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. ¹ 

Yesaya 59:1

Injustice Brings Alienation from God

59:1 Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak ²  to deliver you;

his ear is not too deaf to hear you. ³ 

Kisah Para Rasul 8:22

8:22 Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord ⁴  that he may perhaps forgive you for the intent of your heart. ⁵ 

Kisah Para Rasul 8:1

8:1 And Saul agreed completely with killing ⁶  him.

Saul Begins to Persecute the Church

Now on that day a great ⁷  persecution began ⁸  against the church in Jerusalem, ⁹  and all ¹⁰  except the apostles were forced to scatter throughout the regions ¹¹  of Judea and Samaria.

Ezra 9:5

9:5 At the time of the evening offering I got up from my self-abasement, ¹²  with my tunic and robe torn, and then dropped to my knees and spread my hands to the Lord my God.

Ayub 27:8-9

27:8 For what hope does the godless have when he is cut off, ¹³ 

when God takes away his life? ¹⁴ 

27:9 Does God listen to his cry

when distress overtakes him?

Ayub 27:20

27:20 Terrors overwhelm him like a flood; ¹⁵ 

at night a whirlwind carries him off.

Mazmur 66:18

66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, ¹⁶ 

the Lord would not have listened.

Mazmur 134:2

134:2 Lift your hands toward the sanctuary

and praise the Lord!

Amsal 1:28

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

they will diligently seek ¹⁷  me, but they will not find me.

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. ¹⁸  Instead, I will kill them through wars, famines, and plagues.” ¹⁹ 

Yehezkiel 8:17-18

8:17 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose! ²⁰  8:18 Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare ²¹  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, ²² 

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 ²³  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 13:25-28

13:25 Once ²⁴  the head of the house ²⁵  gets up ²⁶  and shuts the door, then you will stand outside and start to knock on the door and beg him, ‘Lord, ²⁷  let us in!’ ²⁸  But he will answer you, ²⁹  ‘I don’t know where you come from.’ ³⁰  13:26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ³¹  13:27 But ³²  he will reply, ³³  ‘I don’t know where you come from! ³⁴  Go away from me, all you evildoers!’ ³⁵  13:28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth ³⁶  when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, ³⁷  and all the prophets in the kingdom of God ³⁸  but you yourselves thrown out. ³⁹ 

Lukas 13:1

A Call to Repent

13:1 Now ⁴⁰  there were some present on that occasion who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ⁴¹ 

Titus 2:8

2:8 and a sound message that cannot be criticized, so that any opponent will be at a loss, ⁴²  because he has nothing evil to say about us.

[59:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”

[59:1]  ² tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[59:1]  ³ tn Heb “or his ear too heavy [i.e., “dull”] to hear.”

[8:22]  ⁴ tn Or “and implore the Lord.”

[8:22]  ⁵ tn Grk “that if possible the intent of your heart may be forgiven you.” The passive construction is somewhat awkward in contemporary English and has thus been converted to an active construction in the translation.

[8:1]  ⁶ tn The term ἀναίρεσις (anairesi") can refer to murder (BDAG 64 s.v.; 2 Macc 5:13; Josephus, Ant. 5.2.12 [5.165]).

[8:1]  ⁷ tn Or “severe.”

[8:1]  ⁸ tn Grk “Now there happened on that day a great persecution.” It is less awkward to say in English “Now on that day a great persecution began.”

[8:1]  ⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[8:1]  ¹⁰ sn All. Given that the Jerusalem church is still active after this and that the Hellenists are the focus of Acts 6-8, it is possible to argue that only the Hellenistic Christians were forced to scatter.

[8:1]  ¹¹ tn Or “countryside.”

[9:5]  ¹² tn The Hebrew word used here is a hapax legomenon. It refers to the self-abasement that accompanies religious sorrow and fasting.

[27:8]  ¹³ 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]  ¹⁴ 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.

[27:20]  ¹⁵ tn Many commentators want a word parallel to “in the night.” And so we are offered בַּיּוֹם (bayyom, “in the day”) for כַמַּיִם (khammayim, “like waters”) as well as a number of others. But “waters” sometimes stand for major calamities, and so may be retained here. Besides, not all parallel structures are synonymous.

[66:18]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”

[1:28]  ¹⁷ 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).

[14:12]  ¹⁸ sn See 6:16-20 for parallels.

[14:12]  ¹⁹ 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.

[8:17]  ²⁰ tn It is not clear what the practice of “holding a branch to the nose” indicates. A possible parallel is the Syrian relief of a king holding a flower to his nose as he worships the stars (ANEP 281). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:145-46. The LXX glosses the expression as “Behold, they are like mockers.”

[8:18]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ 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]  ²⁵ tn Or “the master of the household.”

[13:25]  ²⁶ tn Or “rises,” or “stands up.”

[13:25]  ²⁷ tn Or “Sir.”

[13:25]  ²⁸ tn Grk “Open to us.”

[13:25]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ 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.

[13:26]  ³¹ sn This term refers to wide streets, and thus suggests the major streets of a city.

[13:27]  ³² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[13:27]  ³³ tc Most mss (Ì^75* A D L W Θ Ψ 070 Ë^1,13 Ï) have ἐρεῖ λέγω ὑμῖν (erei legw Jumin; “he will say, ‘I say to you’”) here, while some have only ἐρεῖ ὑμῖν (“he will say to you” in א 579 pc lat sa) or simply ἐρεῖ (“he will say” in 1195 pc). The variety of readings seems to have arisen from the somewhat unusual wording of the original, ἐρεῖ λέγων ὑμῖν (erei legwn Jumin; “he will say, saying to you” found in Ì^75c B 892 pc). Given the indicative λέγω, it is difficult to explain how the other readings would have arisen. But if the participle λέγων were original, the other readings can more easily be explained as arising from it. Although the external evidence is significantly stronger in support of the indicative reading, the internal evidence is on the side of the participle.

[13:27]  tn Grk “he will say, saying to you.” The participle λέγων (legwn) and its indirect object ὑμῖν (Jumin) are redundant in contemporary English and have not been translated.

[13:27]  ³⁴ sn The issue is not familiarity (with Jesus’ teaching) or even shared activity (eating and drinking with him), but knowing Jesus. Those who do not know him, he will not know where they come from (i.e., will not acknowledge) at the judgment.

[13:27]  ³⁵ tn Grk “all you workers of iniquity.” The phrase resembles Ps 6:8.

[13:28]  ³⁶ sn Weeping and gnashing of teeth is a figure for remorse and trauma, which occurs here because of exclusion from God’s promise.

[13:28]  ³⁷ tn Grk “and Isaac and Jacob,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[13:28]  ³⁸ sn The kingdom of God is a major theme of Jesus. It is a realm in which Jesus rules and to which those who trust him belong. See Luke 6:20; 11:20; 17:20-21.

[13:28]  ³⁹ tn Or “being thrown out.” The present accusative participle, ἐκβαλλομένους (ekballomenous), related to the object ὑμᾶς (Jumas), seems to suggest that these evildoers will witness their own expulsion from the kingdom.

[13:1]  ⁴⁰ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[13:1]  ⁴¹ sn This is an event that otherwise is unattested, though several events similar to it are noted in Josephus (J. W. 2.9.2-4 [2.169-177]; Ant. 13.13.5 [13.372-73], 18.3.1-2 [18.55-62]; 18.4.1 [18.85-87]). It would have caused a major furor.

[2:8]  ⁴² tn Or “put to shame.”