John 6:37

6:37 Everyone whom the Father gives me will come to me, and the one who comes to me I will never send away. ¹ 

John 6:44-45

6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, ²  and I will raise him up at the last day. 6:45 It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ ³  Everyone who hears and learns from the Father ⁴  comes to me.

John 6:65

6:65 So Jesus added, ⁵  “Because of this I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has allowed him to come.” ⁶ 

John 5:40

5:40 but you are not willing to come to me so that you may have life.

John 7:37

Teaching About the Spirit

7:37 On the last day of the feast, the greatest day, ⁷  Jesus stood up and shouted out, ⁸  “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and

Isaiah 55:1-3

The Lord Gives an Invitation

55:1 “Hey, ⁹  all who are thirsty, come to the water!

You who have no money, come!

Buy and eat!

Come! Buy wine and milk

without money and without cost! ¹⁰ 

55:2 Why pay money for something that will not nourish you? ¹¹ 

Why spend ¹²  your hard-earned money ¹³  on something that will not satisfy?

Listen carefully ¹⁴  to me and eat what is nourishing! ¹⁵ 

Enjoy fine food! ¹⁶ 

55:3 Pay attention and come to me!

Listen, so you can live! ¹⁷ 

Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to ¹⁸  you,

just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David. ¹⁹ 

Matthew 11:28

11:28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Revelation 22:17

22:17 And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say: “Come!” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wants it take the water of life free of charge.

[6:37]  ¹ tn Or “drive away”; Grk “cast out.”

[6:44]  ² tn Or “attracts him,” or “pulls him.” The word is used of pulling or dragging, often by force. It is even used once of magnetic attraction (A. Oepke, TDNT 2:503).

[6:45]  ³ sn A quotation from Isa 54:13.

[6:45]  ⁴ tn Or “listens to the Father and learns.”

[6:65]  ⁵ tn Grk “And he said”; the referent (Jesus) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[6:65]  ⁶ tn Grk “unless it has been permitted to him by the Father.”

[7:37]  ⁷ sn There is a problem with the identification of this reference to the last day of the feast, the greatest day: It appears from Deut 16:13 that the feast went for seven days. Lev 23:36, however, makes it plain that there was an eighth day, though it was mentioned separately from the seven. It is not completely clear whether the seventh or eighth day was the climax of the feast, called here by the author the “last great day of the feast.” Since according to the Mishnah (m. Sukkah 4.1) the ceremonies with water and lights did not continue after the seventh day, it seems more probable that this is the day the author mentions.

[7:37]  ⁸ tn Grk “Jesus stood up and cried out, saying.”

[55:1]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term הוֹי (hoy, “woe, ah”) was used in funeral laments and is often prefixed to judgment oracles for rhetorical effect. But here it appears to be a simple interjection, designed to grab the audience’s attention. Perhaps there is a note of sorrow or pity. See BDB 223 s.v.

[55:1]  ¹⁰ sn The statement is an oxymoron. Its ironic quality adds to its rhetorical impact. The statement reminds one of the norm (one must normally buy commodities) as it expresses the astounding offer. One might paraphrase the statement: “Come and take freely what you normally have to pay for.”

[55:2]  ¹¹ tn Heb “for what is not food.”

[55:2]  ¹² tn The interrogative particle and the verb “spend” are understood here by ellipsis (note the preceding line).

[55:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “your labor,” which stands by metonymy for that which one earns.

[55:2]  ¹⁴ tn The infinitive absolute follows the imperative and lends emphasis to the exhortation.

[55:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “good” (so NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[55:2]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “Let your appetite delight in fine food.”

[55:3]  ¹⁷ tn The jussive with vav (ו) conjunctive following the imperative indicates purpose/result.

[55:3]  ¹⁸ tn Or “an eternal covenant with.”

[55:3]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “the reliable expressions of loyalty of David.” The syntactical relationship of חַסְדֵי (khasde, “expressions of loyalty”) to the preceding line is unclear. If the term is appositional to בְּרִית (bÿrit, “covenant”), then the Lord here transfers the promises of the Davidic covenant to the entire nation. Another option is to take חַסְדֵי (khasde) as an adverbial accusative and to translate “according to the reliable covenantal promises.” In this case the new covenantal arrangement proposed here is viewed as an extension or perhaps fulfillment of the Davidic promises. A third option, the one reflected in the above translation, is to take the last line as comparative. In this case the new covenant being proposed is analogous to the Davidic covenant. Verses 4-5, which compare David’s international prominence to what Israel will experience, favors this view. In all three of these interpretations, “David” is an objective genitive; he is the recipient of covenantal promises. A fourth option would be to take David as a subjective genitive and understand the line as giving the basis for the preceding promise: “Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, because of David’s faithful acts of covenantal loyalty.”