The LORD knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity. "The thoughts" or 'schemes' of men against His people God not only 'knows,' but 'knows that they will prove vanity' - i:e., abortive. But the sense rather is, "they" х heemaah (H1992), the masculine], not "the thoughts," but 'men' (as the Hebrew for "man" is) are vanity. In opposition to the scoff that God does not "see" or know, the Psalmist declares that God, as being 'Yahweh,' the self-existing Being whereas 'men are vanity' or nothingness, must and 'does know the thoughts' or 'schemes of men,' (cf. Psalms 40:17; Psalms 39:5; Psalms 39:11; Psalms 62:9). Translate, 'Yahweh knoweth the devices of men, seeing that they (men) are vanity.' So the Syriac. Seeing that men possess all their knowledge only by God's gratuitous gift, Yahweh, the self-existent source of intelligence, must know their thoughts.