Proverbs 15:11

Death and Destruction ¹  are before the Lord – how much more ²  the hearts of humans! ³ 

2Ch 6:30; Job 26:6; Ps 7:9; Ps 44:21; Ps 139:8; Pr 27:20; Jer 17:10; Joh 2:24,25; Joh 21:17; Heb 4:13; Re 1:18; Re 2:23

¹ 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.

² 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”).

³ tn Heb “the hearts of the sons of man,” although here “sons of man” simply means “men” or “human beings.”