1 Samuel 28:6

28:6 So Saul inquired of the Lord, but the Lord did not answer him – not by dreams nor by Urim ¹  nor by the prophets.

Job 27:9

27:9 Does God listen to his cry

when distress overtakes him?

Proverbs 1:28

1:28 Then they will call to me, but I will not answer;

they will diligently seek ²  me, but they will not find me.

Isaiah 1:15

1:15 When you spread out your hands in prayer,

I look the other way; ³ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ⁴ 

Ezekiel 20:3

20:3 “Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel, and tell them: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Are you coming to seek me? As surely as I live, I will not allow you to seek me, ⁵  declares the sovereign Lord.’

Micah 3:4

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, ⁶ 

but he will not answer them.

He will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have done such wicked deeds.”

Matthew 7:22-23

7:22 On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons and do ⁷  many powerful deeds?’ 7:23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’ ⁸ 

Luke 13:25-26

13:25 Once ⁹  the head of the house ¹⁰  gets up ¹¹  and shuts the door, then you will stand outside and start to knock on the door and beg him, ‘Lord, ¹²  let us in!’ ¹³  But he will answer you, ¹⁴  ‘I don’t know where you come from.’ ¹⁵  13:26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ¹⁶ 

[28:6]  ¹ sn See the note at 1 Sam 14:41.

[1:28]  ² tn Heb “look to.” The verb שָׁחַר (shakhar, “to look”) is used figuratively of intensely looking (=seeking) for deliverance out of trouble (W. L. Holladay, Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon, 366); cf. NLT “anxiously search for.” It is used elsewhere in parallelism with בָּקַשׁ (baqash, “to seek rescue”; Hos 5:15). It does not mean “to seek early” (cf. KJV) as is popularly taught due to etymological connections with the noun שַׁחַר (shakhar, “dawn”; so BDB 1007 s.v. שָׁחַר).

[1:15]  ³ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ⁴ sn This does not just refer to the blood of sacrificial animals, but also the blood, as it were, of their innocent victims. By depriving the poor and destitute of proper legal recourse and adequate access to the economic system, the oppressors have, for all intents and purposes, “killed” their victims.

[20:3]  ⁵ tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”

[3:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “then they will cry out to the Lord.” The words “Someday these sinners” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[7:22]  ⁷ tn Grk “and in your name do.” This phrase was not repeated here in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[7:23]  ⁸ tn Grk “workers of lawlessness.”

[13:25]  ⁹ tn The syntactical relationship between vv. 24-25 is disputed. The question turns on whether v. 25 is connected to v. 24 or not. A lack of a clear connective makes an independent idea more likely. However, one must then determine what the beginning of the sentence connects to. Though it makes for slightly awkward English, the translation has opted to connect it to “he will answer” so that this functions, in effect, as an apodosis. One could end the sentence after “us” and begin a new sentence with “He will answer” to make simpler sentences, although the connection between the two sentences is thereby less clear. The point of the passage, however, is clear. Once the door is shut, because one failed to come in through the narrow way, it is closed permanently. The moral: Do not be too late in deciding to respond.

[13:25]  ¹⁰ tn Or “the master of the household.”

[13:25]  ¹¹ tn Or “rises,” or “stands up.”

[13:25]  ¹² tn Or “Sir.”

[13:25]  ¹³ tn Grk “Open to us.”

[13:25]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “and answering, he will say to you.” This is redundant in contemporary English and has been simplified to “he will answer you.”

[13:25]  ¹⁵ sn For the imagery behind the statement “I do not know where you come from,” see Ps 138:6; Isa 63:16; Jer 1:5; Hos 5:3.

[13:26]  ¹⁶ sn This term refers to wide streets, and thus suggests the major streets of a city.