1 Samuel 16:7

16:7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t be impressed by ¹  his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. God does not view things the way men do. ²  People look on the outward appearance, ³  but the Lord looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:1

Samuel Anoints David as King

16:1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long do you intend to mourn for Saul? I have rejected him as king over Israel. ⁴  Fill your horn with olive oil and go! I am sending you to Jesse in Bethlehem, ⁵  for I have selected a king for myself from among his sons.” ⁶ 

1 Raja-raja 8:39

8:39 then listen from your heavenly dwelling place, forgive their sin, ⁷  and act favorably toward each one based on your evaluation of his motives. ⁸  (Indeed you are the only one who can correctly evaluate the motives of all people.) ⁹ 

1 Raja-raja 8:1

Solomon Moves the Ark into the Temple

8:1 ¹⁰ Then Solomon convened in Jerusalem ¹¹  Israel’s elders, all the leaders of the Israelite tribes and families, so they could witness the transferal of the ark of the Lord’s covenant from the city of David (that is, Zion). ¹² 

1 Tawarikh 28:9

28:9 “And you, Solomon my son, obey ¹³  the God of your father and serve him with a submissive attitude and a willing spirit, ¹⁴  for the Lord examines all minds and understands every motive of one’s thoughts. If you seek him, he will let you find him, ¹⁵  but if you abandon him, he will reject you permanently.

1 Tawarikh 28:2

28:2 King David rose to his feet and said: “Listen to me, my brothers and my people. I wanted to build a temple where the ark of the Lord’s covenant could be placed as a footstool for our God. ¹⁶  I have made the preparations for building it.

1 Tawarikh 6:30

6:30 his son Shimea, his son Haggiah, and his son Asaiah.

Amsal 15:11

15:11 Death and Destruction ¹⁷  are before the Lord –

how much more ¹⁸  the hearts of humans! ¹⁹ 

Yeremia 11:20

11:20 So I said to the Lord, ²⁰ 

“O Lord who rules over all, ²¹  you are a just judge!

You examine people’s hearts and minds. ²² 

I want to see you pay them back for what they have done

because I trust you to vindicate my cause.” ²³ 

[16:7]  ¹ tn Heb “don’t look toward.”

[16:7]  ² tn Heb “for not that which the man sees.” The translation follows the LXX, which reads, “for not as man sees does God see.” The MT has suffered from homoioteleuton or homoioarcton. See P. K. McCarter, I Samuel (AB), 274.

[16:7]  ³ tn Heb “to the eyes.”

[16:1]  ⁴ tc The Lucianic recension of the Old Greek translation includes the following words: “And the Lord said to Samuel.”

[16:1]  ⁵ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[16:1]  ⁶ tn Heb “for I have seen among his sons for me a king.”

[8:39]  ⁷ tn The words “their sin” are added for clarification.

[8:39]  ⁸ tn Heb “and act and give to each one according to all his ways because you know his heart.” In the Hebrew text vv. 37-39a actually contain one lengthy conditional sentence, which the translation has divided up for stylistic reasons.

[8:39]  ⁹ tn Heb “Indeed you know, you alone, the heart of all the sons of mankind.”

[8:1]  ¹⁰ tc The Old Greek translation includes the following words at the beginning of ch. 8: “It so happened that when Solomon finished building the Lord’s temple and his own house, after twenty years.”

[8:1]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:1]  ¹² tn Heb “Then Solomon convened the elders of Israel, the heads of the tribes, the chiefs of the fathers belonging to the sons of Israel to King Solomon [in] Jerusalem to bring up the ark of the covenant of the Lord from the city of David (it is Zion).”

[28:9]  ¹³ tn Heb “know.”

[28:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “with a complete heart and a willing being.”

[28:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he will allow himself to be found by you.”

[28:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I, with my heart to build a house of rest for the ark of the covenant of the Lord and for a stool of the feet of our God.”

[15:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “Sheol and Abaddon” (שְׁאוֹל וַאֲבַדּוֹן (shÿ’ol va’adon); so ASV, NASB, NRSV; cf. KJV “Hell and destruction”; NAB “the nether world and the abyss.” These terms represent the remote underworld and all the mighty powers that reside there (e.g., Prov 27:20; Job 26:6; Ps 139:8; Amos 9:2; Rev 9:11). The Lord knows everything about this remote region.

[15:11]  ¹⁸ tn The construction אַף כִּי (’af ki, “how much more!”) introduces an argument from the lesser to the greater: If all this is open before the Lord, how much more so human hearts. “Hearts” here is a metonymy of subject, meaning the motives and thoughts (cf. NCV “the thoughts of the living”).

[15:11]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the hearts of the sons of man,” although here “sons of man” simply means “men” or “human beings.”

[11:20]  ²⁰ tn The words “So I said to the Lord” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity to show the shift in address.

[11:20]  ²¹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[11:20]  sn For the significance of the term see the notes at 2:19 and 7:3.

[11:20]  ²² tn Heb “Lord of armies, just judge, tester of kidneys and heart.” The sentence has been broken up to avoid a long and complex English sentence. The translation is more in keeping with contemporary English style. In Hebrew thought the “kidneys” were thought of as the seat of the emotions and passions and the “heart” was viewed as the seat of intellect, conscience, and will. The “heart” and the “kidneys” are often used figuratively for the thoughts, emotions, motives, and drives that are thought to be seated in them.

[11:20]  ²³ tn Heb “Let me see your retribution [i.e., see you exact retribution] from them because I reveal my cause [i.e., plea for justice] to you.”