'Happens' in the Bible

But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, "What if some accident happens to him?"

But Jacob replied, "My son will not go down there with you, for his brother is dead and he alone is left. If an accident happens to him on the journey you have to make, then you will bring down my gray hair in sorrow to the grave."

If you take this one from me too and an accident happens to him, then you will bring down my gray hair in tragedy to the grave.'

Every woman will ask her neighbor and the one who happens to be staying in her house for items of silver and gold and for clothing. You will put these articles on your sons and daughters -- thus you will plunder Egypt!"

But if he does not do it with premeditation, but it happens by accident, then I will appoint for you a place where he may flee.

when it happens that he sins and he is found guilty, then he must return whatever he had stolen, or whatever he had extorted, or the thing that he had held in trust, or the lost thing that he had found,

But the servant said to him, "Look, there is a man of God in this town. He is highly respected. Everything that he says really happens. Now let's go there. Perhaps he will tell us where we should go from here."

When you enter the town, you can find him before he goes up to the high place to eat. The people won't eat until he arrives, for he must bless the sacrifice. Once that happens, those who have been invited will eat. Now go on up, for this is the time when you can find him!"

If your father happens to miss me, you should say, 'David urgently requested me to let him go to his city Bethlehem, for there is an annual sacrifice there for his entire family.'

If that happens even the bravest soldier -- one who is lion-hearted -- will virtually melt away. For all Israel knows that your father is a warrior and that those who are with him are brave.

We will come against him wherever he happens to be found. We will descend on him like the dew falls on the ground. Neither he nor any of the men who are with him will be spared alive -- not one of them!

Ahimaaz the son of Zadok again spoke to Joab, "Whatever happens, let me go after the Cushite." But Joab said, "Why is it that you want to go, my son? You have no good news that will bring you a reward."

But he said, "Whatever happens, I want to go!" So Joab said to him, "Then go!" So Ahimaaz ran by the way of the Jordan plain, and he passed the Cushite.

The wise man can see where he is going, but the fool walks in darkness. Yet I also realized that the same fate happens to them both.

So I loathed life because what happens on earth seems awful to me; for all the benefits of wisdom are futile -- like chasing the wind.

Whatever has happened was foreordained, and what happens to a person was also foreknown. It is useless for him to argue with God about his fate because God is more powerful than he is.

While applying my mind to everything that happens in this world, I have seen all this: Sometimes one person dominates other people to their harm.

then I discerned all that God has done: No one really comprehends what happens on earth. Despite all human efforts to discover it, no one can ever grasp it. Even if a wise person claimed that he understood, he would not really comprehend it.

Everyone shares the same fate -- the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the ceremonially clean and unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. What happens to the good person, also happens to the sinner; what happens to those who make vows, also happens to those who are afraid to make vows.

This is the unfortunate fact about everything that happens on earth: the same fate awaits everyone. In addition to this, the hearts of all people are full of evil, and there is folly in their hearts during their lives -- then they die.

What they loved, as well as what they hated and envied, perished long ago, and they no longer have a part in anything that happens on earth.

For you ignore the God who rescues you; you pay no attention to your strong protector. So this is what happens: You cultivate beautiful plants and plant exotic vines.

Approach me! Listen to this! From the very first I have not spoken in secret; when it happens, I am there." So now, the sovereign Lord has sent me, accompanied by his spirit.

"When this happens," says the Lord, "the king and his officials will lose their courage. The priests will be struck with horror, and the prophets will be speechless in astonishment."

All of this is because the Lord who rules over all has said: 'Cut down the trees around Jerusalem and build up a siege ramp against its walls. This is the city which is to be punished. Nothing but oppression happens in it.

How long must the land be parched and the grass in every field be withered? How long must the animals and the birds die because of the wickedness of the people who live in this land? For these people boast, "God will not see what happens to us."

I will chase after them with war, starvation, and disease. I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to them. I will make them examples of those who are cursed, objects of horror, hissing scorn, and ridicule among all the nations where I exile them.

So I, the Lord, say: "You have not really obeyed me and granted freedom to your neighbor and fellow countryman. Therefore, I will grant you freedom, the freedom to die in war, or by starvation or disease. I, the Lord, affirm it! I will make all the kingdoms of the earth horrified at what happens to you.

"Go and tell Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, 'The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says, "I will carry out against this city what I promised. It will mean disaster and not good fortune for it. When that disaster happens, you will be there to see it.

But I will rescue you when it happens. I, the Lord, affirm it! You will not be handed over to those whom you fear.

I will indeed see to it that disaster, not prosperity, happens to them. All the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will die in war or from starvation until not one of them is left.

"Son of man, of all the woody branches among the trees of the forest, what happens to the wood of the vine?

Ezekiel will be an object lesson for you; you will do all that he has done. When it happens, then you will know that I am the sovereign Lord.'