Isaiah 59:2

59:2 But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God;

your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers. ¹ 

Isaiah 59:1

Injustice Brings Alienation from God

59:1 Look, the Lord’s hand is not too weak ²  to deliver you;

his ear is not too deaf to hear you. ³ 

Isaiah 8:22

8:22 When one looks out over the land, he sees ⁴  distress and darkness, gloom ⁵  and anxiety, darkness and people forced from the land. ⁶ 

Isaiah 8:1

A Sign-Child is Born

8:1 The Lord told me, “Take a large tablet ⁷  and inscribe these words ⁸  on it with an ordinary stylus: ⁹  ‘Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz.’ ¹⁰ 

Ezra 9:5

9:5 At the time of the evening offering I got up from my self-abasement, ¹¹  with my tunic and robe torn, and then dropped to my knees and spread my hands to the Lord my God.

Job 27:8-9

27:8 For what hope does the godless have when he is cut off, ¹² 

when God takes away his life? ¹³ 

27:9 Does God listen to his cry

when distress overtakes him?

Job 27:20

27:20 Terrors overwhelm him like a flood; ¹⁴ 

at night a whirlwind carries him off.

Psalms 66:18

66:18 If I had harbored sin in my heart, ¹⁵ 

the Lord would not have listened.

Psalms 134:2

134:2 Lift your hands toward the sanctuary

and praise the Lord!

Proverbs 1:28

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

they will diligently seek ¹⁶  me, but they will not find me.

Jeremiah 14:12

14:12 Even if they fast, I will not hear their cries for help. Even if they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. ¹⁷  Instead, I will kill them through wars, famines, and plagues.” ¹⁸ 

Ezekiel 8:17-18

8:17 He said to me, “Do you see, son of man? Is it a trivial thing that the house of Judah commits these abominations they are practicing here? For they have filled the land with violence and provoked me to anger still further. Look, they are putting the branch to their nose! ¹⁹  8:18 Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare ²⁰  them. When they have shouted in my ears, I will not listen to them.”

Micah 3:4

3:4 Someday these sinners will cry to the Lord for help, ²¹ 

but he will not answer them.

He will hide his face from them at that time,

because they have done such wicked deeds.”

Zechariah 7:13

7:13 “‘It then came about that just as I ²²  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 13:25-28

13:25 Once ²³  the head of the house ²⁴  gets up ²⁵  and shuts the door, then you will stand outside and start to knock on the door and beg him, ‘Lord, ²⁶  let us in!’ ²⁷  But he will answer you, ²⁸  ‘I don’t know where you come from.’ ²⁹  13:26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ ³⁰  13:27 But ³¹  he will reply, ³²  ‘I don’t know where you come from! ³³  Go away from me, all you evildoers!’ ³⁴  13:28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth ³⁵  when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, ³⁶  and all the prophets in the kingdom of God ³⁷  but you yourselves thrown out. ³⁸ 

Luke 13:1

A Call to Repent

13:1 Now ³⁹  there were some present on that occasion who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ⁴⁰ 

Luke 2:8

The Shepherds’ Visit

2:8 Now ⁴¹  there were shepherds ⁴²  nearby ⁴³  living out in the field, keeping guard ⁴⁴  over their flock at night.

[59:2]  ¹ tn Heb “and your sins have caused [his] face to be hidden from you so as not to hear.”

[59:1]  ² tn Heb “short” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[59:1]  ³ tn Heb “or his ear too heavy [i.e., “dull”] to hear.”

[8:22]  ⁴ tn Heb “and behold” (so KJV, ASV, NASB).

[8:22]  ⁵ tn The precise meaning of מְעוּף (mÿ’uf) is uncertain; the word occurs only here. See BDB 734 s.v. מָעוּף.

[8:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “ and darkness, pushed.” The word מְנֻדָּח (mÿnudakh) appears to be a Pual participle from נדח (“push”), but the Piel is unattested for this verb and the Pual occurs only here.

[8:1]  ⁷ sn Probably made of metal, wood, or leather. See HALOT 193 s.v. גִּלָּיוֹן.

[8:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “write” (so KJV, ASV, NIV, NRSV).

[8:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “with the stylus of a man.” The significance of the qualifying genitive “a man” is uncertain. For various interpretations see J. N. Oswalt, Isaiah (NICOT), 1:219, n. 1.

[8:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “quickly, [the] plunder; it hurries, [the] loot.” The first word (מַהֵר, maher) is either a Piel imperative (“hurry [to]”) or infinitive (“hurrying,” or “quickly”). The third word (חָשׁ, khash) is either a third masculine singular perfect or a masculine singular participle, in either case from the root חוּשׁ (khush, “hurry”). Perhaps it is best to translate, “One hastens to the plunder, one hurries to the loot.” In this case מַהֵר is understood as an infinitive functioning as a verb, the subject of חוּשׁ is taken as indefinite, and the two nouns are understood as adverbial accusatives. As we discover in v. 3, this is the name of the son to be born to Isaiah through the prophetess.

[9:5]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew word used here is a hapax legomenon. It refers to the self-abasement that accompanies religious sorrow and fasting.

[27:8]  ¹² tn The verb יִבְצָע (yivtsa’) means “to cut off.” It could be translated transitively or intransitively – the latter is better here (“when he is cut off”). Since the next line speaks of prayer, some have thought this verse should be about prayer. Mandelkern, in his concordance (p. 228b), suggested the verb should be “when he prays” (reading יִפְגַּע [yifga’] in place of יִבְצָע [yivtsa’]).

[27:8]  ¹³ tn The verb יֵשֶׁל (yeshel) is found only here. It has been related spoils [or sheaves]”); שָׁאַל (sha’al, “to ask”); נָשָׂא (nasa’, “to lift up” [i.e., pray]); and a host of others.

[27:20]  ¹⁴ tn Many commentators want a word parallel to “in the night.” And so we are offered בַּיּוֹם (bayyom, “in the day”) for כַמַּיִם (khammayim, “like waters”) as well as a number of others. But “waters” sometimes stand for major calamities, and so may be retained here. Besides, not all parallel structures are synonymous.

[66:18]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “sin if I had seen in my heart.”

[1:28]  ¹⁶ 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).

[14:12]  ¹⁷ sn See 6:16-20 for parallels.

[14:12]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “through sword, starvation, and plague.”

[8:17]  ¹⁹ tn It is not clear what the practice of “holding a branch to the nose” indicates. A possible parallel is the Syrian relief of a king holding a flower to his nose as he worships the stars (ANEP 281). See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 1:145-46. The LXX glosses the expression as “Behold, they are like mockers.”

[8:18]  ²⁰ tn The meaning of the Hebrew term is primarily emotional: “to pity,” which in context implies an action, as in being moved by pity in order to spare them from the horror of their punishment.

[3:4]  ²¹ tn Heb “then they will cry out to the Lord.” The words “Someday these sinners” have been supplied in the translation for clarification.

[7:13]  ²² 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.

[13:25]  ²³ 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]  ²⁴ tn Or “the master of the household.”

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

[13:25]  ²⁶ tn Or “Sir.”

[13:25]  ²⁷ tn Grk “Open to us.”

[13:25]  ²⁸ 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]  ²⁹ 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]  ³⁰ sn This term refers to wide streets, and thus suggests the major streets of a city.

[13:27]  ³¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in this context.

[13:27]  ³² tc Most mss (Ì^75* A D L W Θ Ψ 070 Ë^1,13 Ï) have ἐρεῖ λέγω ὑμῖν (erei legw Jumin; “he will say, ‘I say to you’”) here, while some have only ἐρεῖ ὑμῖν (“he will say to you” in א 579 pc lat sa) or simply ἐρεῖ (“he will say” in 1195 pc). The variety of readings seems to have arisen from the somewhat unusual wording of the original, ἐρεῖ λέγων ὑμῖν (erei legwn Jumin; “he will say, saying to you” found in Ì^75c B 892 pc). Given the indicative λέγω, it is difficult to explain how the other readings would have arisen. But if the participle λέγων were original, the other readings can more easily be explained as arising from it. Although the external evidence is significantly stronger in support of the indicative reading, the internal evidence is on the side of the participle.

[13:27]  ³³ sn The issue is not familiarity (with Jesus’ teaching) or even shared activity (eating and drinking with him), but knowing Jesus. Those who do not know him, he will not know where they come from (i.e., will not acknowledge) at the judgment.

[13:27]  ³⁴ tn Grk “all you workers of iniquity.” The phrase resembles Ps 6:8.

[13:28]  ³⁵ sn Weeping and gnashing of teeth is a figure for remorse and trauma, which occurs here because of exclusion from God’s promise.

[13:28]  ³⁶ tn Grk “and Isaac and Jacob,” but καί (kai) has not been translated since English normally uses a coordinating conjunction only between the last two elements in a series of three or more.

[13:28]  ³⁷ sn The kingdom of God is a major theme of Jesus. It is a realm in which Jesus rules and to which those who trust him belong. See Luke 6:20; 11:20; 17:20-21.

[13:28]  ³⁸ tn Or “being thrown out.” The present accusative participle, ἐκβαλλομένους (ekballomenous), related to the object ὑμᾶς (Jumas), seems to suggest that these evildoers will witness their own expulsion from the kingdom.

[13:1]  ³⁹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[13:1]  ⁴⁰ sn This is an event that otherwise is unattested, though several events similar to it are noted in Josephus (J. W. 2.9.2-4 [2.169-177]; Ant. 13.13.5 [13.372-73], 18.3.1-2 [18.55-62]; 18.4.1 [18.85-87]). It would have caused a major furor.

[2:8]  ⁴¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “now” to indicate the transition to a new topic.

[2:8]  ⁴² sn Some argue that shepherds were among the culturally despised, but the evidence for this view of shepherds is late, coming from 5th century Jewish materials. December 25 as the celebrated date of Jesus’ birth arose around the time of Constantine (ca. a.d. 306-337), though it is mentioned in material from Hippolytus (a.d. 165-235). Some think that the reason for celebration on this date was that it coincided with the pagan Roman festival of Saturnalia, and Christians could celebrate their own festival at this time without fear of persecution. On the basis of the statement that the shepherds were living out in the field, keeping guard over their flock at night it is often suggested that Jesus’ birth took place in early spring, since it was only at lambing time that shepherds stood guard over their flocks in the field. This is not absolutely certain, however.

[2:8]  ⁴³ tn Grk “in that region.”

[2:8]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “living in the field (see BDAG 15 s.v. ἀγραυλέω) and guarding their flock.”