1 Samuel 7:5

7:5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord on your behalf.”

1 Samuel 7:8

7:8 The Israelites said to Samuel, “Keep ¹  crying out to the Lord our ²  God so that he may save us ³  from the hand of the Philistines!”

Genesis 20:7

20:7 But now give back the man’s wife. Indeed ⁴  he is a prophet ⁵  and he will pray for you; thus you will live. ⁶  But if you don’t give her back, ⁷  know that you will surely die ⁸  along with all who belong to you.”

Exodus 9:28

9:28 Pray to the Lord, for the mighty ⁹  thunderings and hail are too much! ¹⁰  I will release you and you will stay no longer.” ¹¹ 

Exodus 10:17

10:17 So now, forgive my sin this time only, and pray to the Lord your God that he would only ¹²  take this death ¹³  away from me.”

Job 42:8

42:8 So now take ¹⁴  seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. And my servant Job will intercede ¹⁵  for you, and I will respect him, ¹⁶  so that I do not deal with you ¹⁷  according to your folly, ¹⁸  because you have not spoken about me what is right, as my servant Job has.” ¹⁹ 

Psalms 78:34-35

78:34 When he struck them down, ²⁰  they sought his favor; ²¹ 

they turned back and longed for God.

78:35 They remembered that God was their protector, ²² 

and that the sovereign God was their deliverer. ²³ 

Isaiah 26:16

26:16 O Lord, in distress they looked for you;

they uttered incantations because of your discipline. ²⁴ 

Malachi 1:9

1:9 But now plead for God’s favor ²⁵  that he might be gracious to us. ²⁶  “With this kind of offering in your hands, how can he be pleased with you?” asks the Lord who rules over all.

Acts 8:24

8:24 But Simon replied, ²⁷  “You pray to the Lord for me so that nothing of what you have said may happen to ²⁸  me.”

James 5:15

5:15 And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up – and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. ²⁹ 

James 5:1

Warning to the Rich

5:1 Come now, you rich! Weep and cry aloud ³⁰  over the miseries that are coming on you.

James 5:16

5:16 So confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness. ³¹ 

[7:8]  ¹ tn Heb “don’t stop.”

[7:8]  ² tc The LXX reads “your God” rather than the MT’s “our God.”

[7:8]  ³ tn After the negated jussive, the prefixed verbal form with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result.

[20:7]  ⁴ tn Or “for,” if the particle is understood as causal (as many English translations do) rather than asseverative.

[20:7]  ⁵ sn For a discussion of the term prophet see N. Walker, “What is a Nabhi?” ZAW 73 (1961): 99-100.

[20:7]  ⁶ tn After the preceding jussive (or imperfect), the imperative with vav conjunctive here indicates result.

[20:7]  ⁷ tn Heb “if there is not you returning.” The suffix on the particle becomes the subject of the negated clause.

[20:7]  ⁸ tn The imperfect is preceded by the infinitive absolute to make the warning emphatic.

[9:28]  ⁹ sn The text has Heb “the voices of God.” The divine epithet can be used to express the superlative (cf. Jonah 3:3).

[9:28]  ¹⁰ tn The expression וְרַב מִהְיֹת (vÿrav mihyot, “[the mighty thunder and hail] is much from being”) means essentially “more than enough.” This indicates that the storm was too much, or, as one might say, “It is enough.”

[9:28]  ¹¹ tn The last clause uses a verbal hendiadys: “you will not add to stand,” meaning “you will no longer stay.”

[10:17]  ¹² sn Pharaoh’s double emphasis on “only” uses two different words and was meant to deceive. He was trying to give Moses the impression that he had finally come to his senses, and that he would let the people go. But he had no intention of letting them out.

[10:17]  ¹³ sn “Death” is a metonymy that names the effect for the cause. If the locusts are left in the land it will be death to everything that grows.

[42:8]  ¹⁴ tn The imperatives in this verse are plural, so all three had to do this together.

[42:8]  ¹⁵ tn The verb “pray” is the Hitpael from the root פָּלַל (palal). That root has the main idea of arbitration; so in this stem it means “to seek arbitration [for oneself],” or “to pray,” or “to intercede.”

[42:8]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “I will lift up his face,” meaning, “I will regard him.”

[42:8]  ¹⁷ tn This clause is a result clause, using the negated infinitive construct.

[42:8]  ¹⁸ tn The word “folly” can also be taken in the sense of “disgrace.” If the latter is chosen, the word serves as the direct object. If the former, then it is an adverbial accusative.

[42:8]  ¹⁹ sn The difference between what they said and what Job said, therefore, has to do with truth. Job was honest, spoke the truth, poured out his complaints, but never blasphemed God. For his words God said he told the truth. He did so with incomplete understanding, and with all the impatience and frustration one might expect. Now the friends, however, did not tell what was right about God. They were not honest; rather, they were self-righteous and condescending. They were saying what they thought should be said, but it was wrong.

[78:34]  ²⁰ tn Or “killed them,” that is, killed large numbers of them.

[78:34]  ²¹ tn Heb “they sought him.”

[78:35]  ²² tn Heb “my high rocky summit.”

[78:35]  ²³ tn Heb “and [that] God Most High [was] their redeemer.”

[26:16]  ²⁴ tn The meaning of this verse is unclear. It appears to read literally, “O Lord, in distress they visit you, they pour out [?] an incantation, your discipline to them.” פָּקַד (paqad) may here carry the sense of “seek with interest” (cf. Ezek 23:21 and BDB 823 s.v.) or “seek in vain” (cf. Isa 34:16), but it is peculiar for the Lord to be the object of this verb. צָקוּן (tsaqun) may be a Qal perfect third plural form from צוּק (tsuq, “pour out, melt”), though the verb is not used of pouring out words in its two other occurrences. Because of the appearance of צַר (tsar, “distress”) in the preceding line, it is tempting to emend the form to a noun and derive it from צוּק (“be in distress”) The term לַחַשׁ (lakhash) elsewhere refers to an incantation (Isa 3:3; Jer 8:17; Eccl 10:11) or amulet (Isa 3:20). Perhaps here it refers to ritualistic prayers or to magical incantations used to ward off evil.

[1:9]  ²⁵ tn Heb “seek the face of God.”

[1:9]  ²⁶ tn After the imperative, the prefixed verbal form with vav conjunction indicates purpose (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[8:24]  ²⁷ tn Grk “Simon answered and said.”

[8:24]  ²⁸ tn Grk “may come upon.”

[5:15]  ²⁹ tn Grk “it will be forgiven him.”

[5:1]  ³⁰ tn Or “wail”; Grk “crying aloud.”

[5:16]  ³¹ tn Or “the fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful”; Grk “is very powerful in its working.”