Psalms 92:5

Context

92:5 How great are your works, O Lord!

Your plans are very intricate!¹

Isaiah 55:8-9

Context

55:8 “Indeed,² my plans³ are not like⁴ your plans,

and my deeds⁵ are not like⁶ your deeds,

55:9 for just as the sky⁷ is higher than the earth,

so my deeds⁸ are superior to⁹ your deeds

and my plans¹⁰ superior to your plans.

Jeremiah 29:11

Context
29:11 For I know what I have planned for you,’ says the Lord.¹¹ ‘I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you¹² a future filled with hope.¹³

Micah 4:12

Context

4:12 But they do not know what the Lord is planning;

they do not understand his strategy.

He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed¹⁴ at the threshing floor.

[92:5] ¹tn Heb “very deep [are] your thoughts.” God’s “thoughts” refer here to his moral design of the world, as outlined in vv. 6-15.

[55:8] ²tn Or “For” (KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV).

[55:8] ³tn Or “thoughts” (so many English versions).

[55:8] ⁴tn Heb “are not.” “Like” is interpretive, but v. 9 indicates that a comparison is in view.

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

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

[55:9] ⁷tn Or “the heavens.” The Hebrew term שָׁמַיִם (shamayim) may be translated “heavens” or “sky” depending on the context.

[55:9] ⁸tn Heb “ways” (so many English versions).

[55:9] ⁹tn Heb “are higher than.”

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

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

[29:11] ¹²tn 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] ¹³tn 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.

[4:12] ¹⁴tn The words “to be threshed” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation to make it clear that the Lord is planning to enable “Daughter Zion” to “thresh” her enemies.