Psalms 18:6

18:6 In my distress I called to the Lord;

I cried out to my God. ¹ 

From his heavenly temple ²  he heard my voice;

he listened to my cry for help. ³ 

Psalms 22:24

22:24 For he did not despise or detest the suffering ⁴  of the oppressed; ⁵ 

he did not ignore him; ⁶ 

when he cried out to him, he responded. ⁷ 

Psalms 31:22

31:22 I jumped to conclusions and said, ⁸ 

“I am cut off from your presence!” ⁹ 

But you heard my plea for mercy when I cried out to you for help.

Psalms 77:1-2

Psalm 77 ¹⁰ 

For the music director, Jeduthun; a psalm of Asaph.

77:1 I will cry out to God ¹¹  and call for help!

I will cry out to God and he will pay attention ¹²  to me.

77:2 In my time of trouble I sought ¹³  the Lord.

I kept my hand raised in prayer throughout the night. ¹⁴ 

I ¹⁵  refused to be comforted.

Psalms 116:1-6

Psalm 116 ¹⁶ 

116:1 I love the Lord

because he heard my plea for mercy, ¹⁷ 

116:2 and listened to me. ¹⁸ 

As long as I live, I will call to him when I need help. ¹⁹ 

116:3 The ropes of death tightened around me, ²⁰ 

the snares ²¹  of Sheol confronted me.

I was confronted ²²  with trouble and sorrow.

116:4 I called on the name of the Lord,

“Please Lord, rescue my life!”

116:5 The Lord is merciful and fair;

our God is compassionate.

116:6 The Lord protects ²³  the untrained; ²⁴ 

I was in serious trouble ²⁵  and he delivered me.

Jonah 2:2

2:2 and said,

“I ²⁶  called out to the Lord from my distress,

and he answered me; ²⁷ 

from the belly of Sheol ²⁸  I cried out for help,

and you heard my prayer. ²⁹ 

Matthew 7:7

Ask, Seek, Knock

7:7 “Ask ³⁰  and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door ³¹  will be opened for you.

Luke 11:9

11:9 “So ³²  I tell you: Ask, ³³  and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door ³⁴  will be opened for you.

Luke 11:2

11:2 So he said to them, “When you pray, ³⁵  say:

Father, ³⁶  may your name be honored; ³⁷ 

may your kingdom come. ³⁸ 

Colossians 1:8-9

1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Paul’s Prayer for the Growth of the Church

1:9 For this reason we also, from the day we heard about you, ³⁹  have not ceased praying for you and asking God ⁴⁰  to fill ⁴¹  you with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

Hebrews 5:7

5:7 During his earthly life ⁴²  Christ ⁴³  offered ⁴⁴  both requests and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his devotion.

[18:6]  ¹ tn In this poetic narrative context the four prefixed verbal forms in v. 6 are best understood as preterites indicating past tense, not imperfects.

[18:6]  ² tn Heb “from his temple.” Verse 10, which pictures God descending from the sky, indicates that the heavenly temple is in view, not the earthly one.

[18:6]  ³ tc Heb “and my cry for help before him came into his ears.” 2 Sam 22:7 has a shorter reading, “my cry for help, in his ears.” It is likely that Ps 18:6 MT as it now stands represents a conflation of two readings: (1) “my cry for help came before him,” (2) “my cry for help came into his ears.” See F. M. Cross and D. N. Freedman, Studies in Ancient Yahwistic Poetry (SBLDS), 144, n. 13.

[22:24]  ⁴ tn Or “affliction”; or “need.”

[22:24]  ⁵ sn In this verse the psalmist refers to himself in the third person and characterizes himself as oppressed.

[22:24]  ⁶ tn Heb “he did not hide his face from him.” For other uses of the idiom “hide the face” meaning “ignore,” see Pss 10:11; 13:1; 51:9. Sometimes the idiom carries the stronger idea of “reject” (see Pss 27:9; 88:14).

[22:24]  ⁷ tn Heb “heard.”

[31:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “and I, I said in my haste.”

[31:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “from before your eyes.”

[77:1]  ¹⁰ sn Psalm 77. The psalmist recalls how he suffered through a time of doubt, but tells how he found encouragement and hope as he recalled the way in which God delivered Israel at the Red Sea.

[77:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “my voice to God.” The Hebrew verb קָרָא (qara’, “to call out; to cry out”) should probably be understood by ellipsis (see Ps 3:4) both here and in the following (parallel) line.

[77:1]  ¹² tn The perfect with vav (ו) consecutive is best taken as future here (although some translations render this as a past tense; cf. NEB, NIV). The psalmist expresses his confidence that God will respond to his prayer. This mood of confidence seems premature (see vv. 3-4), but v. 1 probably reflects the psalmist’s attitude at the end of the prayer (see vv. 13-20). Having opened with an affirmation of confidence, he then retraces how he gained confidence during his trial (see vv. 2-12).

[77:2]  ¹³ tn Here the psalmist refers back to the very recent past, when he began to pray for divine help.

[77:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “my hand [at] night was extended and was not growing numb.” The verb נָגַר (nagar), which can mean “flow” in certain contexts, here has the nuance “be extended.” The imperfect form (תָפוּג, tafug, “to be numb”) is used here to describe continuous action in the past.

[77:2]  ¹⁵ tn Or “my soul.” The Hebrew term נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh) with a pronominal suffix is often equivalent to a pronoun, especially in poetry (see BDB 660 s.v. נֶפֶשׁ 4.a).

[116:1]  ¹⁶ sn Psalm 116. The psalmist thanks the Lord for delivering him from a life threatening crisis and promises to tell the entire covenant community what God has done for him.

[116:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I love because the Lord heard my voice, my pleas.” It is possible that “the Lord” originally appeared directly after “I love” and was later accidentally misplaced. The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls that God heard his cry for help (note the perfect in v. 2a and the narrative in vv. 3-4).

[116:2]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “because he turned his ear to me.”

[116:2]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “and in my days I will cry out.”

[116:3]  ²⁰ tn Heb “surrounded me.”

[116:3]  ²¹ tn The Hebrew noun מצר (“straits; distress”) occurs only here, Ps 118:5 and Lam 1:3. If retained, it refers to Sheol as a place where one is confined or severely restricted (cf. BDB 865 s.v. מֵצַר, “the straits of Sheol”; NIV “the anguish of the grave”; NRSV “the pangs of Sheol”). However, HALOT 624 s.v. מֵצַר suggests an emendation to מְצָדֵי (mÿtsadey, “snares of”), a rare noun attested in Job 19:6 and Eccl 7:26. This proposal, which is reflected in the translation, produces better parallelism with “ropes” in the preceding line.

[116:3]  ²² tn The translation assumes the prefixed verbal form is a preterite. The psalmist recalls the crisis from which the Lord delivered him.

[116:6]  ²³ tn Heb “guards.” The active participle indicates this is a characteristic of the Lord.

[116:6]  ²⁴ tn Or “the [morally] naive,” that is, the one who is young and still in the process of learning right from wrong and distinguishing wisdom from folly. See Ps 19:7.

[116:6]  ²⁵ tn Heb “I was low.”

[2:2]  ²⁶ sn The eight verses of Jonah’s prayer in Hebrew contain twenty-seven first-person pronominal references to himself. There are fifteen second- or third-person references to the Lord.

[2:2]  ²⁷ tn Tg. Jonah 2:2 renders this interpretively: “and he heard my prayer.”

[2:2]  ²⁸ sn Sheol was a name for the place of residence of the dead, the underworld (see Job 7:9-10; Isa 38:17-18). Jonah pictures himself in the belly of Sheol, its very center – in other words he is as good as dead.

[2:2]  ²⁹ tn Heb “voice” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); NIV “my cry.” The term קוֹל (qol, “voice”) functions as a metonymy for the content of what is uttered: cry for help in prayer.

[7:7]  ³⁰ sn The three present imperatives in this verse (Ask…seek…knock) are probably intended to call for a repeated or continual approach before God.

[7:7]  ³¹ tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation here and in v. 8 for clarity.

[11:9]  ³² tn Here καί (kai, from καγώ [kagw]) has been translated as “so” to indicate the conclusion drawn from the preceding parable.

[11:9]  ³³ sn The three present imperatives in this verse (Ask…seek…knock) are probably intended to call for a repeated or continual approach before God.

[11:9]  ³⁴ tn Grk “it”; the referent (a door) is implied by the context and has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[11:2]  ³⁵ sn When you pray. What follows, although traditionally known as the Lord’s prayer, is really the disciples’ prayer. It represents how they are to approach God, by acknowledging his uniqueness and their need for his provision and protection.

[11:2]  ³⁶ tc Most mss, including later majority (A C D W Θ Ψ 070 ˹³ 33^vid Ï it), add ἡμῶν ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς (Jhmwn Jo en toi" oujranoi", “our [Father] in heaven”) here. This makes the prayer begin like the version in Matt 6:9. The shorter version is read by Ì⁷⁵ א B (L: + ἡμῶν) 1 700 pc as well as some versions and fathers. Given this more weighty external evidence, combined with the scribal tendency to harmonize Gospel parallels, the shorter reading is preferred.

[11:2]  ³⁷ tn Grk “hallowed be your name.”

[11:2]  ³⁸ tc Most mss (א A C D W Θ Ψ 070 ˹³ 33^vid Ï it) read at the end of the verse “may your will be done on earth as [it is] in heaven,” making this version parallel to Matt 6:10. The shorter reading is found, however, in weighty mss (Ì⁷⁵ B L pc), and cannot be easily explained as arising from the longer reading.

[1:9]  ³⁹ tn Or “heard about it”; Grk “heard.” There is no direct object stated in the Greek (direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context). A direct object is expected by an English reader, however, so most translations supply one. Here, however, it is not entirely clear what the author “heard”: a number of translations supply “it” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV; NAB “this”), but this could refer back either to (1) “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8, or (2) “your faith in Christ Jesus and the love that you have for all the saints” (v. 4). In light of this uncertainty, other translations supply “about you” (TEV, NIV, CEV, NLT). This is preferred by the present translation since, while it does not resolve the ambiguity entirely, it does make it less easy for the English reader to limit the reference only to “your love in the Spirit” at the end of v. 8.

[1:9]  ⁴⁰ tn The term “God” does not appear in the Greek text, but the following reference to “the knowledge of his will” makes it clear that “God” is in view as the object of the “praying and asking,” and should therefore be included in the English translation for clarity.

[1:9]  ⁴¹ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause has been translated as substantival, indicating the content of the prayer and asking. The idea of purpose may also be present in this clause.

[5:7]  ⁴² tn Grk “in the days of his flesh.”

[5:7]  ⁴³ tn Grk “he”; the referent (Christ) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[5:7]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “who…having offered,” continuing the description of Christ from Heb 5:5-6.