2 Samuel 22:42-43

22:42 They cry out, ¹  but there is no one to help them; ² 

they cry out to the Lord, ³  but he does not answer them.

22:43 I grind them as fine as the dust of the ground;

I crush them and stomp on them like clay ⁴  in the streets.

Ayub 35:12-13

35:12 Then ⁵  they cry out – but he does not answer –

because of the arrogance of the wicked.

35:13 Surely it is an empty cry ⁶  – God does not hear it;

the Almighty does not take notice of it.

Amsal 1:28

1:28 Then they will call to me, but I will not answer;

they will diligently seek ⁷  me, but they will not find me.

Yesaya 1:15

1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I look the other way; ⁸ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ⁹ 

Yesaya 59:1-2

Injustice Brings Alienation from God

59:1 Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak ¹⁰  to deliver you;

his ear is not too deaf to hear you. ¹¹ 

59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God;

your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. ¹² 

Yeremia 11:11

11:11 So I, the Lord, say this: ¹³  ‘I will soon bring disaster on them which they will not be able to escape! When they cry out to me for help, I will not listen to them.

Yeremia 14:12

14:12 Even if they fast, I will not hear their cries for help. Even if they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. ¹⁴  Instead, I will kill them through wars, famines, and plagues.” ¹⁵ 

Yehezkiel 8:18

8:18 Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare ¹⁶  them. When they have shouted in my ears, I will not listen to them.”

Hosea 7:14

7:14 They do not pray to me, ¹⁷ 

but howl in distress on their beds;

They slash themselves ¹⁸  for grain and new wine,

but turn away from me.

Mikha 3:4

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, ¹⁹ 

but he will not answer them.

He will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have done such wicked deeds.”

Zakharia 7:13

7:13 “‘It then came about that just as I ²⁰  cried out, but they would not obey, so they will cry out, but I will not listen,’ the Lord Lord who rules over all had said.

Lukas 13:25

13:25 Once ²¹  the head of the house ²²  gets up ²³  and shuts the door, then you will stand outside and start to knock on the door and beg him, ‘Lord, ²⁴  let us in!’ ²⁵  But he will answer you, ²⁶  ‘I don’t know where you come from.’ ²⁷ 

[22:42]  ¹ tc The translation follows one medieval Hebrew ms and the ancient versions in reading the Piel יְשַׁוְּעוּ (yÿshavvÿ’u, “they cry for help”) rather than the Qal of the MT יִשְׁעוּ (yish’u, “they look about for help”). See Ps 18:41 as well.

[22:42]  ² tn Heb “but there is no deliverer.”

[22:42]  ³ tn The words “they cry out” are not in the Hebrew text. This reference to the psalmists’ enemies crying out for help to the Lord suggests that the psalmist refers here to enemies within the covenant community, rather than foreigners. However, the militaristic context suggests foreign enemies are in view. Ancient Near Eastern literature indicates that defeated enemies would sometimes cry out for mercy to the god(s) of their conqueror. See R. B. Chisholm, “An Exegetical and Theological Study of Psalm 18/2 Samuel 22” (Th.D. diss., Dallas Theological Seminary, 1983), 271.

[22:43]  ⁴ tn Or “mud” (so NAB, NIV, CEV). See HALOT 374 s.v. טִיט.

[35:12]  ⁵ tn The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) connects this verse to v. 11. “There” can be locative or temporal – and here it is temporal (= “then”).

[35:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “surely – vanity, he does not hear.” The cry is an empty cry, not a prayer to God. Dhorme translates it, “It is a pure waste of words.”

[1:28]  ⁷ tn Heb “look to.” The verb שָׁחַר (shakhar, “to look”) is used figuratively of intensely looking (=seeking) for deliverance out of trouble (W. L. Holladay, Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 366); cf. NLT “anxiously search for.” It is used elsewhere in parallelism with בָּקַשׁ (baqash, “to seek rescue”; Hos 5:15). It does not mean “to seek early” (cf. KJV) as is popularly taught due to etymological connections with the noun שַׁחַר (shakhar, “dawn”; so BDB 1007 s.v. שָׁחַר).

[1:15]  ⁸ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ⁹ sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.

[59:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[59:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “or his ear too heavy [i.e., “dull”] to hear.”

[59:2]  ¹² tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”

[11:11]  ¹³ tn Heb “Therefore, thus, says the Lord.” The person has been shifted in the translation in accordance with the difference between Hebrew and English style.

[14:12]  ¹⁴ sn See 6:16-20 for parallels.

[14:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “through sword, starvation, and plague.”

[14:12]  sn These were penalties (curses) that were to be imposed on Israel for failure to keep her covenant with God (cf. Lev 26:23-26). These three occur together fourteen other times in the book of Jeremiah.

[8:18]  ¹⁶ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[7:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “they do not cry out to me in their heart”; NLT “with sincere hearts.”

[7:14]  ¹⁸ tc The MT reads יִתְגּוֹרָרוּ (yitgoraru) which is either (1) Hitpolel imperfect 3rd person masculine plural (“they assemble themselves”; so KJV, NASB) from I גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn”; BDB 157 s.v. I גּוּר) or (2) Hitpolel imperfect 3rd person masculine plural (“they excite themselves”) from II גּוּר (gur, “to stir up”; BDB 158 s.v. II גּוּר). However, the Hebrew lexicographers suggest that both of these options are unlikely. Several other Hebrew mss preserve an alternate textual tradition of יִתְגּוֹדָדוּ (yitgodadu) which is a Hitpolel imperfect 3rd person common plural (“they slash themselves”) from גָּדַד (gadad, “to cut”; BDB 151 s.v. גָּדַד), as also reflected in the LXX (cf. NAB “they lacerated themselves”; NRSV, TEV “gash themselves”; NLT “cut themselves.” This reflects the pagan Canaanite cultic practice of priests cutting themselves and draining their blood on the ground to elicit agricultural fertility by resurrecting the slain fertility god Baal from the underworld (Deut 14:1; 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5). Cf. CEV which adds “in the hope that Baal will bless their crops.”

[3:4]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “then they will cry out to the Lord.” The words “Someday these sinners” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[7:13]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he.” Since the third person pronoun refers to the Lord, it has been translated as a first person pronoun (“I”) to accommodate English style, which typically does not exhibit switches between persons of pronouns in the same immediate context as Hebrew does.

[13:25]  ²¹ tn The syntactical relationship between vv. 24-25 is disputed. The question turns on whether v. 25 is connected to v. 24 or not. A lack of a clear connective makes an independent idea more likely. However, one must then determine what the beginning of the sentence connects to. Though it makes for slightly awkward English, the translation has opted to connect it to “he will answer” so that this functions, in effect, as an apodosis. One could end the sentence after “us” and begin a new sentence with “He will answer” to make simpler sentences, although the connection between the two sentences is thereby less clear. The point of the passage, however, is clear. Once the door is shut, because one failed to come in through the narrow way, it is closed permanently. The moral: Do not be too late in deciding to respond.

[13:25]  ²² tn Or “the master of the household.”

[13:25]  ²³ tn Or “rises,” or “stands up.”

[13:25]  ²⁴ tn Or “Sir.”

[13:25]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Open to us.”

[13:25]  ²⁶ tn Grk “and answering, he will say to you.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “he will answer you.”

[13:25]  ²⁷ sn For the imagery behind the statement “I do not know where you come from,” see Ps 138:6; Isa 63:16; Jer 1:5; Hos 5:3.