A good [man] obtains favor from the LORD, But a man of wicked intentions He will condemn.

Then they said to one another, "Look, this dreamer is coming!

"Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, 'Some wild beast has devoured him.' We shall see what will become of his dreams!"

but when [Esther] came before the king, he commanded by letter that this wicked plot which [Haman] had devised against the Jews should return on his own head, and that he and his sons should be hanged on the gallows.

For they intended evil against You; They devised a plot [which] they are not able [to perform.]

The LORD brings the counsel of the nations to nothing; He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect.

The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart to all generations.

They have said, "Come, and let us cut them off from [being] a nation, That the name of Israel may be remembered no more."

Truly, this only I have found: That God made man upright, But they have sought out many schemes."

"Let us go up against Judah and trouble it, and let us make a gap in its wall for ourselves, and set a king over them, the son of Tabel" --

'thus says the Lord GOD: "It shall not stand, Nor shall it come to pass.

"He shall enter peaceably, even into the richest places of the province; and he shall do [what] his fathers have not done, nor his forefathers: he shall disperse among them the plunder, spoil, and riches; and he shall devise his plans against the strongholds, but [only] for a time.

"He shall stir up his power and his courage against the king of the South with a great army. And the king of the South shall be stirred up to battle with a very great and mighty army; but he shall not stand, for they shall devise plans against him.

and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill [Him.]

But they said, "Not during the feast, lest there be an uproar among the people."

saying, "Sir, we remember, while He was still alive, how that deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise.'

"Therefore command that the tomb be made secure until the third day, lest His disciples come by night and steal Him [away,] and say to the people, 'He has risen from the dead.' So the last deception will be worse than the first."

The preparations of the heart [belong] to man, But the answer of the tongue [is] from the LORD.

A man's heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.

The king's heart [is] in the hand of the LORD, [Like] the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.

[There is] no wisdom or understanding Or counsel against the LORD.

And Joseph said to his brothers, "Please come near to me." So they came near. Then he said: "I [am] Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

"For these two years the famine [has been] in the land, and [there are] still five years in which [there will be] neither plowing nor harvesting.

"So now [it was] not you [who] sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

"But as for you, you meant evil against me; [but] God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as [it is] this day, to save many people alive.

"But He [is] unique, and who can make Him change? And [whatever] His soul desires, [that] He does.

The LORD of hosts has sworn, saying, "Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, And as I have purposed, [so] it shall stand:

This [is] the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, And this [is] the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.

For the LORD of hosts has purposed, And who will annul [it?] His hand [is] stretched out, And who will turn it back?"

Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times [things] that are not [yet] done, Saying, 'My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,'

All the inhabitants of the earth [are] reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven And [among] the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand Or say to Him, "What have You done?"

"For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together

"to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.

"And now I say to you, keep away from these men and let them alone; for if this plan or this work is of men, it will come to nothing;

"but if it is of God, you cannot overthrow it -- lest you even be found to fight against God."

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,

Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed [it] by an oath,

that by two immutable things, in which it [is] impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before [us.]

and "A stone of stumbling And a rock of offense." They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which they also were appointed.

For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.