2 Chronicles 15:4

15:4 Because of their distress, they turned back to the Lord God of Israel. They sought him and he responded to them. ¹ 

2 Chronicles 15:15

15:15 All Judah was happy about the oath, because they made the vow with their whole heart. They willingly sought the Lord and he responded to them. ²  He made them secure on every side. ³ 

2 Chronicles 33:12

33:12 In his pain ⁴  Manasseh ⁵  asked the Lord his God for mercy ⁶  and truly ⁷  humbled himself before the God of his ancestors. ⁸ 

Isaiah 55:6-7

55:6 Seek the Lord while he makes himself available; ⁹ 

call to him while he is nearby!

55:7 The wicked need to abandon their lifestyle ¹⁰ 

and sinful people their plans. ¹¹ 

They should return ¹²  to the Lord, and he will show mercy to them, ¹³ 

and to their God, for he will freely forgive them. ¹⁴ 

Jeremiah 29:12-14

29:12 When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, ¹⁵  I will hear your prayers. ¹⁶  29:13 When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, ¹⁷  29:14 I will make myself available to you,’ ¹⁸  says the Lord. ¹⁹  ‘Then I will reverse your plight ²⁰  and will regather you from all the nations and all the places where I have exiled you,’ says the Lord. ²¹  ‘I will bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.’

Matthew 7:7-8

Ask, Seek, Knock

7:7 “Ask ²²  and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door ²³  will be opened for you. 7:8 For everyone who asks ²⁴  receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

[15:4]  ¹ tn Heb “and he allowed himself to be found by them.”

[15:15]  ² tn Heb “and with all their desire they sought him and he allowed himself to be found by them.”

[15:15]  ³ tn Heb “and the Lord gave them rest all around.”

[33:12]  ⁴ tn Or “distress.”

[33:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Manasseh) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “appeased the face of the Lord his God.”

[33:12]  ⁷ tn Or “greatly.”

[33:12]  ⁸ tn Heb “fathers.”

[55:6]  ⁹ tn Heb “while he allows himself to be found.” The Niphal form has a tolerative force here.

[55:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Let the wicked one abandon his way.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and the man of evil his thoughts.” The singular is collective.

[55:7]  ¹² tn Heb “let him return.” The singular is collective, meaning “let them.”

[55:7]  ¹³ tn The imperfect with vav (ו) conjunctive after the jussive indicates purpose/result.

[55:7]  ¹⁴ sn The appeal and promise of vv. 6-7 echoes the language of Deut 4:25-31; 30:1-10; and 1 Kgs 8:46-53, all of which anticipate the exile and speak of the prerequisites for restoration.

[29:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “come and pray to me.” This is an example of verbal hendiadys where two verb formally joined by “and” convey a main concept with the second verb functioning as an adverbial qualifier.

[29:12]  ¹⁶ tn Or “You will call out to me and come to me in prayer and I will hear your prayers.” The verbs are vav consecutive perfects and can be taken either as unconditional futures or as contingent futures. See GKC 337 §112.kk and 494 §159.g and compare the usage in Gen 44:22 for the use of the vav consecutive perfects in contingent futures. The conditional clause in the middle of 29:13 and the deuteronomic theology reflected in both Deut 30:1-5 and 1 Kgs 8:46-48 suggest that the verbs are continent futures here. For the same demand for wholehearted seeking in these contexts which presuppose exile see especially Deut 30:2, 1 Kgs 8:48.

[29:13]  ¹⁷ tn Or “If you wholeheartedly seek me”; Heb “You will seek me and find [me] because you will seek me with all your heart.” The translation attempts to reflect the theological nuances of “seeking” and “finding” and the psychological significance of “heart” which refers more to intellectual and volitional concerns in the OT than to emotional ones.

[29:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “I will let myself be found by you.” For this nuance of the verb see BDB 594 s.v. מָצָא Niph.1.f and compare the usage in Isa 65:1; 2 Chr 15:2. The Greek version already noted that nuance when it translated the phrase “I will manifest myself to you.”

[29:14]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[29:14]  ²⁰ tn Heb “restore your fortune.” Alternately, “I will bring you back from exile.” This idiom occurs twenty-six times in the OT and in several cases it is clearly not referring to return from exile but restoration of fortunes (e.g., Job 42:10; Hos 6:11–7:1; Jer 33:11). It is often followed as here by “regather” or “bring back” (e.g., Jer 30:3; Ezek 29:14) so it is often misunderstood as “bringing back the exiles.” The versions (LXX, Vulg., Tg., Pesh.) often translate the idiom as “to go away into captivity,” deriving the noun from שְׁבִי (shÿvi, “captivity”). However, the use of this expression in Old Aramaic documents of Sefire parallels the biblical idiom: “the gods restored the fortunes of the house of my father again” (J. A. Fitzmyer, The Aramaic Inscriptions of Sefire [BibOr], 100-101, 119-20). The idiom means “to turn someone's fortune, bring about change” or “to reestablish as it was” (HALOT 1386 s.v. 3.c). In Ezek 16:53 it is paralleled by the expression “to restore the situation which prevailed earlier.” This amounts to restitutio in integrum, which is applicable to the circumstances surrounding the return of the exiles.

[29:14]  ²¹ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[7:7]  ²² sn The three present imperatives in this verse (Ask…seek…knock) are probably intended to call for a repeated or continual approach before God.

[7:7]  ²³ tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation here and in v. 8 for clarity.

[7:8]  ²⁴ sn The actions of asking, seeking, and knocking are repeated here from v. 7 with the encouragement that God does respond.