Lamentations 3:44

3:44 You shrouded yourself with a cloud

so that no prayer can get through.

Job 19:7

Job’s Abandonment and Affliction

19:7 “If ¹  I cry out, ²  ‘Violence!’ ³ 

I receive no answer; ⁴ 

I cry for help,

but there is no justice.

Job 30:20

30:20 I cry out to you, ⁵  but you do not answer me;

I stand up, ⁶  and you only look at me. ⁷ 

Psalms 22:2

22:2 My God, I cry out during the day,

but you do not answer,

and during the night my prayers do not let up. ⁸ 

Psalms 80:4

80:4 O Lord God, invincible warrior! ⁹ 

How long will you remain angry at your people while they pray to you? ¹⁰ 

Habakkuk 1:2

1:2 How long, Lord, must I cry for help?

But you do not listen!

I call out to you, “Violence!”

But you do not intervene! ¹¹ 

Matthew 27:46

27:46 At ¹²  about three o’clock Jesus shouted with a loud voice, ¹³  “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” ¹⁴ 

¹ tn The particle is used here as in 9:11 (see GKC 497 §159.w).

² tc The LXX has “I laugh at reproach.”

³ tn The same idea is expressed in Jer 20:8 and Hab 1:2. The cry is a cry for help, that he has been wronged, that there is no justice.

⁴ tn The Niphal is simply “I am not answered.” See Prov 21:13b.

⁵ sn The implication from the sentence is that this is a cry to God for help. The sudden change from third person (v. 19) to second person (v. 20) is indicative of the intense emotion of the sufferer.

⁶ sn The verb is simple, but the interpretation difficult. In this verse it probably means he stands up in prayer (Jer 15:1), but it could mean that he makes his case to God. Others suggest a more figurative sense, like the English expression “stand pat,” meaning “remain silent” (see Job 29:8).

⁷ tn If the idea of prayer is meant, then a pejorative sense to the verb is required. Some supply a negative and translate “you do not pay heed to me.” This is supported by one Hebrew ms and the Vulgate. The Syriac has the whole colon read with God as the subject, “you stand and look at me.”

⁸ tn Heb “there is no silence to me.”

⁹ tn Heb “Lord, God, hosts.” One expects the construct form אֱלֹהֵי (’elohey) before צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot; “hosts”; see Ps 89:9), but יְהוָה אֱלֹהִים (yehvah ’elohim) precedes צְבָאוֹת (tsÿva’ot) in Pss 59:5 and 84:8 as well. In this context the term “hosts” (meaning “armies”) has been rendered “invincible warrior.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “How long will you remain angry during the prayer of your people.” Some take the preposition -בְּ (bet) in an adversative sense here (“at/against the prayer of your people”), but the temporal sense is preferable. The psalmist expects persistent prayer to pacify God.

¹¹ tn Or “deliver.”

¹² tn Here δέ (de) has not been translated.

¹³ tn Grk “with a loud voice, saying.” The participle λέγων (legwn) is redundant here in contemporary English and has not been translated.

¹⁴ sn A quotation from Ps 22:1.