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12 If you say, “But we did not know about this,”
won’t[a] the one who evaluates[b] hearts discern it?
Won’t the one who guards your life realize[c]
and repay each person according to his deeds?[d]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 24:12 tn Heb “Will he not?” The verb is an imperfect stative and so should be understood as future or modal. Likewise the verb in the next line.
  2. Proverbs 24:12 tn Heb “weighs” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV) meaning “tests” or “evaluates.”
  3. Proverbs 24:12 tn The imperfect of the stative verb יָדַע (yadaʿ, “to know”) means “will know/come to know,” thus “will learn, find out, realize.”
  4. Proverbs 24:12 sn The verse completes the saying by affirming that people will be judged responsible for helping those in mortal danger. The verse uses a series of rhetorical questions to affirm that God knows our hearts and we cannot plead ignorance.