Psalms 33:16-18

33:16 No king is delivered by his vast army;

a warrior is not saved by his great might.

33:17 A horse disappoints those who trust in it for victory; ¹ 

despite its great strength, it cannot deliver.

33:18 Look, the Lord takes notice of his loyal followers, ² 

those who wait for him to demonstrate his faithfulness ³ 

Proverbs 16:9

16:9 A person ⁴  plans his course, ⁵ 

but the Lord directs ⁶  his steps. ⁷ 

Proverbs 21:30-31

21:30 There is no wisdom and there is no understanding,

and there is no counsel against ⁸  the Lord. ⁹ 

21:31 A horse is prepared for the day of battle,

but the victory is from the Lord. ¹⁰ 

Ecclesiastes 9:11

Wisdom Cannot Protect against Seemingly Chance Events

9:11 Again, ¹¹  I observed this on the earth: ¹² 

the race is not always ¹³  won by the swiftest,

the battle is not always won by the strongest;

prosperity ¹⁴  does not always belong to those who are the wisest,

wealth does not always belong to those who are the most discerning,

nor does success ¹⁵  always come to those with the most knowledge –

for time and chance may overcome ¹⁶  them all.

Ecclesiastes 9:1

Everyone Will Die

9:1 So I reflected on all this, ¹⁷  attempting to clear ¹⁸  it all up.

I concluded that ¹⁹  the righteous and the wise, as well as their works, are in the hand of God;

whether a person will be loved or hated ²⁰  –

no one knows what lies ahead. ²¹ 

Colossians 3:7

3:7 You also lived your lives ²²  in this way at one time, when you used to live among them.

[33:17]  ¹ tn Heb “a lie [is] the horse for victory.”

[33:18]  ² tn Heb “look, the eye of the Lord [is] toward the ones who fear him.” The expression “the eye…[is] toward” here indicates recognition and the bestowing of favor. See Ps 34:15. The one who fears the Lord respects his sovereignty and obeys his commandments. See Ps 128:1; Prov 14:2.

[33:18]  ³ tn Heb “for the ones who wait for his faithfulness.”

[16:9]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “his way” (so KJV, NASB).

[16:9]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ sn “Steps” is an implied comparison, along with “way,” to indicate the events of the plan as they work out.

[21:30]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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).

[21:31]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “of the Lord.” The victory being “of the Lord” means that it is accomplished by him. Ultimate success comes from the Lord and not from human efforts. The faithful have acknowledged this down through the ages, even though they have been responsible and have prepared for the wars. Without this belief there would have been no prayer on the eve of battle (e.g., Ps 20:7 and 33:17).

[9:11]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I returned and.” In the Hebrew idiom, “to return and do” means “to do again.”

[9:11]  ¹² tn Heb “under the sun.”

[9:11]  ¹³ tn The term “always” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation (five times in this verse) for clarity.

[9:11]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “bread.”

[9:11]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “favor.”

[9:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “happen to.”

[9:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I laid all this to my heart.”

[9:1]  ¹⁸ tn The term וְלָבוּר (velavur, conjunction + Qal infinitive construct from בּוּר, bur, “to make clear”) denotes “to examine; to make clear; to clear up; to explain” (HALOT 116 s.v. בור; BDB 101 s.v. בּוּר). The term is related to Arabic baraw “to examine” (G. R. Driver, “Supposed Arabisms in the Old Testament,” JBL 55 [1936]: 108). This verb is related to the Hebrew noun בֹּר (bor, “cleanness”) and adjective בַּר (bar, “clean”). The term is used in the OT only in Ecclesiastes (1:13; 2:3; 7:25; 9:1). This use of the infinitive has a connotative sense (“attempting to”), and functions in a complementary sense, relative to the main verb.

[9:1]  ¹⁹ tn The words “I concluded that” do not appear in the Hebrew text, but are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[9:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “whether love or hatred.”

[9:1]  ²¹ tn Heb “man does not know anything before them.”

[3:7]  ²² tn Grk “you also walked.” The verb περιπατέω (peripatew) is commonly used in the NT to refer to behavior or conduct of one’s life (L&N 41.11).