'Thought' in the Bible

When the Lord saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time,

Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a hundred-year-old man? Can Sarah, a ninety-year-old woman, give birth?”

So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.

Abraham replied, “I thought, ‘There is absolutely no fear of God in this place. They will kill me because of my wife.’

Abimelech sent for Isaac and said, “So she is really your wife! How could you say, ‘She is my sister’?”Isaac answered him, “Because I thought I might die on account of her.”

Jacob answered, “I was afraid, for I thought you would take your daughters from me by force.

He thought, “If Esau comes to one camp and attacks it, the remaining one can escape.”

You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I want to appease Esau with the gift that is going ahead of me. After that, I can face him, and perhaps he will forgive me.”

Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He might die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face.

But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he thought, “Something might happen to him.”

When Joseph saw that his father had placed his right hand on Ephraim’s head, he thought it was a mistake and took his father’s hand to move it from Ephraim’s head to Manasseh’s.

“Who made you a leader and judge over us?” the man replied. “Are you planning to kill me as you killed the Egyptian?”Then Moses became afraid and thought: What I did is certainly known.

So Moses thought: I must go over and look at this remarkable sight. Why isn’t the bush burning up?

At their cries, all the people of Israel who were around them fled because they thought, “The earth may swallow us too!”

“You answered me, ‘We have sinned against the Lord. We will go up and fight just as the Lord our God commanded us.’ Then each of you put on his weapons of war and thought it would be easy to go up into the hill country.

Be careful that there isn’t this wicked thought in your heart, ‘The seventh year, the year of canceling debts, is near,’ and you are stingy toward your poor brother and give him nothing. He will cry out to the Lord against you, and you will be guilty.

We thought that if they said this to us or to our generations in the future, we would reply: Look at the replica of the Lord’s altar that our fathers made, not for burnt offering or sacrifice, but as a witness between us and you.

Ehud was gone when Eglon’s servants came in. They looked and found the doors of the upstairs room locked and thought he was relieving himself in the cool room.

Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons,

I thought I should inform you: Buy it back in the presence of those seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, do so. But if you do not want to redeem it, tell me so that I will know, because there isn’t anyone other than you to redeem it, and I am next after you.”“I want to redeem it,” he answered.

Hannah was praying silently, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. Eli thought she was drunk

I thought: The Philistines will now descend on me at Gilgal, and I haven’t sought the Lord’s favor. So I forced myself to offer the burnt offering.”

Samuel said, “Bring me Agag king of Amalek.”Agag came to him trembling, for he thought, “Certainly the bitterness of death has come.”

“I’ll give her to him,” Saul thought. “She’ll be a trap for him, and the hand of the Philistines will be against him.” So Saul said to David a second time, “You can now be my son-in-law.”

Saul did not say anything that day because he thought, “Something unexpected has happened; he must be ceremonially unclean—yes, that’s it, he is unclean.”

when the person told me, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ he thought he was a bearer of good news, but I seized him and put him to death at Ziklag. That was my reward to him for his news!

He answered, “While the baby was alive, I fasted and wept because I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let him live.’

“Now therefore, I’ve come to present this matter to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid. Your servant thought: I must speak to the king. Perhaps the king will grant his servant’s request.

Your servant thought: May the word of my lord the king bring relief, for my lord the king is able to discern the good and the bad like the Angel of God. May the Lord your God be with you.”

Gehazi, the attendant of Elisha the man of God, thought: My master has let this Aramean Naaman off lightly by not accepting from him what he brought. As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,” for he thought: Why not, if there will be peace and security during my lifetime?

“As for you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands the intention of every thought. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

Haman entered, and the king asked him, “What should be done for the man the king wants to honor?”Haman thought to himself, “Who is it the king would want to honor more than me?”

Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought: Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts. This was Job’s regular practice.

So I thought: I will die in my own nestand multiply my days as the sand.

I thought that age should speakand maturity should teach wisdom.

You have done these things, and I kept silent;you thought I was just like you.But I will rebuke youand lay out the case before you.

I thought about my waysand turned my steps back to Your decrees.

Pick up your lyre,stroll through the city,prostitute forgotten by men.Play skillfully,sing many a song,and you will be thought of again.

I thought until the morning:He will break all my bones like a lion;You make an end of me day and night.

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good,” for he thought: There will be peace and security during my lifetime.

I thought: After she has done all these things, she will return to Me. But she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

I thought: How I long to make you My sonsand give you a desirable land,the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations.I thought: You will call Me, my Father,and never turn away from Me.

Then I thought:They are just the poor;they have played the fool.For they don’t understand the way of the Lord,the justice of their God.

They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Hinnom in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.

They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought.

They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech—something I had not commanded them. I had never entertained the thought that they do this detestable act causing Judah to sin!

Then I thought: My future is lost,as well as my hope from the Lord.

Water flooded over my head,and I thought: I’m going to die!

He will certainly live because he thought it over and turned from all the transgressions he had committed; he will not die.

Yes, their mother is promiscuous;she conceived them and acted shamefully.For she thought, “I will go after my lovers,the men who give me my food and water,my wool and flax, my oil and drink.”

You dismiss any thought of the evil dayand bring in a reign of violence.

I thought: You will certainly fear Meand accept correction.Then her dwelling placewould not be cut offbased on all that I had allocated to her.However, they became more corruptin all their actions.