'Plans' in the Bible

and hired advisers [to work] against them to frustrate their plans during the entire time that Cyrus king of Persia reigned, [and this lasted] even until the reign of Darius king of Persia.

“He makes [great and scheming] counselors walk barefootAnd makes fools of judges.

“My days are past, my purposes and plans are frustrated and torn apart;The wishes of my heart [are broken].

“The vigorous stride will be shortened,And his own counsel and the scheme [in which he trusted] will bring his downfall.

“Behold, I know your thoughts,And the plots by which you would wrong me.

“They break up and clutter my path [upsetting my plans],They profit from my destruction;No one restrains them.

Blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked [following their advice and example],Nor stand in the path of sinners,Nor sit [down to rest] in the seat of scoffers (ridiculers).

You [evildoers] shamefully plan against the poor,But the Lord is his safe refuge.

May He grant you your heart’s desireAnd fulfill all your plans.

The Lord nullifies the counsel of the nations;He makes the thoughts and plans of the people ineffective.

He plans wrongdoing on his bed;He sets himself on a path that is not good;He does not reject or despise evil.

Even though I am afflicted and needy,Still the Lord takes thought and is mindful of me.You are my help and my rescuer.O my God, do not delay.

But they quickly forgot His works;They did not [patiently] wait for His counsel and purpose [to be revealed regarding them],

When his spirit leaves him, he returns to the earth;In that very day his thoughts and plans perish.

A heart that creates wicked plans,Feet that run swiftly to evil,

A quick-tempered man acts foolishly and without self-control,And a man of wicked schemes is hated.

The plans and reflections of the heart belong to man,But the [wise] answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

Commit your works to the Lord [submit and trust them to Him],And your plans will succeed [if you respond to His will and guidance].

A man’s mind plans his way [as he journeys through life],But the Lord directs his steps and establishes them.

Many plans are in a man’s mind,But it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will stand (be carried out).

Plans are established by counsel;So make war [only] with wise guidance.

He who plans to do evilWill be called a schemer or deviser of evil.

The devising of folly is sin,And the scoffer is repulsive to men.

For who [limited by human wisdom] knows what is good for man during his lifetime, during the few days of his futile life? He spends them like a shadow [staying busy, but achieving nothing of lasting value]. For who can tell a man what will happen after him [to his work, his treasure, his plans] under the sun [after his life is over]?

“Then the spirit of the Egyptians will become exhausted within them and emptied out;And I will confuse their strategy,So that they will consult the idols and the spirits of the dead,And mediums and soothsayers.

For the fool speaks nonsense,And his heart (mind) plans wickedness:To practice ungodliness and to speak error concerning the Lord,To keep the craving of the hungry unsatisfiedAnd to deprive the thirsty of drink.

“You are wearied by your many counsels.Just let the astrologers,The stargazers,Those who predict by the new moons [each month]Stand up and save you from the things that will come upon you [Babylon].

Listen carefully, all you who kindle your own fire [devising your own man-made plan of salvation],Who surround yourselves with torches,Walk by the light of your [self-made] fireAnd among the torches that you have set ablaze.But this you will have from My hand:You will lie down in [a place of] torment.

I will pour out and nullify the counsel (plans) of [the men of] Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will make their people fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their lives; and I will give their dead bodies as food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

In a time of tranquility, [without warning] he will enter the most productive and richest parts of the kingdom [of Egypt], and he will accomplish that which his fathers never did, nor his fathers’ fathers; he will distribute plunder, spoil and goods among them. He will devise plans against strongholds, but only for a time [decreed by God].

But God gives it a body just as He planned, and to each kind of seed a body of its own [is given].