally, “a bird of prey” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV; see 18:6).

[46:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “spoken”; KJV “I have spoken it.”

[4:35]  ¹⁷ tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew MSS, rather than כְּלָה (kÿlah) of BHS.

[4:35]  ¹⁸ tn Aram “strikes against.”

[4:28]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “hand,” here a metaphor for God’s strength or power or authority.

[4:28]  ²⁰ tn Or “purpose,” “will.”

[4:28]  ²¹ tn Or “had predestined.” Since the term “predestine” is something of a technical theological term, not in wide usage in contemporary English, the translation “decide beforehand” was used instead (see L&N 30.84). God’s direction remains as the major theme.

[1:11]  ²² tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

[1:11]  ²³ 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.