'Doing' in the Bible

And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What have you encountered or seen [in us or our customs], that you have done this [unjust] thing?”

And he asked them, “Is it well with him?” And they said, “He is doing well; look, here comes his daughter Rachel with the sheep!”

Is this not my lord’s drinking cup and the one which he uses for divination? You have done [a great and unforgivable] wrong in doing this.’”

“Who is like You among the gods, O Lord?Who is like You, majestic in holiness,Awesome in splendor, working wonders?

When Moses’ father-in-law saw everything that he was doing for the people, he said, “What is this that you are doing for the people? Why are you sitting alone [as a judge] with all the people standing around you from dawn to dusk?”

Moses’ father-in-law said to him, “The thing that you are doing is not good.

They received from Moses all the offerings which the Israelites had brought for the construction of the sanctuary, to prepare it for service. And they continued to bring him freewill (voluntary) offerings every morning.

And all the skilled men who were doing all the work on the sanctuary came, each one from the work which he was doing,

and they said to Moses, “The people are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which the Lord commanded us to do.”

‘If anyone of the common people sins unintentionally by doing any of the things the Lord has commanded not to be done, and becomes guilty,

or has found what was lost and lied about it and sworn falsely, so that he sins in regard to any one of the things a man may do—

You shall remain day and night for seven days at the doorway of the Tent of Meeting, doing what the Lord has required you to do, so that you will not die; for so I (Moses) have been commanded.”

nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself [by doing so, even] for his father or for his mother;

They shall carry out the duties for him and for the whole congregation before the Tent of Meeting, doing the service of the tabernacle.

“Accept these things from them, so that they may be used in the service of the Tent of Meeting (tabernacle), and give them to the Levites, to each man according to his service.”

Then, as before, I fell down before the Lord for [another] forty days and forty nights; I did not eat food or drink water, because of all the sin you had committed by doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke Him to anger.

“You shall not do at all what we are doing here [in the camp] today, every man doing whatever is right in his [own] eyes.

And it shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear [and worship] the Lord his God [with awe-filled reverence and profound respect], by carefully obeying (keeping foremost in his thoughts and actively doing) all the words of this law and these statutes,

When Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem heard that Joshua had captured Ai, and had utterly destroyed it—as he had done to Jericho and its king, so he had done to Ai and its king—and that the residents of Gibeon had made peace with Israel and were [living] among them,

So I have not sinned against you, but you are doing me wrong by making war against me; may the Lord, the [righteous] Judge, judge this day between the Israelites and the Ammonites.’”

When these [five men] went into Micah’s house and took the [plated] image, the ephod, the teraphim, and the cast image, the priest asked them, “What are you doing?”

the Philistine commanders [having noticed David] said, “What are these Hebrews doing here?” Achish said to the Philistine commanders, “Is this not David, the servant of Saul king of Israel, who has been with me these days and years, and I have found no fault in him from the day he deserted to me to this day?”

You know Abner the son of Ner, that he [only] came to deceive you [with flattering words] and to learn of your going out and coming in, and to find out what you are doing.”

Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife. You have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

besides Solomon’s 3,300 chief deputies who were in charge of the project and who were in charge of the people doing the work.

As for you, if you walk (live your life) before Me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart and in uprightness, acting in accordance with everything that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My precepts,

Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, “Because you have done this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.

because of the sins he had committed, doing evil in the sight of the Lord, by walking in the way of Jeroboam, and because of his sin he caused Israel to sin.

There he came to a cave and spent the night in it; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

When Elijah heard the sound, he wrapped his face in his mantle (cloak) and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He walked in all the ways of Asa his father, without turning from them, doing right in the sight of the Lord. However, the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places.

Then they said one to another, “We are not doing the right thing. This is a day of good news, yet we are keeping silent. If we wait until the morning light, some punishment [for not reporting this now] will come on us. So now come, let us go and tell the king’s household.”

Then they gave the money, which was weighed out into the hands of those who were doing the work, who had the oversight of the house of the Lord; and they paid it out to the carpenters and builders who worked on the house (temple) of the Lord,

Moreover, Manasseh shed a very great quantity of innocent blood, until he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; besides his sin with which he made Judah sin, by doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

Further, you have workmen in abundance: stonecutters and stonemasons and carpenters, and all men who are skillful in every kind of work.

As for the gold, the silver, the bronze, and the iron, there is no limit. So arise and begin working, and may the Lord be with you.”

He walked in the way of his father Asa and did not depart from it, doing what was right in the sight of the Lord.

Shaphan brought the book to the king, but [first] reported further to him, “Your servants are doing everything that was entrusted to them.

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

He spoke before his brothers and the army of Samaria, “What are these feeble Jews doing? Can they restore it for themselves? Can they offer sacrifices? Can they finish in a day? Can they revive the stones from the heaps of dust and rubbish, even the ones that have been burned?”

So I said, “What you are doing is not good. Should you not walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunting by the [pagan] nations, our enemies?

So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave to come down to [meet with] you?”

“Behold, He snatches away; who can restrain or turn Him back?Who will say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’

“Indeed, you are doing away with fear,And you are diminishing meditation before God.

Look upon my affliction and my trouble,And forgive all my sins.

The [empty-headed] fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”They are corrupt and evil, and have committed repulsive injustice;There is no one who does good.

Then all men will fear [God’s judgment];They will declare the work of God,And they will consider and wisely acknowledge what He has done.

And that was credited to him for righteousness,To all generations forever.

This is from the Lord and is His doing;It is marvelous in our eyes.

For in doing so, you will heap coals of fire upon his head,And the Lord will reward you.

Then I considered all which my hands had done and labored to do, and behold, all was vanity and chasing after the wind and there was no profit (nothing of lasting value) under the sun.

Guard your steps and focus on what you are doing as you go to the house of God and draw near to listen rather than to offer the [careless or irreverent] sacrifice of fools; for they are too ignorant to know they are doing evil.

For the word of a king is authoritative and powerful,And who will say to him, “What are you doing?”

Yet it is not Assyria’s intention [to do My will],Nor does it plan so in its heart,But instead it is its purpose to destroyAnd to cut off many nations.

And you said, “No! We will flee on horses!”Therefore you will flee [from your enemies]!And [you said], “We will ride on swift horses!”Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

“Listen carefully, I am about to do a new thing,Now it will spring forth;Will you not be aware of it?I will even put a road in the wilderness,Rivers in the desert.

“Blessed (happy, fortunate) is the man who does this,And the son of man who takes hold of it,Who keeps the Sabbath without profaning it,And keeps his hand from doing any evil.”

“If you turn back your foot from [unnecessary travel on] the Sabbath,From doing your own pleasure on My holy day,And call the Sabbath a [spiritual] delight, and the holy day of the Lord honorable,And honor it, not going your own wayOr engaging in your own pleasureOr speaking your own [idle] words,

No one sues righteously [but for the sake of doing injury to others—to take some undue advantage], and no one pleads [his case] in truth; [but rather]They trust in empty arguments and speak lies;They conceive trouble and bring forth injustice.

Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

“But your eyes and your heartAre only intent on your own dishonest gain,On shedding innocent blood,On oppression and extortion and violence.”

So then you recently turned and repented, doing what was right in My sight, each man proclaiming release [from servitude] to his countryman [who was his bond servant]; and you had made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My Name.

Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness (right standing with God) and sins, and I place an obstacle before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous deeds which he has done will not be remembered; but you will be responsible for his blood.

Furthermore, He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great repulsive acts which the house of Israel is committing here, to drive Me far away from My sanctuary? But you will again see greater repulsive acts.”

Then He said to me, “The wickedness (guilt) of the house of Israel and Judah is extremely great; the land is full of blood and the city is full of perversion and injustice; for they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land; the Lord does not see [what we are doing].’

“Son of man, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, asked you, ‘What you are doing?’

“Son of man, when the house of Israel was living in their own land, they defiled it by their [own] behavior and by their [idolatrous] actions. Their conduct before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman during her [physical] impurity.

“All the inhabitants of the earth are regarded as nothing.But He does according to His will in the host of heavenAnd among the inhabitants of the earth;And no one can hold back His handOr say to Him, ‘What have You done?’

And as for both of these kings, their hearts will be set on doing evil; they will speak lies over the same table, but it will not succeed, for the end is yet to come at the appointed time.

“Woe (judgment is coming) to him who obtains wicked gain for his house [and thinks by so doing]To set his nest on high,That he may be rescued from the hand of evil.

“Blessed [comforted by inner peace and God’s love] are those who are persecuted for doing that which is morally right, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven [both now and forever].

And if you greet only your brothers [wishing them God’s blessing and peace], what more [than others] are you doing? Do not even the Gentiles [who do not know the Lord] do that?

But when you give to the poor and do acts of kindness, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing [give in complete secrecy],

But first and most importantly seek (aim at, strive after) His kingdom and His righteousness [His way of doing and being right—the attitude and character of God], and all these things will be given to you also.

But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

But the owner of the estate replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no injustice. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?

When He entered the temple area, the chief priests and elders of the people came to Him as He was teaching and said, “By what [kind of] authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority [to exercise this power]?”

Jesus asked them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:‘The [very] Stone which the builders rejected and threw away,Has become the chief Cornerstone;This is the Lord’s doing,And it is marvelous and wonderful in our eyes’?

Blessed is that [faithful] servant when his master returns and finds him doing so.

Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting [as a ritual]; and they came and asked Jesus, “Why are John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fasting, but Your disciples are not doing so?”

The Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and [from the region] beyond the Jordan, and around Tyre and Sidon; a vast number of people came to Him because they were hearing about all [the things] that He was doing.

He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside and nullifying the commandment of God in order to keep your [man-made] tradition and regulations.

so you nullify the [authority of the] word of God [acting as if it did not apply] because of your tradition which you have handed down [through the elders]. And you do many things such as that.”

If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it’; and immediately he will send it here.”

Some of the people who were standing there said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?”

and began saying to Him, “By what authority are You doing these things, or who gave You this authority to do these things?”

So they replied to Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

This came about from the Lord,And it is marvelous and wonderful in our eyes’?”

But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?”

But love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; for your reward will be great (rich, abundant), and you will be sons of the Most High; because He Himself is kind and gracious and good to the ungrateful and the wicked.

But the one who has [merely] heard and has not practiced [what I say], is like a [foolish] man who built a house on the ground without any foundation, and the torrent burst against it; and it immediately collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

They were all amazed [practically overwhelmed] at the [evidence of the] greatness of God and His majesty and His wondrous work.But while they were still awed by everything Jesus was doing, He said to His disciples,

Blessed (happy, prosperous, to be admired) is that servant whom his master finds so doing when he arrives.

and said to Him, “Tell us by what kind of authority You are doing these things? Or who is the one who gave You this authority?”

Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in His name [identifying themselves with Him] after seeing His signs (attesting miracles) which He was doing.

So He arrived at a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the tract of land that Jacob gave to his son Joseph;

For this reason the Jews began to persecute Jesus continually because He was doing these things on the Sabbath.

So Jesus answered them by saying, “I assure you and most solemnly say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself [of His own accord], unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever things the Father does, the Son [in His turn] also does in the same way.

and they will come out—those who did good things [will come out] to a resurrection of [new] life, but those who did evil things [will come out] to a resurrection of judgment [that is, to be sentenced].