1 Samuel 12:19-24

12:19 All the people said to Samuel, “Pray to the Lord your God on behalf of us – your servants – so we won’t die, for we have added to all our sins by asking for a king.” ¹ 

12:20 Then Samuel said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. You have indeed sinned. ²  However, don’t turn aside from the Lord. Serve the Lord with all your heart. 12:21 You should not turn aside after empty things that can’t profit and can’t deliver, since they are empty. ³  12:22 The Lord will not abandon his people because he wants to uphold his great reputation. ⁴  The Lord was pleased to make you his own people. 12:23 As far as I am concerned, far be it from me to sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you! I will instruct you in the way that is good and upright. 12:24 However, fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Just look at the great things he has done for you!

Isaiah 37:4

37:4 Perhaps the Lord your God will hear all these things the chief adviser has spoken on behalf of his master, the king of Assyria, who sent him to taunt the living God. ⁵  When the Lord your God hears, perhaps he will punish him for the things he has said. ⁶  So pray for this remnant that remains.’” ⁷ 

Isaiah 62:1

The Lord Takes Delight in Zion

62:1 “For the sake of Zion I will not be silent;

for the sake of Jerusalem ⁸  I will not be quiet,

until her vindication shines brightly ⁹ 

and her deliverance burns like a torch.”

Isaiah 62:6-7

62:6 I ¹⁰  post watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem;

they should keep praying all day and all night. ¹¹ 

You who pray to ¹²  the Lord, don’t be silent!

62:7 Don’t allow him to rest until he reestablishes Jerusalem, ¹³ 

until he makes Jerusalem the pride ¹⁴  of the earth.

James 5:16

5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. ¹⁵ 

¹ tn Heb “for we have added to all our sins an evil [thing] by asking for ourselves a king.”

² tn Heb “you have done all this evil.”

³ tn Or “useless” (so NIV, NRSV, NLT); NAB “nothing”; NASB “futile”; TEV “are not real.”

⁴ tn Heb “on account of his great name.”

⁵ tn Heb “all the words of the chief adviser whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to taunt the living God.”

⁶ tn Heb “and rebuke the words which the Lord your God hears.”

⁷ tn Heb “and lift up a prayer on behalf of the remnant that is found.”

⁶ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁷ tn Heb “goes forth like brightness.”

⁷ sn The speaker here is probably the prophet.

⁸ tn Heb “all day and all night continually they do not keep silent.” The following lines suggest that they pray for the Lord’s intervention and restoration of the city.

⁹ tn Or “invoke”; NIV “call on”; NASB, NRSV “remind.”

⁸ tn “Jerusalem” is supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons; note the following line.

⁹ tn Heb “[the object of] praise.”

⁹ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”