'Understand' in the Bible

“Understand that I am bringing a flood—floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will die.

“Understand that I am confirming My covenant with you and your descendants after you,

Come, let Us go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

If you mistreat my daughters or take other wives, though no one is with us, understand that God will be a witness between you and me.”

Then Joseph said to the people, “Understand today that I have acquired you and your land for Pharaoh. Here is seed for you. Sow it in the land.

Understand that the Lord has given you the Sabbath; therefore on the sixth day He will give you two days’ worth of bread. Each of you stay where you are; no one is to leave his place on the seventh day.”

But understand that today the Lord your God will cross over ahead of you as a consuming fire; He will devastate and subdue them before you. You will drive them out and destroy them swiftly, as the Lord has told you.

Understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people.

You must understand today that it is not your children who experienced or saw the discipline of the Lord your God:His greatness, strong hand, and outstretched arm;

The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you don’t understand,

Yet to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.

If only they were wise, they would figure it out;they would understand their fate.

So God said to him, “Because you have requested this and did not ask for long life or riches for yourself, or the death of your enemies, but you asked discernment for yourself to understand justice,

Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak with us in Hebrew within earshot of the people on the wall.”

David concluded, “By the Lord’s hand on me, He enabled me to understand everything in writing, all the details of the plan.”

While he was facing the square in front of the Water Gate, he read out of it from daybreak until noon before the men, the women, and those who could understand. All the people listened attentively to the book of the law.

They read out of the book of the law of God, translating and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was read.

The rest of the people—the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, and temple servants, along with their wives, sons, and daughters, everyone who is able to understand and who has separated themselves from the surrounding peoples to obey the law of God—

We have investigated this, and it is true!Hear it and understand it for yourself.

Teach me, and I will be silent.Help me understand what I did wrong.

What do you know that we don’t?What do you understand that is not clear to us?

then understand that it is God who has wronged meand caught me in His net.

I would learn how He would answer me;and understand what He would say to me.

These are but the fringes of His ways;how faint is the word we hear of Him!Who can understand His mighty thunder?

It is not only the old who are wiseor the elderly who understand how to judge.

because they turned aside from following Himand did not understand any of His ways

Can anyone understand how the clouds spread outor how the thunder roars from God’s pavilion?

Do you understand how the clouds float,those wonderful works of Him who has perfect knowledge?

You asked, “Who is this who conceals My counsel with ignorance?”Surely I spoke about things I did not understand,things too wonderful for me to know.

Will evildoers never understand?They consume My people as they consume bread;they do not call on the Lord.

“Understand this, you who forget God,or I will tear you apart,and there will be no one to rescue you.

Will evildoers never understand?They consume My people as they consume bread;they do not call on God.

Then everyone will fearand will tell about God’s work,for they will understand what He has done.

When I tried to understand all this,it seemed hopeless

I was stupid and didn’t understand;I was an unthinking animal toward You.

They do not know or understand;they wander in darkness.All the foundations of the earth are shaken.

A stupid person does not know,a fool does not understand this:

Help me understandthe meaning of Your preceptsso that I can meditate on Your wonders.

Help me understand Your instruction,and I will obey itand follow it with all my heart.

I understand more than the eldersbecause I obey Your precepts.

You know when I sit down and when I stand up;You understand my thoughts from far away.

then you will understand the fear of the Lordand discover the knowledge of God.

Then you will understand righteousness, justice,and integrity—every good path.

A man’s steps are determined by the Lord,so how can anyone understand his own way?

Evil men do not understand justice,but those who seek the Lord understand everything.

The righteous person knows the rights of the poor,but the wicked one does not understand these concerns.

I am more stupid than any other man,and I lack man’s ability to understand.

Three things are beyond me;four I can’t understand:

The ox knows its owner,and the donkey its master’s feeding trough,but Israel does not know;My people do not understand.”

And He replied:Go! Say to these people:Keep listening, but do not understand;keep looking, but do not perceive.

Dull the minds of these people;deafen their ears and blind their eyes;otherwise they might see with their eyesand hear with their ears,understand with their minds,turn back, and be healed.

Every time it passes through,it will carry you away;it will pass through every morning—every day and every night.Only terror will cause youto understand the message.

You have turned things around,as if the potter were the same as the clay.How can what is made say about its maker,“He didn’t make me”?How can what is formedsay about the one who formed it,“He doesn’t understand what he’s doing”?

Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew within earshot of the people who are on the wall.”

so that all may see and know,consider and understand,that the hand of the Lord has done this,the Holy One of Israel has created it.

“You are My witnesses”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and My servant whom I have chosen,so that you may know and believe Meand understand that I am He.No god was formed before Me,and there will be none after Me.

Such people do not comprehendand cannot understand,for He has shut their eyes so they cannot see,and their minds so they cannot understand.

so He will sprinkle many nations.Kings will shut their mouths because of Him,For they will see what had not been told them,and they will understand what they had not heard. >

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.

I am about to bring a nationfrom far away against you,house of Israel.This is the Lord’s declaration.It is an established nation,an ancient nation,a nation whose language you do not knowand whose speech you do not understand.

Who is the man wise enough to understand this? Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?

The heart is more deceitful than anything else,and incurable—who can understand it?

The Lord’s anger will not turn backuntil He has completely fulfilled the purposes of His heart.In time to come you will understand it clearly.

The Lord’s burning anger will not turn backuntil He has completely fulfilled the purposes of His heart.In time to come you will understand it.

You are not being sent to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. No doubt, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.

“Son of man, get your bags ready for exile and go into exile in their sight during the day. You will go into exile from your place to another place while they watch; perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house.

he said to them, “I have had a dream and am anxious to understand it.”

As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have more wisdom than anyone living, but in order that the interpretation might be made known to the king, and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind.

Instead, you have exalted yourself against the Lord of heaven. The vessels from His house were brought to you, and as you and your nobles, wives, and concubines drank wine from them, you praised the gods made of silver and gold, bronze, iron, wood, and stone, which do not see or hear or understand. But you have not glorified the God who holds your life-breath in His hand and who controls the whole course of your life.

While I, Daniel, was watching the vision and trying to understand it, there stood before me someone who appeared to be a man.

So he approached where I was standing; when he came near, I was terrified and fell facedown. “Son of man,” he said to me, “understand that the vision refers to the time of the end.”

I, Daniel, was overcome and lay sick for days. Then I got up and went about the king’s business. I was greatly disturbed by the vision and could not understand it.

At the beginning of your petitions an answer went out, and I have come to give it, for you are treasured by God. So consider the message and understand the vision:

Know and understand this:From the issuing of the decreeto restore and rebuild Jerusalemuntil Messiah the Princewill be seven weeks and 62 weeks.It will be rebuilt with a plaza and a moat,but in difficult times.

He said to me, “Daniel, you are a man treasured by God. Understand the words that I’m saying to you. Stand on your feet, for I have now been sent to you.” After he said this to me, I stood trembling.

“Don’t be afraid, Daniel,” he said to me, “for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers.

Now I have come to help you understand what will happen to your people in the last days, for the vision refers to those days.”

I heard but did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will be the outcome of these things?”

Many will be purified, cleansed, and refined, but the wicked will act wickedly; none of the wicked will understand, but the wise will understand.

Let whoever is wise understand these things,and whoever is insightful recognize them.For the ways of the Lord are right,and the righteous walk in them,but the rebellious stumble in them.

In that day—this is the Lord’s declaration—will I not eliminate the wise ones of Edomand those who understandfrom the hill country of Esau?

But they do not know the Lord’s intentionsor understand His plan,that He has gathered themlike sheaves to the threshing floor.

For this reason I speak to them in parables, because looking they do not see, and hearing they do not listen or understand.

Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:You will listen and listen,yet never understand;and you will look and look,yet never perceive.

For this people’s heart has grown callous;their ears are hard of hearing,and they have shut their eyes;otherwise they might see with their eyesand hear with their ears,understand with their heartsand turn back—and I would cure them.

When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one sown along the path.

Summoning the crowd, He told them, “Listen and understand:

Don’t you understand yet? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the 5,000 and how many baskets you collected?

Why is it you don’t understand that when I told you, ‘Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees,’ it wasn’t about bread?”

“So when you see the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place” (let the reader understand),

so thatthey may look and look,yet not perceive;they may listen and listen,yet not understand;otherwise, they might turn back—and be forgiven.”

Then He said to them: “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any of the parables?

He would speak the word to them with many parables like these, as they were able to understand.

Summoning the crowd again, He told them, “Listen to Me, all of you, and understand:

Aware of this, He said to them, “Why are you discussing that you do not have any bread? Don’t you understand or comprehend? Is your heart hardened?

And He said to them, “Don’t you understand yet?”

But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.

“When you see the abomination that causes desolation standing where it should not” (let the reader understand), “then those in Judea must flee to the mountains!

But he denied it: “I don’t know or understand what you’re talking about!” Then he went out to the entryway, and a rooster crowed.

But they did not understand what He said to them.