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perverse things in Prov. 16:30. Other verses indicating an immoral intent behind the
action of “devising” are Jer. 18:11; 18:18; Ezek. 11:2.
The word may mean “think.” Some “thought” to do away with David by sending him
against the Philistines (1 Sam. 18:25); Judah “thought” Tamar to be a harlot (Gen. 38:15);
and Eli “thought” Hannah was drunk (1 Sam. 1:13). God repented of the evil concerning
the judgment he “thought” to bring upon Israel (Jer. 18:8). Those who fear the Lord may
also “think” upon His name (Mal. 3:16).
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may be rendered “to purpose” or “esteem.” God asked Job if he could tame
the Leviathan, who “… esteemeth him as straw, and brass as rotten wood” (Job 41:27). A
classic usage of “esteem” appears in Isa. 53:3-4: “He [the Messiah] is despised and
rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our
faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our
griefs.… Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.” Some uses of
“to purpose” have a malevolent intent. David’s enemies have “purpose” to overthrow him
(Ps. 140:4). God repented of the evil He “purposed” to do concerning Israel (Jer. 26:3),
and perhaps the people will repent when they hear the evil God has “purposed” against
the nation (Jer. 36:3). On the other hand, God “purposes” evil against the land of the
Chaldeans in His judgment after using them for the purification of His people, Israel (Jer.
50:45)
Translated as “count,” the word is used in a number of ways. It had a commercial
connotation, as when land was being redeemed and the price was established, based on
the value of crops until the next year of Jubilee: “Then let him count the years of the sale
thereof, and restore the overplus …” (Lev. 25:27). The same idea concerns the provisions
for the Levites when Israel offered their gifts to the Lord (Num. 18:30). “Count” may
imply “to be thought or reckoned.” Bildad declared to Job, “Wherefore are we counted as
beasts, and reputed vile in your sight?” (Job 18:3). Those who seek to live for the Lord
are “counted” as sheep for the slaughter (Ps. 44:22). The foolish person, when he holds
his peace, is “counted” as wise (Prov. 17:28). A theological emphasis exists in God’s
reward of Abraham, when the patriarch believed God and His word: “And he believed in
the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness” (Gen. 15:6).
Most uses of
translated as “imagine” bear an evil connotation. Job chided his
friends: “Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate …”
(Job 6:26); David’s enemies “imagined” a mischievous device (Ps. 21:11); and Nahum
complained of those who “imagine” evil against the Lord (Nah. 1:11).
Other unique translations of
occur. In order to approach God, Asaph had to
remember and “consider” the days of old (Ps. 77:5). God had a controversy with
Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, because he “conceived” a plan against Him and His
people (Jer. 49:30). The prophet Amos cites people who “invent” instruments of music
and enjoy it (Amos 6:5). Huram of Tyre sent a man to help Solomon in the building of
the temple, who knew how to “find out” all the works of art—i.e., he could work in
various metals and fabrics to design a work of beauty (2 Chron. 2:14). Joseph had to
remind his brethren that he did not seek to do them harm because they had sold him into
slavery, since God “meant” it for the good of the preservation of Jacob’s sons (Gen.
50:20).