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, ¹  declares the sovereign Lord.’

Ezekiel 20:1

Israel’s Rebellion

20:1 In the seventh year, in the fifth month, on the tenth of the month, ²  some of the elders ³  of Israel came to seek ⁴  the Lord, and they sat down in front of me.

Ezekiel 28:6

28:6 “‘Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says:

Because you think you are godlike, ⁵ 

Ezekiel 28:2

28:2 “Son of man, say to the prince ⁶  of Tyre, ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says:

“‘Your heart is proud ⁷  and you said, “I am a god; ⁸ 

I sit in the seat of gods, in the heart of the seas” –

yet you are a man and not a god,

though you think you are godlike. ⁹ 

Ezekiel 3:13

3:13 and the sound of the living beings’ wings brushing against each other, and the sound of the wheels alongside them, a great rumbling sound.

Psalms 66:18

66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, ¹⁰ 

the Lord would not have listened.

Psalms 101:3

101:3 I will not even consider doing what is dishonest. ¹¹ 

I hate doing evil; ¹² 

I will have no part of it. ¹³ 

Proverbs 15:8

15:8 The Lord abhors ¹⁴  the sacrifices ¹⁵  of the wicked, ¹⁶ 

but the prayer ¹⁷  of the upright pleases him. ¹⁸ 

Proverbs 15:29

15:29 The Lord is far ¹⁹  from the wicked,

but he hears ²⁰  the prayer of the righteous. ²¹ 

Proverbs 21:27

21:27 The wicked person’s sacrifice ²²  is an abomination;

how much more ²³  when he brings it with evil intent! ²⁴ 

Proverbs 28:9

28:9 The one who turns away his ear ²⁵  from hearing the law,

even his prayer ²⁶  is an abomination. ²⁷ 

Isaiah 1:15

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

I look the other way; ²⁸ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ²⁹ 

Isaiah 33:15

33:15 The one who lives ³⁰  uprightly ³¹ 

and speaks honestly;

the one who refuses to profit from oppressive measures

and rejects a bribe; ³² 

the one who does not plot violent crimes ³³ 

and does not seek to harm others ³⁴  –

Jeremiah 7:8-11

7:8 “‘But just look at you! ³⁵  You are putting your confidence in a false belief ³⁶  that will not deliver you. ³⁷  7:9 You steal. ³⁸  You murder. You commit adultery. You lie when you swear on oath. You sacrifice to the god Baal. You pay allegiance to ³⁹  other gods whom you have not previously known. 7:10 Then you come and stand in my presence in this temple I have claimed as my own ⁴⁰  and say, “We are safe!” You think you are so safe that you go on doing all those hateful sins! ⁴¹  7:11 Do you think this temple I have claimed as my own ⁴²  is to be a hideout for robbers? ⁴³  You had better take note! ⁴⁴  I have seen for myself what you have done! says the Lord.

Jeremiah 11:11

11:11 So I, the Lord, say this: ⁴⁵  ‘I will soon bring disaster on them which they will not be able to escape! When they cry out to me for help, I will not listen to them.

Jeremiah 42:20-21

42:20 You are making a fatal mistake. ⁴⁶  For you sent me to the Lord your God and asked me, ‘Pray to the Lord our God for us. Tell us what the Lord our God says and we will do it.’ ⁴⁷  42:21 This day ⁴⁸  I have told you what he said. ⁴⁹  But you do not want to obey the Lord by doing what he sent me to tell you. ⁵⁰ 

Zechariah 7:13

7:13 “‘It then came about that just as I ⁵¹  cried out, but they would not obey, so they will cry out, but I will not listen,’ the Lord Lord who rules over all had said.

Luke 20:8

20:8 Then ⁵²  Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you ⁵³  by whose authority ⁵⁴  I do these things.”

[20:3]  ¹ tn Or “I will not reveal myself to you.”

[20:1]  ² sn The date would be August 14th, 591 b.c. The seventh year is the seventh year of Jehoiachin’s exile.

[20:1]  ³ tn Heb “men from the elders.”

[20:1]  ⁴ tn See the note at 14:3.

[28:6]  ⁵ tn Heb “because of your making your heart like the heart of gods.”

[28:2]  ⁶ tn Or “ruler” (NIV, NCV).

[28:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “lifted up.”

[28:2]  ⁸ tn Or “I am divine.”

[28:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “and you made your heart (mind) like the heart (mind) of gods.”

[66:18]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”

[101:3]  ¹¹ tn Heb “I will not set before my eyes a thing of worthlessness.”

[101:3]  ¹² tn Heb “the doing of swerving [deeds] I hate.” The Hebrew term סֵטִים (setim) is probably an alternate spelling of שֵׂטִים (setim), which appears in many medieval Hebrew mss. The form appears to be derived from a verbal root שׂוּט (sut, “to fall away; to swerve”; see Ps 40:4).

[101:3]  ¹³ tn Heb “it [i.e., the doing of evil deeds] does not cling to me.”

[15:8]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “an abomination of the Lord.” The term יְהוָה (yÿhvah, “the Lord”) functions as a subjective genitive: “the Lord abhors.” Cf. NIV “the Lord detests”; NCV, NLT “the Lord hates”; CEV “the Lord is disgusted.”

[15:8]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sacrifice” (so many English versions).

[15:8]  ¹⁶ sn The sacrifices of the wicked are hated by the Lord because the worshipers are insincere and blasphemous (e.g., Prov 15:29; 21:3; 28:9; Ps 40:6-8; Isa 1:10-17). In other words, the spiritual condition of the worshiper determines whether or not the worship is acceptable to God.

[15:8]  ¹⁷ sn J. H. Greenstone notes that if God will accept the prayers of the upright, he will accept their sacrifices; for sacrifice is an outer ritual and easily performed even by the wicked, but prayer is a private and inward act and not usually fabricated by unbelievers (Proverbs, 162).

[15:8]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “[is] his pleasure.” The 3rd person masculine singular suffix functions as a subjective genitive: “he is pleased.” God is pleased with the prayers of the upright.

[15:29]  ¹⁹ sn To say that the Lord is “far” from the wicked is to say that he has made himself unavailable to their appeal – he does not answer them. This motif is used by David throughout Psalm 22 for the problem of unanswered prayer – “Why are you far off?”

[15:29]  ²⁰ sn The verb “hear” (שָׁמַע, shama’) has more of the sense of “respond to” in this context. If one “listens to the voice of the Lord,” for example, it means that he obeys the Lord. If one wishes God to “hear his prayer,” it means he wishes God to answer it.

[15:29]  ²¹ sn God’s response to prayer is determined by the righteousness of the one who prays. A prayer of repentance by the wicked is an exception, for by it they would become the righteous (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 316).

[21:27]  ²² tn Heb “the sacrifice of the wicked” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV). This is a subjective genitive. The foundational clause states that ritual acts of worship brought by the wicked (thus a subjective genitive) are detestable to God. The “wicked” refers here to people who are not members of the covenant (no faith) and are not following after righteousness (no acceptable works). But often they participate in sanctuary ritual, which amounts to hypocrisy.

[21:27]  ²³ sn This rhetorical device shows that if the act is abomination, the wicked heart is an even greater sin. It argues from the lesser to the greater.

[21:27]  ²⁴ tn The noun זִמָּה (zimmah) means “plan; device; wickedness”; here it indicates that the person is coming to the ritual with “sinful purpose.” Some commentators suggest that this would mean he comes with the sacrifice as a bribe to pacify his conscience for a crime committed, over which he has little remorse or intent to cease (cf. NLT “with ulterior motives”). In this view, people in ancient Israel came to think that sacrifices could be given for any reason without genuine submission to God.

[28:9]  ²⁵ sn The expression “turn away the ear from hearing” uses a metonymy to mean that this individual will not listen – it indicates a deliberate refusal to follow the instruction of the law.

[28:9]  ²⁶ sn It is hard to imagine how someone who willfully refuses to obey the law of God would pray according to the will of God. Such a person is more apt to pray for some physical thing or make demands on God. (Of course a prayer of repentance would be an exception and would not be an abomination to the Lord.)

[28:9]  ²⁷ sn C. H. Toy says, “If a man, on his part, is deaf to instruction, then God, on his part, is deaf to prayer” (Proverbs [ICC], 499). And W. McKane observes that one who fails to attend to God’s law is a wicked person, even if he is a man of prayer (Proverbs [OTL], 623).

[1:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ²⁹ 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.

[33:15]  ³⁰ tn Heb “walks” (so NASB, NIV).

[33:15]  ³¹ tn Or, possibly, “justly”; NAB “who practices virtue.”

[33:15]  ³² tn Heb “[who] shakes off his hands from grabbing hold of a bribe.”

[33:15]  ³³ tn Heb “[who] shuts his ear from listening to bloodshed.”

[33:15]  ³⁴ tn Heb “[who] closes his eyes from seeing evil.”

[7:8]  ³⁵ tn Heb “Behold!”

[7:8]  ³⁶ tn Heb “You are trusting in lying words.” See the similar phrase in v. 4 and the note there.

[7:8]  ³⁷ tn Heb “not profit [you].”

[7:9]  ³⁸ tn Heb “Will you steal…then say, ‘We are safe’?” Verses 9-10 are one long sentence in the Hebrew text.

[7:9]  ³⁹ tn Heb “You go/follow after.” See the translator’s note at 2:5 for an explanation of the idiom involved here.

[7:10]  ⁴⁰ tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:10]  ⁴¹ tn Or “‘We are safe!’ – safe, you think, to go on doing all those hateful things.” Verses 9-10 are all one long sentence in the Hebrew text. It has been broken up for English stylistic reasons. Somewhat literally it reads “Will you steal…then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe’ so as to/in order to do…” The Hebrew of v. 9 has a series of infinitives which emphasize the bare action of the verb without the idea of time or agent. The effect is to place a kind of staccato like emphasis on the multitude of their sins all of which are violations of one of the Ten Commandments. The final clause in v. 8 expresses purpose or result (probably result) through another infinitive. This long sentence is introduced by a marker (ה interrogative in Hebrew) introducing a rhetorical question in which God expresses his incredulity that they could do these sins, come into the temple and claim the safety of his protection, and then go right back out and commit the same sins. J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 52) catches the force nicely: “What? You think you can steal, murder…and then come and stand…and say, ‘We are safe…’ just so that you can go right on…”

[7:11]  ⁴² tn Heb “over which my name is called.” For this nuance of this idiom cf. BDB 896 s.v. קָרָא Niph.2.d(4) and see the usage in 2 Sam 12:28.

[7:11]  ⁴³ tn Heb “Is this house…a den/cave of robbers in your eyes?”

[7:11]  ⁴⁴ tn Heb “Behold!”

[11:11]  ⁴⁵ tn Heb “Therefore, thus, says the Lord.” The person has been shifted in the translation in accordance with the difference between Hebrew and English style.

[42:20]  ⁴⁶ tn Heb “you are erring at the cost of your own lives” (BDB 1073 s.v. תָּעָה Hiph.3 and HALOT 1626 s.v. תָּעָה Hif 4, and cf. BDB 90 s.v. בְּ 3 and see parallels in 1 Kgs 2:23; 2 Sam 23:17 for the nuance of “at the cost of your lives”). This fits the context better than “you are deceiving yourselves” (KBL 1035 s.v. תָּעָה Hif 4). The reading here follows the Qere הִתְעֵיתֶם (hit’etem) rather than the Kethib which has a metathesis of י (yod) and ת (tav), i.e., הִתְעֵתֶים. The Greek text presupposes הֲרֵעֹתֶם (hare’otem, “you have done evil”), but that reading is generally rejected as secondary.

[42:20]  ⁴⁷ tn Heb “According to all which the Lord our God says so tell us and we will do.” The restructuring of the sentence is intended to better reflect contemporary English style.

[42:21]  ⁴⁸ tn Or “Today.”

[42:21]  ⁴⁹ tn The words “what he said” are not in the text but are implicit and seem necessary for clarity.

[42:21]  ⁵⁰ tn Heb “But you have not hearkened to the voice of [idiomatic for “obeyed” see BDB 1034 s.v. שָׁמַע Qal.1.m] the Lord your God, namely [cf. BDB 252 s.v. וְ 1.b] with respect [cf. BDB 514 s.v. לְ 5.f(c)] all which he has sent to us.” The verb is translated “don’t seem to want to obey” because they have not yet expressed their refusal or their actual disobedience. Several commentaries sensing this apparent discrepancy suggest that 42:19-22 are to be transposed after 43:1-3 (see, e.g., BHS note 18a, W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 2:275; J. Bright, Jeremiah [AB], 252, 256, 258). However, there is absolutely no textual evidence for the transposition and little reason to suspect an early scribal error (in spite of Holladay’s suggestion). It is possible that Jeremiah here anticipates this answer in 43:1-3 through the response on their faces (so Bright, 256; F. B. Huey, Jeremiah, Lamentations [NAC], 361). G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, and T. G. Smothers (Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 249) also call attention to the stated intention in 41:17 and the fact that the strong warning in 42:15-17 seems to imply that a negative response is expected). The use of the perfect here is perhaps to be related to the perfect expressing resolve or determination (see IBHS 489 §30.5.1d). It is also conceivable that these two verses are part of a conditional sentence which has no formal introduction. I.e., “And if you will not obey…then you should know for certain that…” For examples of this kind of conditional clause introduced by two vavs (ו) see Joüon 2:628-29 §167.b, and compare Jer 18:4; Judg 6:13. However, though this interpretation is within the possibilities of Hebrew grammar, I know of no translation or commentary that follows it. So it has not been followed in the translation or given as an alternate translation.

[7:13]  ⁵¹ tn Heb “he.” Since the third person pronoun refers to the Lord, it has been translated as a first person pronoun (“I”) to accommodate English style, which typically does not exhibit switches between persons of pronouns in the same immediate context as Hebrew does.

[20:8]  ⁵² tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence of events within the narrative.

[20:8]  ⁵³ sn Neither will I tell you. Though Jesus gave no answer, the analogy he used to their own question makes his view clear. His authority came from heaven.

[20:8]  ⁵⁴ tn On this phrase, see BDAG 844 s.v. ποῖος 2.a.γ. This is exactly the same phrase as in v. 2.