If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?
Parallel Translations
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If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not render to every man according to his work?
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If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? and shall not he render to every man according to his works?
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If thou sayest: 'Behold, we knew not this', doth not He that weigheth the hearts consider it? And He that keepeth thy soul, doth not He know it? And shall not He render to every man according to his works?
Cross-references (29)
Passages linked to Proverbs 24:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Job 34:11 For the work of a man he will render to him, and cause every man to find according to his ways.
- Jeremiah 17:10 “I, Yahweh, search the mind. I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.”
- Revelation 2:23 I will kill her children with Death, and all the assemblies will know that I am he who searches the minds and hearts. I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.
- 1 Samuel 16:7 But Yahweh said to Samuel, “Don’t look on his face, or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for I don’t see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but Yahweh looks at the heart.”
- Psalms 121:8 Yahweh will keep your going out and your coming in, from this time forward, and forever more.
- Proverbs 21:2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but Yahweh weighs the hearts.
- Romans 2:6 who “will pay back to everyone according to their works:”
- Psalms 121:3 He will not allow your foot to be moved. He who keeps you will not slumber.
- Ecclesiastes 5:8 If you see the oppression of the poor, and the violent taking away of justice and righteousness in a district, don’t marvel at the matter, for one official is eyed by a higher one, and there are officials over them.
- Psalms 17:3 You have proved my heart. You have visited me in the night. You have tried me, and found nothing. I have resolved that my mouth shall not disobey.
- Psalms 62:12 Also to you, Lord, belongs loving kindness, for you reward every man according to his work.
- 1 Samuel 2:6 “Yahweh kills and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol and brings up.
- 1 Samuel 25:29 Though men may rise up to pursue you, and to seek your soul, yet the soul of my lord will be bound in the bundle of life with Yahweh your God. He will sling out the souls of your enemies, as from the hollow of a sling.
- Psalms 7:9 Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end, but establish the righteous; their minds and hearts are searched by the righteous God.
- Psalms 44:21 won’t God search this out? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
- Psalms 66:9 who preserves our life among the living, and doesn’t allow our feet to be moved.
- Proverbs 5:21 For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
- Jeremiah 32:19 great in counsel, and mighty in work; whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of men, to give everyone according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings;
- Daniel 5:23 but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven; and they have brought the vessels of his house before you, and you and your lords, your wives, and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. You have praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which don’t see, or hear, or know; and you have not glorified the God in whose hand your breath is, and whose are all your ways.
- Matthew 16:27 For the Son of Man will come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will render to everyone according to his deeds.
- Acts 17:28 ‘For in him we live, move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’
- Romans 2:16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Jesus Christ.
- 1 Corinthians 4:5 Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each man will get his praise from God.
- 2 Corinthians 5:10 For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
- Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and is able to discern the thoughts and intentions of the heart. There is no creature that is hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and laid open before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account.
- Revelation 1:18 and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.
- Revelation 2:18 “To the angel of the assembly in Thyatira write: “The Son of God, who has his eyes like a flame of fire, and his feet are like burnished brass, says these things:
- Revelation 20:12-15 I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works. The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works. Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.
- Revelation 22:12 “Behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me, to repay to each man according to his work.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 24:12 If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it…
Pro 24:12 If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not; doth not he that pondereth the heart consider [it]? and he that keepeth thy soul, doth [not] he know [it]? and shall [not] he render to [every] man according to his works?
Ver. 12. If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not, &c.] As no wool is so coarse but will take some colour; so there is no sin so foul but will admit some excuse. Ignorance is commonly pleaded, - We know not this man’s case, the justice of his cause, the means of his rescue, &c. But "be not deceived, God is not mocked." They that would mock him imposturum faciunt et patientur, defraud themselves, as the emperor said of him that sold glass for pearl. Deo obscura clarent, muta respondent, silentium confitetur. {a} God’s "eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men." {Psa 11:4} The former points out his knowledge, the latter his critical descant.
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Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider?] No man needs a window in his breast - as the heathen Momus wished - for God to look in at; for every man before God is all window, {Job 34:22} and his "eyes are as a flaming fire," {Rev 1:14} that need no outward light, that see extra mittendo by sending out a ray, &c., that see through that transparent body, the world, called "a sea of glass." {Rev 4:6}
{a} Isidor.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain We knew it not; I was ignorant either of…
We knew it not; I was ignorant either of his innocency, or of his extreme danger, or of my power to relieve him.
Consider it; that this is only a frivolous excuse, and that the true reason of thy neglect was thy want of true love to thy brother, whose life thou wast by the law of God and of nature obliged to preserve, and thy sinful self-love, and a carnal fear of some mischief or trouble which might befall thee in the discharge of thy duty.
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He that keepeth thy soul; God, who is the preserver of men, Job 7:20, who daily doth, and who only can, keep thee both in and from the greatest dangers. And this favour of God may be here mentioned, partly, as a strong obligation upon him to preserve him who is made after God’s image, and whom God hath commanded him to love and preserve; partly, as an encouragement to the performance of his duty herein from the consideration of God’s special care and watchfulness over those that do their duty; and partly, to intimate to them the danger of the neglect of this duty, whereby they will forfeit God’s protection over themselves, and expose themselves to manifold dangers and calamities. Or, as others render it, and as the Hebrew verb is frequently used, he that observeth thy soul, that seeth all the secret thoughts and inward motions of the heart; which exposition is favoured both by the following words, doth not he know it? which agrees better to God’s observing than to his preserving a man’s soul; and by the former clause, to which this translation doth more exactly answer, the same thing being here repeated in other words, after the manner of these sacred writers.
Shall not he render to every man according to his works? God will certainly deal with thee as thou hast dealt with him, either rewarding thy performance of this duty, or punishing thy neglect of it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain My son, eat thou honey, because it is good,....…
My son, eat thou honey, because it is good,.... It is good for food; there was plenty of it in Palestine, and it was eaten for food, not only by children, but grown persons; and was very nourishing, strengthening, and refreshing to them, as Samson, Jonathan, John the Baptist, and others; and is good for medicine, is healthful and salutary, and useful in many diseases: it is said (m) to conduce much to prolong life and preserve from diseases; it has been observed that those who have much used it have lived to a great age;
and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste; because it is so, as all honey is, and especially that which is immediately squeezed or drops from the honeycomb; this is said not so much on account of honey, and the eating of that, as for what follows concerning the knowledge of wisdom, which is comparable to it for pleasure and profit; see Pro 16:24 (n).
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(m) Athenaei Deipnosophist. l. 2. c. 7. p. 46, 47. so Pierius Valerian. apud Steeb. Coelum Sephirot Heb. c. 7. s. 5. p. 132. (n) Vid. Maimon. Moreh Nevochim, par. 1. c. 30. p. 37.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Consider - That this is only a frivolous excuse.
Consider - That this is only a frivolous excuse.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain As Pro 24:11 warned men against acquiescing in an…
As Pro 24:11 warned men against acquiescing in an unrighteous tyranny, so this denounces the tendency to hush up a wrong with the false plea of ignorance. Compare Ecc 5:8. Pro 24:10-12 thus forms a complete and connected whole.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain I have. Hebrew, "behold, we know not this man."…
I have. Hebrew, "behold, we know not this man." (Pagnin) (Haydock) --- He is a stranger. But all mankind are brethren, and have a charge to assist one another, even though they be enemies, Ecclesiasticus xvii. 12., and Exodus xxiii. 4. (Calmet) --- Keeper. Hebrew notser, "preserver." As thou hast received many good things from God, shew mercy to thy neighbour.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. knew it not] Lit. knew not this (thing,…
12. knew it not] Lit. knew not this (thing, or man).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not.—Man…
(12) If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not.—Man being too much inclined to answer after the manner of Cain (Gen_4:9), “Am I my brother’s keeper?” when he might give aid to those who need it.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not. The…
If thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not. The disciple of Wisdom may excuse himself from making any effort for the prisoners" release, by saying he had not heard of the case. St. Jerome makes the excuse to be inability, vires non suppetunt. The LXX makes it a personal matter, ignoring the plural form of the previous paragraph. "I know him not, he is no friend of mine; why should I trouble myself about him?" Such a selfish person, like the priest and Levite in the parable, would "pass by on the other side." Doth not he that pondereth the heart consider it? God knows the truth knows that the excuse is vain; for he is the Weigher and Searcher of hearts. (Pro_16:2 Pro_21:2) Cain"s plea, "Am I my brother"s keeper?" is unavailable; the law of love is limited by no circumstances. He that keepeth thy soul, doth not he know it? The expression, "keeping the soul," may be equivalent to "preserving the life;" but it more probably means watching, observing, the inmost secrets of the nature. (Job_7:20) The verb used is rxn (natsar), which has both significations. The sense of "forming." which some give it, seems not allowable. (For "heart" (leb) and "soul" (nephesh), see note on Pro_2:10) Shall not he render to every man according to his works? Knowing the heart and the motive, God deals out retributive justice. (Pro_12:14 Psa_62:12 Rom_2:6) Septuagint, "But if thou say, I know not this man, know that the Lord knoweth the hearts of air; and he who formed (plasav ) breath for all, himself knoweth all things, who rendereth to every man according to his works."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain v. 12. if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it…
v. 12. if thou sayest, Behold, we knew it not, the one addressed trying to salve his conscience with a poor excuse, doth not He that pondereth the heart consider it? And He that keepeth thy soul, familiar with the innermost thoughts of the mind, doth not He know it? And shall not He render to every man according to his works? The last is a direct statement: He will requite man according to his deeds, His retributive justice cannot be avoided by a profession of ignorance. cf Proverbs 31:8. 9.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.