Yakobus 1:6-7

1:6 But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind. 1:7 For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord,

Ayub 27:8-10

27:8 For what hope does the godless have when he is cut off, ¹ 

when God takes away his life? ² 

27:9 Does God listen to his cry

when distress overtakes him?

27:10 Will he find delight ³  in the Almighty?

Will he call out to God at all times?

Ayub 35:12

35:12 Then ⁴  they cry out – but he does not answer –

because of the arrogance of the wicked.

Mazmur 18:41

18:41 They cry out, but there is no one to help them; ⁵ 

they cry out to the Lord, ⁶  but he does not answer them.

Mazmur 66:18-19

66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, ⁷ 

the Lord would not have listened.

66:19 However, God heard;

he listened to my prayer.

Amsal 1:28

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

they will diligently seek ⁸  me, but they will not find me.

Amsal 15:8

15:8 The Lord abhors ⁹  the sacrifices ¹⁰  of the wicked, ¹¹ 

but the prayer ¹²  of the upright pleases him. ¹³ 

Amsal 21:13

21:13 The one who shuts his ears ¹⁴  to the cry ¹⁵  of the poor,

he too will cry out and will not be answered. ¹⁶ 

Amsal 21:27

21:27 The wicked person’s sacrifice ¹⁷  is an abomination;

how much more ¹⁸  when he brings it with evil intent! ¹⁹ 

Yesaya 1:15-16

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

I look the other way; ²⁰ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ²¹ 

1:16 ²² Wash! Cleanse yourselves!

Remove your sinful deeds ²³ 

from my sight.

Stop sinning!

Yeremia 11:11

11:11 So I, the Lord, say this: ²⁴  ‘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 11:14

11:14 So, Jeremiah, ²⁵  do not pray for these people. Do not cry out to me or petition me on their behalf. Do not plead with me to save them. ²⁶  For I will not listen to them when they call out to me for help when disaster strikes them.” ²⁷ 

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. ²⁸  Instead, I will kill them through wars, famines, and plagues.” ²⁹ 

Mikha 3:4

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, ³⁰ 

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 ³¹  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.

Matius 20:22

20:22 Jesus ³²  answered, “You don’t know what you are asking! ³³  Are you able to drink the cup I am about to drink?” ³⁴  They said to him, “We are able.” ³⁵ 

Markus 10:38

10:38 But Jesus said to them, “You don’t know what you are asking! Are you able to drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I experience?” ³⁶ 

Markus 10:1

Divorce

10:1 Then ³⁷  Jesus ³⁸  left that place and went to the region of Judea and ³⁹  beyond the Jordan River. ⁴⁰  Again crowds gathered to him, and again, as was his custom, he taught them.

Yohanes 3:22

Further Testimony About Jesus by John the Baptist

3:22 After this, ⁴¹  Jesus and his disciples came into Judean territory, and there he spent time with them and was baptizing.

Yohanes 5:14

5:14 After this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more, ⁴²  lest anything worse happen to you.”

[27:8]  ¹ tn The verb יִבְצָע (yivtsa’) means “to cut off.” It could be translated transitively or intransitively – the latter is better here (“when he is cut off”). Since the next line speaks of prayer, some have thought this verse should be about prayer. Mandelkern, in his concordance (p. 228b), suggested the verb should be “when he prays” (reading יִפְגַּע [yifga’] in place of יִבְצָע [yivtsa’]).

[27:8]  ² tn The verb יֵשֶׁל (yeshel) is found only here. It has been related spoils [or sheaves]”); שָׁאַל (sha’al, “to ask”); נָשָׂא (nasa’, “to lift up” [i.e., pray]); and a host of others.

[27:10]  ³ tn See the note on 22:26 where the same verb is employed.

[35:12]  ⁴ tn The adverb שָׁם (sham, “there”) connects this verse to v. 11. “There” can be locative or temporal – and here it is temporal (= “then”).

[18:41]  ⁵ tn Heb “but there is no deliverer.”

[18:41]  ⁶ tn Heb “to the Lord.” The words “they cry out” are supplied in the translation because they are understood by ellipsis (see the preceding line).

[18:41]  sn They cry out. This reference to the psalmist’s 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.

[66:18]  ⁷ tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”

[1:28]  ⁸ 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).

[15:8]  ⁹ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) functions as a subjective genitive: “the Lord abhors.” Cf. NIV “the Lord detests”; NCV, NLT “the Lord hates”; CEV “the Lord is disgusted.”

[15:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “sacrifice” (so many English versions).

[15:8]  ¹¹ sn The sacrifices of the wicked are hated by the Lord because the worshipers are insincere and blasphemous (e.g., Prov 15:29; 21:3; 28:9; Ps 40:6-8; Isa 1:10-17). In other words, the spiritual condition of the worshiper determines whether or not the worship is acceptable to God.

[15:8]  ¹² sn J. H. Greenstone notes that if God will accept the prayers of the upright, he will accept their sacrifices; for sacrifice is an outer ritual and easily performed even by the wicked, but prayer is a private and inward act and not usually fabricated by unbelievers (Proverbs, 162).

[15:8]  ¹³ tn Heb “[is] his pleasure.” The 3rd person masculine singular suffix functions as a subjective genitive: “he is pleased.” God is pleased with the prayers of the upright.

[21:13]  ¹⁴ sn The imagery means “pay no attention to” the cry for help or “refuse to help,” so it is a metonymy of cause for the effect.

[21:13]  ¹⁵ sn “Cry” here would be a metonymy of effect for the cause, the cause being the great needs of the poor.

[21:13]  ¹⁶ sn The proverb is teaching that those who show mercy will receive mercy. It involves the principle of talionic justice – those who refuse the needs of others will themselves be refused when they need help (so Luke 16:19-31).

[21:27]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the sacrifice of the wicked” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). This is a subjective genitive. The foundational clause states that ritual acts of worship brought by the wicked (thus a subjective genitive) are detestable to God. The “wicked” refers here to people who are not members of the covenant (no faith) and are not following after righteousness (no acceptable works). But often they participate in sanctuary ritual, which amounts to hypocrisy.

[21:27]  ¹⁸ sn This rhetorical device shows that if the act is abomination, the wicked heart is an even greater sin. It argues from the lesser to the greater.

[21:27]  ¹⁹ tn The noun זִמָּה (zimmah) means “plan; device; wickedness”; here it indicates that the person is coming to the ritual with “sinful purpose.” Some commentators suggest that this would mean he comes with the sacrifice as a bribe to pacify his conscience for a crime committed, over which he has little remorse or intent to cease (cf. NLT “with ulterior motives”). In this view, people in ancient Israel came to think that sacrifices could be given for any reason without genuine submission to God.

[1:15]  ²⁰ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ²¹ 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.

[1:16]  ²² sn Having demonstrated the people’s guilt, the Lord calls them to repentance, which will involve concrete action in the socio-economic realm, not mere emotion.

[1:16]  ²³ sn This phrase refers to Israel’s covenant treachery (cf. Deut 28:10; Jer 4:4; 21:12; 23:2, 22; 25:5; 26:3; 44:22; Hos 9:15; Ps 28:4). In general, the noun ַמעַלְלֵיכֶם (ma’alleykhem) can simply be a reference to deeds, whether good or bad. However, Isaiah always uses it with a negative connotation (cf. 3:8, 10).

[11:11]  ²⁴ 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.

[11:14]  ²⁵ tn Heb “you.”

[11:14]  ²⁶ tn The words “to save them” are not in the text but are implicit from the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.

[11:14]  sn Cf. Jer 7:16 where this same command is addressed to Jeremiah.

[11:14]  ²⁷ tc The rendering “when disaster strikes them” is based on reading “at the time of” (בְּעֵת, bÿ’et) with a number of Hebrew mss and the versions instead of “on account of” (בְּעַד, bÿ’ad). W. L. Holladay (Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:347) is probably right in assuming that the MT has been influenced by “for them” (בַעֲדָם, va’adam) earlier in the verse.

[14:12]  ²⁸ sn See 6:16-20 for parallels.

[14:12]  ²⁹ 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.

[3:4]  ³⁰ 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]  ³¹ 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.

[20:22]  ³² tn Grk “And answering, Jesus said.” This is somewhat redundant in English and has been simplified in the translation. Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

[20:22]  ³³ tn The verbs in Greek are plural here, indicating that Jesus is not answering the mother but has turned his attention directly to the two disciples.

[20:22]  ³⁴ tc Most mss (C W 33 Ï, as well as some versional and patristic authorities) in addition have “or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” But this is surely due to a recollection of the fuller version of this dominical saying found in Mark 10:38. The same mss also have the Lord’s response, “and you will be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized” in v. 23, again due to the parallel in Mark 10:39. The shorter reading, in both v. 22 and v. 23, is to be preferred both because it better explains the rise of the other reading and is found in superior witnesses (א B D L Z Θ 085 Ë^1,13 pc lat, as well as other versional and patristic authorities).

[20:22]  ³⁵ sn No more naïve words have ever been spoken as those found here coming from James and John, “We are able.” They said it with such confidence and ease, yet they had little clue as to what they were affirming. In the next sentence Jesus confirms that they will indeed suffer for his name.

[10:38]  ³⁶ tn Grk “baptism I am baptized with.” This same change has been made in v. 39.

[10:1]  ³⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[10:1]  ³⁸ tn Grk “He”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[10:1]  ³⁹ tc Alexandrian and other witnesses (א B C* L Ψ 0274 892 2427 pc co) read καὶ πέραν (kai peran, “and beyond”), while Western and Caesarean witnesses (C² D W Δ Θ Ë^1,13 28 565 579 1241 al) read πέραν (simply “beyond”). It is difficult to decide between the Alexandrian and Western readings here, but since the parallel in Matt 19:1 omits καί the weight is slightly in favor of including it here; scribes may have omitted the word here to harmonize this passage to the Matthean passage. Because of the perceived geographical difficulties found in the earlier readings (omission of the word “and” would make it seem as though Judea is beyond the Jordan), the majority of the witnesses (A Ï) read διὰ τοῦ πέραν (dia tou peran, “through the other side”), perhaps trying to indicate the direction of Jesus’ travel.

[10:1]  ⁴⁰ tn “River” is not in the Greek text but is supplied for clarity. The region referred to here is sometimes known as Transjordan (i.e., “across the Jordan”).

[3:22]  ⁴¹ tn This section is related loosely to the preceding by μετὰ ταῦτα (meta tauta). This constitutes an indefinite temporal reference; the intervening time is not specified.

[5:14]  ⁴² tn Since this is a prohibition with a present imperative, the translation “stop sinning” is sometimes suggested. This is not likely, however, since the present tense is normally used in prohibitions involving a general condition (as here) while the aorist tense is normally used in specific instances. Only when used opposite the normal usage (the present tense in a specific instance, for example) would the meaning “stop doing what you are doing” be appropriate.