Job 23:13

23:13 But he is unchangeable, ¹  and who can change ²  him?

Whatever he ³  has desired, he does.

Proverbs 19:21

19:21 There are many plans ⁴  in a person’s mind, ⁵ 

but it ⁶  is the counsel ⁷  of the Lord which will stand.

Ecclesiastes 3:14

God’s Sovereignty

3:14 I also know that whatever God does will endure forever;

nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken away from it.

God has made it this way, so that men will fear him.

Isaiah 14:27

14:27 Indeed, ⁸  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? ⁹ 

Isaiah 46:10

46:10 who announces the end from the beginning

and reveals beforehand ¹⁰  what has not yet occurred,

who says, ‘My plan will be realized,

I will accomplish what I desire,’

Daniel 4:35

4:35 All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing. ¹¹ 

He does as he wishes with the army of heaven

and with those who inhabit the earth.

No one slaps ¹²  his hand

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

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

[23:13]  ¹ tc The MT has “But he [is] in one.” Many add the word “mind” to capture the point that God is resolute and unchanging. Some commentators find this too difficult, and so change the text from בְאֶחָד (bÿ’ekhad, here “unchangeable”) to בָחָר (bakhar, “he has chosen”). The wording in the text is idiomatic and should be retained. R. Gordis (Job, 262) translates it “he is one, i.e., unchangeable, fixed, determined.” The preposition בּ (bet) is a bet essentiae – “and he [is] as one,” or “he is one” (see GKC 379 §119.i).

[23:13]  ² tn Heb “cause him to return.”

[23:13]  ³ tn Or “his soul.”

[19:21]  ⁴ 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.

[19:21]  ⁵ 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.

[19:21]  ⁶ 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.

[19:21]  ⁷ 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”).

[14:27]  ⁸ tn Or “For” (KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[14:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “His hand is outstretched and who will turn it back?”

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

[4:35]  ¹¹ tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew MSS, rather than כְּלָה (kÿlah) of BHS.

[4:35]  ¹² tn Aram “strikes against.”

[1:11]  ¹³ tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.

[1:11]  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.