Ezra 8:31

8:31 On the twelfth day of the first month we began traveling from the Ahava Canal to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from our enemy and from bandits ¹  along the way.

Deuteronomy 4:29

4:29 But if you seek the Lord your God from there, you will find him, if, indeed, you seek him with all your heart and soul. ² 

Deuteronomy 4:1

The Privileges of the Covenant

4:1 Now, Israel, pay attention to the statutes and ordinances ³  I am about to teach you, so that you might live and go on to enter and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, ⁴  is giving you.

Deuteronomy 5:20

5:20 You must not offer false testimony against another. ⁵ 

Deuteronomy 5:2

5:2 The Lord our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.

Deuteronomy 33:12-13

Blessing on Benjamin

33:12 Of Benjamin he said:

The beloved of the Lord will live safely by him;

he protects him all the time,

and the Lord ⁶  places him on his chest. ⁷ 

Blessing on Joseph

33:13 Of Joseph he said:

May the Lord bless his land

with the harvest produced by the sky, ⁸  by the dew,

and by the depths crouching beneath;

Psalms 66:18-20

66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, ⁹ 

the Lord would not have listened.

66:19 However, God heard;

he listened to my prayer.

66:20 God deserves praise, ¹⁰ 

for ¹¹  he did not reject my prayer

or abandon his love for me! ¹² 

Isaiah 19:22

19:22 The Lord will strike Egypt, striking and then healing them. They will turn to the Lord and he will listen to their prayers ¹³  and heal them.

Jeremiah 29:12-13

29:12 When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, ¹⁴  I will hear your prayers. ¹⁵  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, ¹⁶ 

Matthew 7:7-8

Ask, Seek, Knock

7:7 “Ask ¹⁷  and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door ¹⁸  will be opened for you. 7:8 For everyone who asks ¹⁹  receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

[8:31]  ¹ tn Heb “from the hand of the enemy and the one who lies in wait.” Some modern English versions render the latter phrase as “ambushes” (cf. NASB, NRSV).

[4:29]  ² tn Or “mind and being.” See Deut 6:5.

[4:1]  ³ tn These technical Hebrew terms (חֻקִּים [khuqqim] and מִשְׁפָּטִים [mishpatim]) occur repeatedly throughout the Book of Deuteronomy to describe the covenant stipulations to which Israel had been called to subscribe (see, in this chapter alone, vv. 1, 5, 6, 8). The word חֻקִּים derives from the verb חֹק (khoq, “to inscribe; to carve”) and מִשְׁפָּטִים (mishpatim) from שָׁפַט (shafat, “to judge”). They are virtually synonymous and are used interchangeably in Deuteronomy.

[4:1]  ⁴ tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 31, 37).

[5:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “your neighbor.” Clearly this is intended generically, however, and not to be limited only to those persons who live nearby (frequently the way “neighbor” is understood in contemporary contexts). So also in v. 20.

[33:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (the Lord) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “between his shoulders.” This suggests the scene in John 13:23 with Jesus and the Beloved Disciple.

[33:13]  ⁸ tn Heb “from the harvest of the heavens.” The referent appears to be good crops produced by the rain that falls from the sky.

[66:18]  ⁹ tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”

[66:20]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “blessed [be] God.”

[66:20]  ¹¹ tn Or “who.” In a blessing formula after בָּרוּךְ (barukh, “blessed be”) the form אֲשֶׁר (’asher), whether taken as a relative pronoun or causal particle, introduces the basis for the blessing/praise.

[66:20]  ¹² tn Heb “did not turn aside my prayer and his loyal love with me.”

[19:22]  ¹³ tn Heb “he will be entreated.” The Niphal has a tolerative sense here, “he will allow himself to be entreated.”

[29:12]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ 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.

[7:7]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ sn The actions of asking, seeking, and knocking are repeated here from v. 7 with the encouragement that God does respond.