Matthew 11:15

11:15 The one who has ears had better listen! ¹ 

Matthew 13:9

13:9 The one who has ears had better listen!” ² 

Matthew 13:39

13:39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

Matthew 22:32

22:32 ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? ³  He is not the God of the dead but of the living!” ⁴ 

¹ tn The translation “had better listen!” captures the force of the third person imperative more effectively than the traditional “let him hear,” which sounds more like a permissive than an imperative to the modern English reader. This was Jesus’ common expression to listen and heed carefully (cf. Matt 13:9, 43; Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 8:8, 14:35).

² tn The translation “had better listen!” captures the force of the third person imperative more effectively than the traditional “let him hear,” which sounds more like a permissive than an imperative to the modern English reader. This was Jesus’ common expression to listen and heed carefully (cf. Matt 11:15, 13:43; Mark 4:9, 23; Luke 8:8, 14:35).

³ sn A quotation from Exod 3:6.

⁴ sn He is not God of the dead but of the living. Jesus’ point was that if God could identify himself as God of the three old patriarchs, then they must still be alive when God spoke to Moses; and so they must be raised.