Isaiah 64:7

64:7 No one invokes ¹  your name,

or makes an effort ²  to take hold of you.

For you have rejected us ³ 

and handed us over to our own sins. ⁴ 

Psalms 14:4

14:4 All those who behave wickedly ⁵  do not understand – ⁶ 

those who devour my people as if they were eating bread,

and do not call out to the Lord.

Psalms 79:6

79:6 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you, ⁷ 

on the kingdoms that do not pray to you! ⁸ 

Jeremiah 10:25

10:25 Vent your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you. ⁹ 

Vent it on the peoples ¹⁰  who do not worship you. ¹¹ 

For they have destroyed the people of Jacob. ¹² 

They have completely destroyed them ¹³ 

and left their homeland in utter ruin.

Daniel 9:13

9:13 Just as it is written in the law of Moses, so all this calamity has come on us. Still we have not tried to pacify ¹⁴  the LORD our God by turning back from our sin and by seeking wisdom ¹⁵  from your reliable moral standards. ¹⁶ 

Hosea 7:10-14

7:10 The arrogance of Israel testifies against him,

yet they refuse to return to the Lord their God!

In spite of all this they refuse to seek him!

Israel Turns to Assyria and Egypt for Help

7:11 Ephraim has been like a dove,

easily deceived and lacking discernment.

They called to Egypt for help;

they turned to Assyria for protection.

7:12 I will throw my bird net over them while they are flying,

I will bring them down like birds in the sky;

I will discipline them when I hear them flocking together.

Israel Has Turned Away from the Lord

7:13 Woe to them! For they have fled from me!

Destruction to them! For they have rebelled against me!

I want to deliver ¹⁷  them,

but they have lied to me.

7:14 They do not pray to me, ¹⁸ 

but howl in distress on their beds;

They slash themselves ¹⁹  for grain and new wine,

but turn away from me.

Hosea 14:1-2

Prophetic Call to Genuine Repentance

14:1 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,

for your sin has been your downfall! ²⁰ 

14:2 Return to the Lord and repent! ²¹ 

Say to him: “Completely ²²  forgive our iniquity;

accept ²³  our penitential prayer, ²⁴ 

that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls. ²⁵ 

James 4:2-3

4:2 You desire and you do not have; you murder and envy and you cannot obtain; you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask; 4:3 you ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, so you can spend it on your passions.

[64:7]  ¹ tn Or “calls out in”; NASB, NIV, NRSV “calls on.”

[64:7]  ² tn Or “rouses himself”; NASB “arouses himself.”

[64:7]  ³ tn Heb “for you have hidden your face from us.”

[64:7]  ⁴ tc The Hebrew text reads literally, “and you caused us to melt in the hand of our sin.” The verb וַתְּמוּגֵנוּ (vattÿmugenu) is a Qal preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the root מוּג (mug, “melt”). However, elsewhere the Qal of this verb is intransitive. If the verbal root מוּג (mug) is retained here, the form should be emended to a Polel pattern (וַתְּמֹגְגֵנוּ, vattÿmogÿgenu). The translation assumes an emendation to וַתְּמַגְּנֵנוּ (vattÿmaggÿnenu, “and you handed us over”). This form is a Piel preterite 2nd person masculine singular with a 1st person common plural suffix from the verbal root מִגֵּן (miggen, “hand over, surrender”; see HALOT 545 s.v. מגן and BDB 171 s.v. מָגָן). The point is that God has abandoned them to their sinful ways and no longer seeks reconciliation.

[14:4]  ⁵ tn Heb “all the workers of wickedness.” See Pss 5:5; 6:8.

[14:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “Do they not understand?” The rhetorical question (rendered in the translation as a positive affirmation) expresses the psalmist’s amazement at their apparent lack of understanding. This may refer to their lack of moral understanding, but it more likely refers to their failure to anticipate God’s defense of his people (see vv. 5-7).

[79:6]  ⁷ tn Heb “which do not know you.” Here the Hebrew term “know” means “acknowledge the authority of.”

[79:6]  ⁸ sn The kingdoms that do not pray to you. The people of these kingdoms pray to other gods, not the Lord, because they do not recognize his authority over them.

[10:25]  ⁹ tn Heb “know you.” For this use of the word “know” (יָדַע, yada’) see the note on 9:3.

[10:25]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “tribes/clans.”

[10:25]  ¹¹ tn Heb “who do not call on your name.” The idiom “to call on your name” (directed to God) refers to prayer (mainly) and praise. See 1 Kgs 18:24-26 and Ps 116:13, 17. Here “calling on your name” is parallel to “acknowledging you.” In many locations in the OT “name” is equivalent to the person. In the OT, the “name” reflected the person’s character (cf. Gen 27:36; 1 Sam 25:25) or his reputation (Gen 11:4; 2 Sam 8:13). To speak in a person’s name was to act as his representative or carry his authority (1 Sam 25:9; 1 Kgs 21:8). To call someone’s name over something was to claim it for one’s own (2 Sam 12:28).

[10:25]  ¹² tn Heb “have devoured Jacob.”

[10:25]  ¹³ tn Or “have almost completely destroyed them”; Heb “they have devoured them and consumed them.” The figure of hyperbole is used here; elsewhere Jeremiah and God refer to the fact that they will not be completely consumed. See for example 4:27; 5:10, 18.

[9:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “we have not pacified the face of.”

[9:13]  ¹⁵ tn Or “by gaining insight.”

[9:13]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “by your truth.” The Hebrew term does not refer here to abstract truth, however, but to the reliable moral guidance found in the covenant law. See vv 10-11.

[7:13]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “redeem” (so NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV, NLT); NCV, TEV “save”; CEV “I would have rescued them.”

[7:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “they do not cry out to me in their heart”; NLT “with sincere hearts.”

[7:14]  ¹⁹ tc The MT reads יִתְגּוֹרָרוּ (yitgoraru) which is either (1) Hitpolel imperfect 3rd person masculine plural (“they assemble themselves”; so KJV, NASB) from I גּוּר (gur, “to sojourn”; BDB 157 s.v. I גּוּר) or (2) Hitpolel imperfect 3rd person masculine plural (“they excite themselves”) from II גּוּר (gur, “to stir up”; BDB 158 s.v. II גּוּר). However, the Hebrew lexicographers suggest that both of these options are unlikely. Several other Hebrew mss preserve an alternate textual tradition of יִתְגּוֹדָדוּ (yitgodadu) which is a Hitpolel imperfect 3rd person common plural (“they slash themselves”) from גָּדַד (gadad, “to cut”; BDB 151 s.v. גָּדַד), as also reflected in the LXX (cf. NAB “they lacerated themselves”; NRSV, TEV “gash themselves”; NLT “cut themselves.” This reflects the pagan Canaanite cultic practice of priests cutting themselves and draining their blood on the ground to elicit agricultural fertility by resurrecting the slain fertility god Baal from the underworld (Deut 14:1; 1 Kgs 18:28; Jer 16:6; 41:5; 47:5). Cf. CEV which adds “in the hope that Baal will bless their crops.”

[14:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “For you have stumbled in your iniquity”; NASB, NRSV “because of your iniquity.”

[14:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “Take words with you and return to the Lord” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[14:2]  ²² tn The word order כָּל־תִּשָּׂא עָוֹן (kol-tisa’ ’avon) is syntactically awkward. The BHS editors suggest rearranging the word order: תִּשָּׂא כָּל־עוֹן (“Forgive all [our] iniquity!”). However, Gesenius suggests that כָּל (“all”) does not function as the construct in the genitive phrase כָּל־עוֹן (“all [our] iniquity”); it functions adverbially modifying the verb תִּשָּׂא (“Completely forgive!”; see GKC 415 §128.e).

[14:2]  ²³ sn The repetition of the root לָקַח (laqakh) creates a striking wordplay in 14:2. If Israel will bring (לָקַח) its confession to God, he will accept (לָקַח) repentant Israel and completely forgive its sin.

[14:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and accept [our] speech.” The word טוֹב (tov) is often confused with the common homonymic root I טוֹב (tov, “good”; BDB 373 s.v. I טוֹב). However, this is probably IV טוֹב (tov, “word, speech”; HALOT 372 s.v. IV טוֹב), a hapax legomenon that is related to the verb טבב (“to speak”; HALOT 367 s.v. טבב) and the noun טִבָּה (tibbah, “rumor”; HALOT 367 s.v. טִבָּה). The term טוֹב (“word; speech”) refers to the repentant prayer mentioned in 14:1-3. Most translations relate it to I טוֹב and treat it as (1) accusative direct object: “accept that which is good” (RSV, NJPS), “Accept our good sacrifices” (CEV), or (2) adverbial accusative of manner: “receive [us] graciously” (KJV, NASB, NIV). Note TEV, however, which follows the suggestion made here: “accept our prayer.”

[14:2]  ²⁵ tc The MT reads פָרִים (farim, “bulls”), but the LXX reflects פְּרִי (pÿri, “fruit”), a reading followed by NASB, NIV, NRSV: “that we may offer the fruit of [our] lips [as sacrifices to you].” Although the Greek expression in Heb 13:15 (καρπὸν χειλέων, karpon xeilewn, “the fruit of lips”) reflects this LXX phrase, the MT makes good sense as it stands; NT usage of the LXX should not be considered decisive in resolving OT textual problems. The noun פָרִים (parim, “bulls”) functions as an adverbial accusative of state.