Proverbs 15:11

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

Death and Destruction lie open before the LORD—how much more the hearts of men!

Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD, How much more the hearts of men!

Even the depths of Death and Destruction are known by the LORD. How much more does he know the human heart!

Even hell holds no secrets from GOD--do you think he can't read human hearts?

Before the Lord are the underworld and destruction: how much more, then, the hearts of the children of men!

Sheol and Abaddon lie open before the LORD, how much more human hearts!

Hell and Destruction are before the LORD; So how much more the hearts of the sons of men.

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

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.”