Proverbs 21:13

21:13 The one who shuts his ears ¹  to the cry ²  of the poor,

he too will cry out and will not be answered. ³ 

Isaiah 1:15-16

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

I look the other way; ⁴ 

when you offer your many prayers,

I do not listen,

because your hands are covered with blood. ⁵ 

1:16 ⁶ Wash! Cleanse yourselves!

Remove your sinful deeds ⁷ 

from my sight.

Stop sinning!

Isaiah 58:7-11

58:7 I want you ⁸  to share your food with the hungry

and to provide shelter for homeless, oppressed people. ⁹ 

When you see someone naked, clothe him!

Don’t turn your back on your own flesh and blood! ¹⁰ 

58:8 Then your light will shine like the sunrise; ¹¹ 

your restoration will quickly arrive; ¹² 

your godly behavior ¹³  will go before you,

and the Lord’s splendor will be your rear guard. ¹⁴ 

58:9 Then you will call out, and the Lord will respond;

you will cry out, and he will reply, ‘Here I am.’

You must ¹⁵  remove the burdensome yoke from among you

and stop pointing fingers and speaking sinfully.

58:10 You must ¹⁶  actively help the hungry

and feed the oppressed. ¹⁷ 

Then your light will dispel the darkness, ¹⁸ 

and your darkness will be transformed into noonday. ¹⁹ 

58:11 The Lord will continually lead you;

he will feed you even in parched regions. ²⁰ 

He will give you renewed strength, ²¹ 

and you will be like a well-watered garden,

like a spring that continually produces water.

Zechariah 7:11-13

7:11 “But they refused to pay attention, turning away stubbornly and stopping their ears so they could not hear. 7:12 Indeed, they made their heart as hard as diamond, ²²  so that they could not obey the Torah and the other words the Lord who rules over all had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore, the Lord who rules over all had poured out great wrath.

7:13 “‘It then came about that just as I ²³  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.

Zechariah 7:2

7:2 Now the people of Bethel ²⁴  had sent Sharezer and Regem-Melech and their companions to seek the Lord’s favor

Zechariah 4:3-4

4:3 There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right of the receptacle and the other on the left.” ²⁵  4:4 Then I asked the messenger who spoke with me, “What are these, ²⁶  sir?”

[21:13]  ¹ sn The imagery means “pay no attention to” the cry for help or “refuse to help,” so it is a metonymy of cause for the effect.

[21:13]  ² sn “Cry” here would be a metonymy of effect for the cause, the cause being the great needs of the poor.

[21:13]  ³ sn The proverb is teaching that those who show mercy will receive mercy. It involves the principle of talionic justice – those who refuse the needs of others will themselves be refused when they need help (so Luke 16:19-31).

[1:15]  ⁴ tn Heb “I close my eyes from you.”

[1:15]  ⁵ 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.

[1:16]  ⁶ sn Having demonstrated the people’s guilt, the Lord calls them to repentance, which will involve concrete action in the socio-economic realm, not mere emotion.

[1:16]  ⁷ sn This phrase refers to Israel’s covenant treachery (cf. Deut 28:10; Jer 4:4; 21:12; 23:2, 22; 25:5; 26:3; 44:22; Hos 9:15; Ps 28:4). In general, the noun ַמעַלְלֵיכֶם (ma’alleykhem) can simply be a reference to deeds, whether good or bad. However, Isaiah always uses it with a negative connotation (cf. 3:8, 10).

[58:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “Is it not?” The rhetorical question here expects a positive answer, “It is!”

[58:7]  ⁹ tn Heb “and afflicted [ones], homeless [ones] you should bring [into] a house.” On the meaning of מְרוּדִים (mÿrudim, “homeless”) see HALOT 633 s.v. *מָרוּד.

[58:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and from your flesh do not hide yourself.”

[58:8]  ¹¹ tn Heb “will burst out like the dawn.”

[58:8]  ¹² tn Heb “prosper”; KJV “spring forth speedily.”

[58:8]  ¹³ tn Or “righteousness.” Their godly behavior will be on display for all to see.

[58:8]  ¹⁴ sn The nation will experience God’s protective presence.

[58:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “if you.” In the Hebrew text vv. 9b-10 are one long conditional sentence. The protasis (“if” clauses appear in vv. 9b-10a), with the apodosis (“then” clause) appearing in v. 10b.

[58:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “if you.” See the note on “you must” in v. 9b.

[58:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “If you furnish for the hungry [with] your being, and the appetite of the oppressed you satisfy.”

[58:10]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “will rise in the darkness.”

[58:10]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and your darkness [will be] like noonday.”

[58:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “he will satisfy in parched regions your appetite.”

[58:11]  ²¹ tn Heb “and your bones he will strengthen.”

[7:12]  ²² tn The Hebrew term שָׁמִיר (shamir) means literally “hardness” and since it is said in Ezek 3:9 to be harder than flint, many scholars suggest that it refers to diamond. It is unlikely that diamond was known to ancient Israel, however, so probably a hard stone like emery or corundum is in view. The translation nevertheless uses “diamond” because in modern times it has become proverbial for its hardness. A number of English versions use “flint” here (e.g., NASB, NIV).

[7:13]  ²³ 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.

[7:2]  ²⁴ map For location see Map4 G4; Map5 C1; Map6 E3; Map7 D1; Map8 G3.

[4:3]  ²⁵ sn The vision apparently describes two olive trees providing olive oil by pipes to a large basin atop the menorah. From this basin two pipes extend to each of the seven lamps of the menorah, for a total of fourteen pipes in all. See vv. 11-12.

[4:4]  ²⁶ sn Here these must refer to the lamps, since the identification of the olive trees is left to vv. 11-14.