2 Chronicles 6:20

6:20 Night and day may you watch over this temple, the place where you promised you would live. ¹  May you answer your servant’s prayer for this place. ² 

2 Chronicles 6:40

6:40 “Now, my God, may you be attentive and responsive to the prayers offered in this place. ³ 

Deuteronomy 11:12

11:12 a land the Lord your God looks after. ⁴  He is constantly attentive to it ⁵  from the beginning to the end of the year. ⁶ 

Nehemiah 1:6

1:6 may your ear be attentive and your eyes be open to hear the prayer of your servant that I am praying to you today throughout both day and night on behalf of your servants the Israelites. I am confessing the sins of the Israelites that we have committed ⁷  against you – both I myself and my family ⁸  have sinned.

Psalms 65:2

65:2 You hear prayers; ⁹ 

all people approach you. ¹⁰ 

Psalms 130:2

130:2 O Lord, listen to me! ¹¹ 

Pay attention to ¹²  my plea for mercy!

Psalms 130:1

Psalm 130 ¹³ 

A song of ascents. ¹⁴ 

130:1 From the deep water ¹⁵  I cry out to you, O Lord.

Psalms 3:1

Psalm 3 ¹⁶ 

A psalm of David, written when he fled from his son Absalom. ¹⁷ 

3:1 Lord, how ¹⁸  numerous are my enemies!

Many attack me. ¹⁹ 

¹ tn Heb “so your eyes might be open toward this house night and day, toward the place about which you said, ‘My name will be there.’”

² tn Heb “by listening to the prayer which your servant is praying concerning this place.”

³ tn Heb “May your eyes be open and your ears attentive to the prayer of this place.”

⁴ tn Heb “seeks.” The statement reflects the ancient belief that God (Baal in Canaanite thinking) directly controlled storms and rainfall.

⁵ tn Heb “the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it” (so NIV); NASB, NRSV “always on it.”

⁶ sn From the beginning to the end of the year. This refers to the agricultural year that was marked by the onset of the heavy rains, thus the autumn. See note on the phrase “the former and the latter rains” in v. 14.

⁷ tn Heb “have sinned.” For stylistic reasons – to avoid redundancy in English – this was translated as “committed.”

⁸ tn Heb “the house of my father.”

⁹ tn Heb “O one who hears prayer.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “to you all flesh comes.”

¹¹ tn Heb “my voice.”

¹² tn Heb “may your ears be attentive to the voice of.”

¹³ sn Psalm 130. The psalmist, confident of the Lord’s forgiveness, cries out to the Lord for help in the midst of his suffering and urges Israel to do the same.

¹⁴ sn The precise significance of this title, which appears in Pss 120-134, is unclear. Perhaps worshipers recited these psalms when they ascended the road to Jerusalem to celebrate annual religious festivals. For a discussion of their background see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 219-21.

¹⁵ tn Heb “depths,” that is, deep waters (see Ps 69:2, 14; Isa 51:10), a metaphor for the life-threatening danger faced by the psalmist.

¹⁶ sn Psalm 3. The psalmist acknowledges that he is confronted by many enemies (vv. 1-2). But, alluding to a divine oracle he has received (vv. 4-5), he affirms his confidence in God’s ability to protect him (vv. 3, 6) and requests that God make his promise a reality (vv. 7-8).

¹⁷ sn According to Jewish tradition, David offered this prayer when he was forced to flee from Jerusalem during his son Absalom’s attempted coup (see 2 Sam 15:13-17).

¹⁸ tn The Hebrew term מָה (mah, “how”) is used here as an adverbial exclamation (see BDB 553 s.v.).

¹⁹ tn Heb “many rise up against me.”