1 Samuel 28:6

28:6 So Saul inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him – not by dreams nor by Urim ¹  nor by the prophets.

Ayub 27:9

27:9 Does God listen to his cry

when distress overtakes him?

Ayub 35:12-13

35:12 Then ²  they cry out – but he does not answer –

because of the arrogance of the wicked.

35:13 Surely it is an empty cry ³  – God does not hear it;

the Almighty does not take notice of it.

Mazmur 18:42

18:42 I grind them as fine windblown dust; ⁴ 

I beat them underfoot ⁵  like clay ⁶  in the streets.

Mazmur 66:18

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

the Lord would not have listened.

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.

Yesaya 1:15

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

I look the other way; ⁹ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ¹⁰ 

Yesaya 58:4

58:4 Look, your fasting is accompanied by ¹¹  arguments, brawls,

and fistfights. ¹² 

Do not fast as you do today,

trying to make your voice heard in heaven.

Yesaya 59:2

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. ¹³ 

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.”

Mikha 3:4

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, ¹⁷ 

but he will not answer them.

He will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have done such wicked deeds.”

[28:6]  ¹ sn See the note at 1 Sam 14:41.

[35:12]  ² 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]  ³ 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.”

[18:42]  ⁴ tn Heb “I pulverize them like dust upon the face of the wind.” The phrase “upon the face of” here means “before.” 2 Sam 22:43 reads, “like dust of the earth.”

[18:42]  ⁵ tc Ps 18:42 reads, “I empty them out” (Hiphil of ריק), while 2 Sam 22:43 reads, “I crush them, I stomp on them” (juxtaposing the synonyms דקק and רקע). It is likely that the latter is a conflation of variants. One, but not both, of the verbs in 2 Sam 22:43 is probably original; “empty out” does not form as good a parallel with “grind, pulverize” in the parallel line.

[18:42]  ⁶ tn Or “mud.”

[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).

[1:15]  ⁹ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ¹⁰ 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.

[58:4]  ¹¹ tn Heb “you fast for” (so NASB); NRSV “you fast only to quarrel.”

[58:4]  ¹² tn Heb “and for striking with a sinful fist.”

[59:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”

[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.

[3:4]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “then they will cry out to the Lord.” The words “Someday these sinners” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.