Job 34:28

34:28 so that they caused ¹  the cry of the poor

to come before him,

so that he hears ²  the cry of the needy.

Psalms 31:22

31:22 I jumped to conclusions and said, ³ 

“I am cut off from your presence!” ⁴ 

But you heard my plea for mercy when I cried out to you for help.

Psalms 34:17

34:17 The godly ⁵  cry out and the Lord hears;

he saves them from all their troubles. ⁶ 

Psalms 69:33

69:33 For the Lord listens to the needy;

he does not despise his captive people. ⁷ 

Proverbs 15:29

15:29 The Lord is far ⁸  from the wicked,

but he hears ⁹  the prayer of the righteous. ¹⁰ 

John 9:31

9:31 We know that God doesn’t listen to ¹¹  sinners, but if anyone is devout ¹²  and does his will, God ¹³  listens to ¹⁴  him. ¹⁵ 

John 11:42

11:42 I knew that you always listen to me, ¹⁶  but I said this ¹⁷  for the sake of the crowd standing around here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

¹ tn The verse begins with the infinitive construct of בּוֹא (bo’, “go”), showing the result of their impious actions.

² tn The verb here is an imperfect; the clause is circumstantial to the preceding clause, showing either the result, or the concomitant action.

³ tn Heb “and I, I said in my haste.”

⁴ tn Heb “from before your eyes.”

⁵ tn Heb “they” (i.e., the godly mentioned in v. 15).

⁶ tn The three perfect verbal forms are taken in a generalizing sense in v. 17 and translated with the present tense (note the generalizing mood of vv. 18-22).

⁷ tn Heb “his prisoners he does not despise.”

⁸ sn To say that the Lord is “far” from the wicked is to say that he has made himself unavailable to their appeal – he does not answer them. This motif is used by David throughout Psalm 22 for the problem of unanswered prayer – “Why are you far off?”

⁹ sn The verb “hear” (שָׁמַע, shama’) has more of the sense of “respond to” in this context. If one “listens to the voice of the Lord,” for example, it means that he obeys the Lord. If one wishes God to “hear his prayer,” it means he wishes God to answer it.

¹⁰ sn God’s response to prayer is determined by the righteousness of the one who prays. A prayer of repentance by the wicked is an exception, for by it they would become the righteous (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 316).

¹¹ tn Grk “God does not hear.”

¹² tn Or “godly.”

¹³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (God) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁴ tn Or “hears.”

¹⁵ tn Grk “this one.”

¹⁶ tn Grk “that you always hear me.”

¹⁷ tn The word “this” is not in the Greek text. Direct objects in Greek were often omitted when clear from the context.