Psalms 40:5

40:5 O Lord, my God, you have accomplished many things;

you have done amazing things and carried out your purposes for us. ¹ 

No one can thwart you! ² 

I want to declare them and talk about them,

but they are too numerous to recount! ³ 

Proverbs 8:31

8:31 rejoicing in the habitable part of his earth, ⁴ 

and delighting ⁵  in its people. ⁶ 

Isaiah 55:8-9

55:8 “Indeed, ⁷  my plans ⁸  are not like ⁹  your plans,

and my deeds ¹⁰  are not like ¹¹  your deeds,

55:9 for just as the sky ¹²  is higher than the earth,

so my deeds ¹³  are superior to ¹⁴  your deeds

and my plans ¹⁵  superior to your plans.

Jeremiah 29:11

29:11 For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord. ¹⁶  ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you ¹⁷  a future filled with hope. ¹⁸ 

Ephesians 3:9-10

3:9 and to enlighten ¹⁹  everyone about God’s secret plan ²⁰  – a secret that has been hidden for ages ²¹  in God ²²  who has created all things. 3:10 The purpose of this enlightenment is that ²³  through the church the multifaceted wisdom ²⁴  of God should now be disclosed to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly realms.

[40:5]  ¹ tn Heb “many things you have done, you, O Lord my God, your amazing deeds and your thoughts toward us.” The precise meaning of the text is not clear, but the psalmist seems to be recalling the Lord’s miraculous deeds on Israel’s behalf (see Pss 9:1; 26:7), as well as his covenantal decrees and promises (see Ps 33:11).

[40:5]  ² tn Heb “there is none arrayed against you.” The precise meaning of the text is unclear, but the collocation עָרַךְ אֶל (’arakh ’el, “array against”) is used elsewhere of military (Judg 20:30; 1 Chr 19:17) or verbal opposition (Job 32:14).

[40:5]  ³ tn Heb “I will declare and I will speak, they are too numerous to recount.” The present translation assumes that the cohortatives are used in a hypothetical manner in a formally unmarked conditional sentence, “Should I try to declare [them] and speak [of them]…” (cf. NEB, NIV, NRSV). For other examples of cohortatives in the protasis (“if” clause) of a conditional sentence, see GKC 320 §108.e. (It should be noted, however, that GKC understands this particular verse in a different manner. See GKC 320 §108.f, where it is suggested that the cohortatives are part of an apodosis with the protasis being suppressed.) Another option is to take the cohortatives as a declaration of the psalmist’s resolve to announce the truth expressed in the next line. In this case one might translate: “I will declare and speak [the truth]: They are too numerous to recount.”

[8:31]  ⁴ tn The two words are synonymous in general and so could be taken to express a superlative idea – the “whole world” (cf. NIV, NCV). But תֵּבֵל (tevel) also means the inhabited world, and so the construct may be interpreted as a partitive genitive.

[8:31]  ⁵ tn Heb “and my delights” [were] with/in.”

[8:31]  ⁶ tn Heb “the sons of man.”

[55:8]  ⁷ tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV).

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

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

[55:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “ways” (so many English versions).

[55:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “are not.” “Like” is interpretive, but v. 9 indicates that a comparison is in view.

[55:9]  ¹² tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[55:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “ways” (so many English versions).

[55:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “are higher than.”

[55:9]  ¹⁵ tn Or “thoughts” (so many English versions).

[29:11]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I know the plans that I am planning for you, oracle of the Lord, plans of well-being and not for harm to give to you….”

[29:11]  ¹⁸ tn Or “the future you hope for”; Heb “a future and a hope.” This is a good example of hendiadys where two formally coordinated nouns (adjectives, verbs) convey a single idea where one of the terms functions as a qualifier of the other. For this figure see E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 658-72. This example is discussed on p. 661.

[3:9]  ¹⁹ tn There is a possible causative nuance in the Greek verb, but this is difficult to convey in the translation.

[3:9]  ²⁰ tn Grk “what is the plan of the divine secret.” Earlier the author had used οἰκονομία (oikonomia; here “plan”) to refer to his own “stewardship” (v. 2). But now he is speaking about the content of this secret, not his own activity in relation to it.

[3:9]  ²¹ tn Or “for eternity,” or perhaps “from the Aeons.” Cf. 2:2, 7.

[3:9]  ²² tn Or “by God.” It is possible that ἐν (en) plus the dative here indicates agency, that is, that God has performed the action of hiding the secret. However, this usage of the preposition ἐν is quite rare in the NT, and even though here it does follow a perfect passive verb as in the Classical idiom, it is more likely that a different nuance is intended.

[3:10]  ²³ tn Grk “that.” Verse 10 is a subordinate clause to the verb “enlighten” in v. 9.

[3:10]  ²⁴ tn Or “manifold wisdom,” “wisdom in its rich variety.”