Psalms 44:21

44:21 would not God discover it,

for he knows ¹  one’s thoughts? ² 

Job 11:11

11:11 For he ³  knows deceitful ⁴  men;

when he sees evil, will he not ⁵  consider it? ⁶ 

Job 34:21-22

34:21 For his eyes are on the ways of an individual,

he observes all a person’s ⁷  steps.

34:22 There is no darkness, and no deep darkness,

where evildoers can hide themselves. ⁸ 

Proverbs 24:12

24:12 If you say, “But we did not know about this,”

does not the one who evaluates ⁹  hearts consider?

Does not the one who guards your life know?

Will he not repay each person according to his deeds? ¹⁰ 

Jeremiah 32:19

32:19 You plan great things and you do mighty deeds. ¹¹  You see everything people do. ¹²  You reward each of them for the way they live and for the things they do. ¹³ 

Hosea 7:2

7:2 They do not realize ¹⁴ 

that I remember all of their wicked deeds.

Their evil deeds have now surrounded them;

their sinful deeds are always before me. ¹⁵ 

Hosea 7:1

7:1 whenever I want to heal Israel,

the sin of Ephraim is revealed,

and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed.

For they do what is wrong;

thieves break into houses,

and gangs rob people out in the streets.

Colossians 4:5

4:5 Conduct yourselves ¹⁶  with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunities.

[44:21]  ¹ tn The active participle describes what is characteristically true.

[44:21]  ² tn Heb “would not God search out this, for he knows the hidden things of [the] heart?” The expression “search out” is used metonymically here, referring to discovery, the intended effect of a search. The “heart” (i.e., mind) is here viewed as the seat of one’s thoughts. The rhetorical question expects the answer, “Of course he would!” The point seems to be this: There is no way the Israelites who are the speakers in the psalm would reject God and turn to another god, for the omniscient God would easily discover such a sin.

[11:11]  ³ tn The pronoun is emphatic implying that Zophar indicates that God indeed knows Job’s sin even if Job does not.

[11:11]  ⁴ tn The expression is literally “men of emptiness” (see Ps 26:4). These are false men, for שָׁוְא (shavÿ’) can mean “vain, empty, or false, deceitful.”

[11:11]  ⁵ tn E. Dhorme (Job, 162) reads the prepositional phrase “to him” rather than the negative; he translates the line as “he sees iniquity and observes it closely.”

[11:11]  ⁶ tn Some commentators do not take this last clause as a question, but simply as a statement, namely, that when God sees evil he does not need to ponder or consider it – he knows it instantly. In that case it would be a circumstantial clause: “without considering it.” D. J. A. Clines lists quite an array of other interpretations for the line (Job [WBC], 255); for example, “and he is himself unobserved”; taking the word לֹא (lo’) as an emphatic; taking the negative as a noun, “considering them as nothing”; and others that change the verb to “they do not understand it.” But none of these are compelling; they offer no major improvement.

[34:21]  ⁷ tn Heb “his”; the referent (a person) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[34:22]  ⁸ tn The construction of this colon uses the Niphal infinitive construct from סָתַר (satar, “to be hidden; to hide”). The resumptive adverb makes this a relative clause in its usage: “where the evildoers can hide themselves.”

[24:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “weighs” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV) meaning “tests” or “evaluates.”

[24:12]  ¹⁰ sn The verse completes the saying by affirming that people will be judged responsible for helping those in mortal danger. The verse uses a series of rhetorical questions to affirm that God knows our hearts and we cannot plead ignorance.

[32:19]  ¹¹ tn Heb “[you are] great in counsel and mighty in deed.”

[32:19]  ¹² tn Heb “your eyes are open to the ways of the sons of men.”

[32:19]  ¹³ tn Heb “giving to each according to his way [= behavior/conduct] and according to the fruit of his deeds.”

[7:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and they do not say in their heart”; TEV “It never enters their heads.”

[7:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “they [the sinful deeds] are before my face” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NCV “they are right in front of me.”

[4:5]  ¹⁶ tn Grk “walk.” The verb περιπατέω (peripatew) is a common NT idiom for one’s lifestyle, behavior, or manner of conduct (L&N 41.11).