Discovery BoxPsalms 33:9-11
Context33:9 For he spoke, and it 1 came into existence,
he issued the decree, 2 and it stood firm.
33:10 The Lord frustrates 3 the decisions of the nations;
he nullifies the plans 4 of the peoples.
33:11 The Lord’s decisions stand forever;
his plans abide throughout the ages. 5
Proverbs 16:9
Context16:9 A person 6 plans his course, 7
but the Lord directs 8 his steps. 9
Proverbs 19:21
Context19:21 There are many plans 10 in a person’s mind, 11
but it 12 is the counsel 13 of the Lord which will stand.
Proverbs 21:30
Context21:30 There is no wisdom and there is no understanding,
and there is no counsel against 14 the Lord. 15
Isaiah 46:10
Context46:10 who announces the end from the beginning
and reveals beforehand 16 what has not yet occurred,
who says, ‘My plan will be realized,
I will accomplish what I desire,’
Daniel 4:35
Context4:35 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?’
Romans 9:15
Context9:15 For he says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 19
Ephesians 1:11
Context1:11 In Christ 20 we too have been claimed as God’s own possession, 21 since we were predestined according to the one purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of his will
James 4:13-15
Context4:13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into this or that town 22 and spend a year there and do business and make a profit.” 4:14 You 23 do not know about tomorrow. What is your life like? 24 For you are a puff of smoke 25 that appears for a short time and then vanishes. 4:15 You ought to say instead, 26 “If the Lord is willing, then we will live and do this or that.”
[33:9] 1 tn That is, “all the earth” in the first line of v. 8. The apparent antecedent of the masculine subject of the verbs in v. 9 (note וַיֶּהִי [vayyehiy] and וַיַּעֲמֹד [vayya’amod]) is “earth” or “world,” both of which are feminine nouns. However, כָּל (kol, “all”) may be the antecedent, or the apparent lack of agreement may be explained by the collective nature of the nouns involved here (see GKC 463 §145.e).
[33:9] 2 tn Heb “he commanded.”
[33:10] 3 tn Heb “breaks” or “destroys.” The Hebrew perfect verbal forms here and in the next line generalize about the
[33:11] 5 tn Heb “the thoughts of his heart for generation to generation.” The verb “abides” is supplied in the translation. The
[16:9] 6 tn Heb “the heart of a man.” This stresses that it is within the heart that plans are made. Only those plans that are approved by God will succeed.
[16:9] 7 tn Heb “his way” (so KJV, NASB).
[16:9] 8 tn The verb כּוּן (kun, “to establish; to confirm”) with צַעַד (tsa’ad, “step”) means “to direct” (e.g., Ps 119:133; Jer 10:23). This contrasts what people plan and what actually happens – God determines the latter.
[16:9] 9 sn “Steps” is an implied comparison, along with “way,” to indicate the events of the plan as they work out.
[19:21] 10 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] 11 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] 12 tn Heb “but the counsel of the
[19:21] 13 tn The antithetical parallelism pairs “counsel” with “plans.” “Counsel of the
[21:30] 14 tn The form לְנֶגֶד (lÿneged) means “against; over against; in opposition to.” The line indicates they cannot in reality be in opposition, for human wisdom is nothing in comparison to the wisdom of God (J. H. Greenstone, Proverbs, 232).
[21:30] 15 sn The verse uses a single sentence to state that all wisdom, understanding, and advice must be in conformity to the will of God to be successful. It states it negatively – these things cannot be in defiance of God (e.g., Job 5:12-13; Isa 40:13-14).
[46:10] 16 tn Or “from long ago”; KJV, NASB, NIV, NRSV “from ancient times.”
[4:35] 17 tc The present translation reads כְּלָא (kÿla’), with many medieval Hebrew
[4:35] 18 tn Aram “strikes against.”
[9:15] 19 sn A quotation from Exod 33:19.
[1:11] 20 tn Grk “in whom,” as a continuation of the previous verse.
[1:11] 21 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.
[4:14] 23 tn Grk “who” (continuing the description of the people of v. 13). Because of the length and complexity of the Greek sentence, a new sentence was started here in the translation.
[4:14] 24 tn Or “you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.”
[4:14] 25 tn Or “a vapor.” The Greek word ἀτμίς (atmis) denotes a swirl of smoke arising from a fire (cf. Gen 19:28; Lev 16:13; Joel 2:30 [Acts 2:19]; Ezek 8:11).
