'Thing' in the Bible

Then his servants said to him, “What is this thing that you have done? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept; but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”

But she answered him, “No, my brother, do not violate me, for such a thing is not done in Israel; do not do this disgraceful thing!

The woman said, “Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in speaking this word the king is as one who is guilty, in that the king does not bring back his banished one.

in order to change the appearance of things your servant Joab has done this thing. But my lord is wise, like the wisdom of the angel of God, to know all that is in the earth.”

Then the king said to Joab, “Behold now, I will surely do this thing; go therefore, bring back the young man Absalom.”

But Joab said to the king, “Now may the Lord your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see; but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?”

Has this thing been done by my lord the king, and you have not shown to your servants who should sit on the throne of my lord the king after him?”

It was pleasing in the sight of the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing.

God said to him, “Because you have asked this thing and have not asked for yourself long life, nor have asked riches for yourself, nor have you asked for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself discernment to understand justice,

and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods; but he did not observe what the Lord had commanded.

‘Thus says the Lord, “You must not go up and fight against your relatives the sons of Israel; return every man to his house, for this thing has come from Me.”’” So they listened to the word of the Lord, and returned and went their way according to the word of the Lord.

Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.

For the thing shall surely come to pass which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria.”

It came about, as though it had been a trivial thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he married Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went to serve Baal and worshiped him.

So he said to the messengers of Ben-hadad, “Tell my lord the king, ‘All that you sent for to your servant at the first I will do, but this thing I cannot do.’” And the messengers departed and brought him word again.

Do this thing: remove the kings, each from his place, and put captains in their place,

He said, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.”

This is but a slight thing in the sight of the Lord; He will also give the Moabites into your hand.

Then his servants came near and spoke to him and said, “My father, had the prophet told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”

Now the heart of the king of Aram was enraged over this thing; and he called his servants and said to them, “Will you tell me which of us is for the king of Israel?”

The royal officer on whose hand the king was leaning answered the man of God and said, “Behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” Then he said, “Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat of it.”

Then the royal officer answered the man of God and said, “Now behold, if the Lord should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he said, “Behold, you will see it with your own eyes, but you will not eat of it.”

So Hazael went to meet him and took a gift in his hand, even every kind of good thing of Damascus, forty camels’ loads; and he came and stood before him and said, “Your son Ben-hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

Then Hazael said, “But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?” And Elisha answered, “The Lord has shown me that you will be king over Aram.”

He commanded them, saying, “This is the thing that you shall do: one third of you, who come in on the sabbath and keep watch over the king’s house

They served idols, concerning which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.”

Isaiah said, “This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”

Then all the assembly said that they would do so, for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people.

This was a small thing in Your eyes, O God; but You have spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come, and have regarded me according to the standard of a man of high degree, O Lord God.

Now, O Lord, You are God, and have promised this good thing to Your servant.

Joab said, “May the Lord add to His people a hundred times as many as they are! But, my lord the king, are they not all my lord’s servants? Why does my lord seek this thing? Why should he be a cause of guilt to Israel?”

God was displeased with this thing, so He struck Israel.

David said to God, “I have sinned greatly, in that I have done this thing. But now, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have done very foolishly.”

‘Thus says the Lord, “You shall not go up or fight against your relatives; return every man to his house, for this thing is from Me.”’” So they listened to the words of the Lord and returned from going against Jeroboam.

This is the thing which you shall do: one third of you, of the priests and Levites who come in on the sabbath, shall be gatekeepers,

So the priests went in to the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and every unclean thing which they found in the temple of the Lord they brought out to the court of the house of the Lord. Then the Levites received it to carry out to the Kidron valley.

Then Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced over what God had prepared for the people, because the thing came about suddenly.

Thus the thing was right in the sight of the king and all the assembly.

Blessed be the Lord, the God of our fathers, who has put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to adorn the house of the Lord which is in Jerusalem,

But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard it, they mocked us and despised us and said, “What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?”

Again I said, “The thing which you are doing is not good; should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?

“They captured fortified cities and a fertile land.They took possession of houses full of every good thing,Hewn cisterns, vineyards, olive groves,Fruit trees in abundance.So they ate, were filled and grew fat,And reveled in Your great goodness.

Then I reprimanded the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this evil thing you are doing, by profaning the sabbath day?

In whose hand is the life of every living thing,And the breath of all mankind?

While I am decaying like a rotten thing,Like a garment that is moth-eaten.

“You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you;And light will shine on your ways.

“He explores the mountains for his pastureAnd searches after every green thing.

Why are the nations in an uproarAnd the peoples devising a vain thing?

One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek:That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,To behold the beauty of the LordAnd to meditate in His temple.

The young lions do lack and suffer hunger;But they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of any good thing.

“A wicked thing is poured out upon him,That when he lies down, he will not rise up again.”

For the Lord God is a sun and shield;The Lord gives grace and glory;No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.

I will set no worthless thing before my eyes;I hate the work of those who fall away;It shall not fasten its grip on me.

Do not incline my heart to any evil thing,To practice deeds of wickednessWith men who do iniquity;And do not let me eat of their delicacies.

You open Your handAnd satisfy the desire of every living thing.

He who finds a wife finds a good thingAnd obtains favor from the Lord.

There is gold, and an abundance of jewels;But the lips of knowledge are a more precious thing.

A sated man loathes honey,But to a famished man any bitter thing is sweet.

It is good that you grasp one thing and also not let go of the other; for the one who fears God comes forth with both of them.

“Behold, I have discovered this,” says the Preacher, “adding one thing to another to find an explanation,

Then he said, “Listen now, O house of David! Is it too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God as well?

For the waters of Nimrim are desolate.Surely the grass is withered, the tender grass died out,There is no green thing.

And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, “Be gone!”

“This shall be the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do this thing that He has spoken:

“Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker—An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth!Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?

He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My ServantTo raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel;I will also make You a light of the nationsSo that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

“Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things?Can a land be born in one day?Can a nation be brought forth all at once?As soon as Zion travailed, she also brought forth her sons.

“For cross to the coastlands of Kittim and see,And send to Kedar and observe closelyAnd see if there has been such a thing as this!

“But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

“An appalling and horrible thingHas happened in the land:

For your gods are as many as your cities, O Judah; and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.

“Therefore thus says the Lord,‘Ask now among the nations,Who ever heard the like of this?The virgin of IsraelHas done a most appalling thing.

and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever enter My mind;

For if you men will indeed perform this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting in David’s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, even the king himself and his servants and his people.

“Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing:They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray.

“Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing:The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood;And they strengthen the hands of evildoers,So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.All of them have become to Me like Sodom,And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

“How long will you go here and there,O faithless daughter?For the Lord has created a new thing in the earth—A woman will encompass a man.”

and the Lord has brought it on and done just as He promised. Because you people sinned against the Lord and did not listen to His voice, therefore this thing has happened to you.

But Gedaliah the son of Ahikam said to Johanan the son of Kareah, “Do not do this thing, for you are telling a lie about Ishmael.”

that the Lord your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do.”

Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets, again and again, saying, “Oh, do not do this abominable thing which I hate.”

Jerusalem sinned greatly,Therefore she has become an unclean thing.All who honored her despise herBecause they have seen her nakedness;Even she herself groans and turns away.

Zion stretches out her hands;There is no one to comfort her;The Lord has commanded concerning JacobThat the ones round about him should be his adversaries;Jerusalem has become an unclean thing among them.

They will fling their silver into the streets and their gold will become an abhorrent thing; their silver and their gold will not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their appetite nor can they fill their stomachs, for their iniquity has become an occasion of stumbling.

They transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride, and they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them.

He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have filled the land with violence and provoked Me repeatedly? For behold, they are putting the twig to their nose.

Is it too slight a thing for you that you should feed in the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the rest of your pastures? Or that you should drink of the clear waters, that you must foul the rest with your feet?

They shall eat the grain offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering; and every devoted thing in Israel shall be theirs.

Moreover, the thing which the king demands is difficult, and there is no one else who could declare it to the king except gods, whose dwelling place is not with mortal flesh.”

In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;Ephraim’s harlotry is there, Israel has defiled itself.

Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My law,They are regarded as a strange thing.

The thing itself will be carried to AssyriaAs tribute to King Jareb;Ephraim will be seized with shameAnd Israel will be ashamed of its own counsel.

He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water.

“You have devised a shameful thing for your houseBy cutting off many peoples;So you are sinning against yourself.

“This is another thing you do: you cover the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and with groaning, because He no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.

And someone came to Him and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?”

Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did the same thing.

Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things.

The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go.

Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them.