1 Samuel 7:8-9

7:8 The Israelites said to Samuel, “Keep ¹  crying out to the Lord our ²  God so that he may save us ³  from the hand of the Philistines!” 7:9 So Samuel took a nursing lamb ⁴  and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Samuel cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.

Psalms 51:15

51:15 O Lord, give me the words! ⁵ 

Then my mouth will praise you. ⁶ 

Psalms 91:15

91:15 When he calls out to me, I will answer him.

I will be with him when he is in trouble;

I will rescue him and bring him honor.

Psalms 99:9

99:9 Praise ⁷  the Lord our God!

Worship on his holy hill,

for the Lord our God is holy!

Proverbs 15:8

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

but the prayer ¹¹  of the upright pleases him. ¹² 

Isaiah 65:24

65:24 Before they even call out, ¹³  I will respond;

while they are still speaking, I will hear.

Jeremiah 33:3

33:3 ‘Call on me in prayer and I will answer you. I will show you great and mysterious ¹⁴  things which you still do not know about.’

¹ tn Heb “don’t stop.”

² tc The LXX reads “your God” rather than the MT’s “our God.”

³ tn After the negated jussive, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

⁴ tn Heb “a lamb of milk”; NAB “an unweaned lamb”; NIV “a suckling lamb”; NCV “a baby lamb.”

⁵ tn Heb “open my lips.” The imperfect verbal form is used here to express the psalmist’s wish or request.

⁶ tn Heb “and my mouth will declare your praise.”

⁷ tn Or “exalt.”

⁸ 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.”

⁹ tn Heb “sacrifice” (so many English versions).

¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ 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).

¹² 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.

¹³ tn The verb that introduces this verse serves as a discourse particle and is untranslated; see note on “in the future” in 2:2.

¹⁴ tn This passive participle or adjective is normally used to describe cities or walls as “fortified” or “inaccessible.” All the lexicons, however, agree in seeing it used here metaphorically of “secret” or “mysterious” things, things that Jeremiah could not know apart from the Lord’s revelation. G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 170) make the interesting observation that the word is used here in a context in which the fortifications of Jerusalem are about to fall to the Babylonians; the fortified things in God’s secret counsel fall through answer to prayer.