Jeremiah 11:11

11:11 So I, the Lord, say this: ¹  ‘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.

Proverbs 1:28

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

they will diligently seek ²  me, but they will not find me.

Proverbs 28:9

28:9 The one who turns away his ear ³  from hearing the law,

even his prayer ⁴  is an abomination. ⁵ 

Isaiah 1:15

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

I look the other way; ⁶ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ⁷ 

Isaiah 58:3

58:3 They lament, ⁸  ‘Why don’t you notice when we fast?

Why don’t you pay attention when we humble ourselves?’

Look, at the same time you fast, you satisfy your selfish desires, ⁹ 

you oppress your workers. ¹⁰ 

Ezekiel 8:18

8:18 Therefore I will act with fury! My eye will not pity them nor will I spare ¹¹  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, ¹² 

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 ¹³  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.

[11:11]  ¹ 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.

[1:28]  ² 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).

[28:9]  ³ 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]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ⁷ 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.

[58:3]  ⁸ tn The words “they lament” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[58:3]  ⁹ tn Heb “you find pleasure”; NASB “you find your desire.”

[58:3]  ¹⁰ tn Or perhaps, “debtors.” See HALOT 865 s.v. * עָצֵב.

[8:18]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² 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]  ¹³ 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.