Psalms 139:17

139:17 How difficult it is for me to fathom your thoughts about me, O God! ¹ 

How vast is their sum total! ² 

Isaiah 28:29

28:29 This also comes from the Lord who commands armies,

who gives supernatural guidance and imparts great wisdom. ³ 

Isaiah 55:8-9

55:8 “Indeed, ⁴  my plans ⁵  are not like ⁶  your plans,

and my deeds ⁷  are not like ⁸  your deeds,

55:9 for just as the sky ⁹  is higher than the earth,

so my deeds ¹⁰  are superior to ¹¹  your deeds

and my plans ¹²  superior to your plans.

Jeremiah 23:20

23:20 The anger of the Lord will not turn back

until he has fully carried out his intended purposes. ¹³ 

In days to come ¹⁴ 

you people will come to understand this clearly. ¹⁵ 

Romans 11:33-34

11:33 Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how fathomless his ways!

11:34 For who has known the mind of the Lord,

or who has been his counselor? ¹⁶ 

[139:17]  ¹ tn Heb “and to me how precious are your thoughts, O God.” The Hebrew verb יָקַר (yaqar) probably has the sense of “difficult [to comprehend]” here (see HALOT 432 s.v. יקר qal.1 and note the use of Aramaic יַקִּר in Dan 2:11). Elsewhere in the immediate context the psalmist expresses his amazement at the extent of God’s knowledge about him (see vv. 1-6, 17b-18).

[139:17]  ² tn Heb “how vast are their heads.” Here the Hebrew word “head” is used of the “sum total” of God’s knowledge of the psalmist.

[28:29]  ³ sn Verses 23-29 emphasize that God possesses great wisdom and has established a natural order. Evidence of this can be seen in the way farmers utilize divinely imparted wisdom to grow and harvest crops. God’s dealings with his people will exhibit this same kind of wisdom and order. Judgment will be accomplished according to a divinely ordered timetable and, while severe enough, will not be excessive. Judgment must come, just as planting inevitably follows plowing. God will, as it were, thresh his people, but he will not crush them to the point where they will be of no use to him.

[55:8]  ⁴ tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV).

[55:8]  ⁵ tn Or “thoughts” (so many English versions).

[55:8]  ⁶ tn Heb “are not.” “Like” is interpretive, but v. 9 indicates that a comparison is in view.

[55:8]  ⁷ tn Heb “ways” (so many English versions).

[55:8]  ⁸ tn Heb “are not.” “Like” is interpretive, but v. 9 indicates that a comparison is in view.

[55:9]  ⁹ tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[55:9]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “ways” (so many English versions).

[55:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “are higher than.”

[55:9]  ¹² tn Or “thoughts” (so many English versions).

[23:20]  ¹³ tn Heb “until he has done and until he has carried out the purposes of his heart.”

[23:20]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in the latter days.” However, as BDB 31 s.v. אַחֲרִית b suggests, the meaning of this idiom must be determined from the context. Sometimes it has remote, even eschatological, reference and other times it has more immediate reference as it does here and in Jer 30:23 where it refers to the coming days of Babylonian conquest and exile.

[23:20]  ¹⁵ tn The translation is intended to reflect a Hebrew construction where a noun functions as the object of a verb from the same root word (the Hebrew cognate accusative).

[11:34]  ¹⁶ sn A quotation from Isa 40:13.