Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;
Parallel Translations
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Then they will call on me, but I will not answer. They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me;
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Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
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Then will they call me, but I will not answer, they will seek me earnestly, but they shall not find me.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (2)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (18)
Passages linked to Proverbs 1:28 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Micah 3:4 Then they will cry to Yahweh, but he will not answer them. Yes, he will hide his face from them at that time, because they made their deeds evil.”
- Isaiah 1:15 When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you. Yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood.
- Jeremiah 11:11 Therefore Yahweh says, ‘Behold, I will bring evil on them, which they will not be able to escape; and they will cry to me, but I will not listen to them.
- Zechariah 7:13 It has come to pass that, as he called, and they refused to listen, so they will call, and I will not listen,” said Yahweh of Armies;
- James 4:3 You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
- Matthew 25:10-12 While they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us.’ But he answered, ‘Most certainly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
- Job 27:9 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?
- 1 Samuel 8:18 You will cry out in that day because of your king whom you will have chosen for yourselves; and Yahweh will not answer you in that day.”
- Psalms 18:41 They cried, but there was no one to save; even to Yahweh, but he didn’t answer them.
- Jeremiah 14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”
- Job 35:12 There they cry, but no one answers, because of the pride of evil men.
- Proverbs 8:17 I love those who love me. Those who seek me diligently will find me.
- Ezekiel 8:18 Therefore I will also deal in wrath. My eye won’t spare, neither will I have pity. Though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet I will not hear them.”
- Genesis 6:3 Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.”
- Hosea 5:15–6:4 I will go and return to my place, until they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly.” “Come! Let’s return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him. Let’s acknowledge Yahweh. Let’s press on to know Yahweh. As surely as the sun rises, Yahweh will appear. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain that waters the earth.” “Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.
- Matthew 7:22-23 Many will tell me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, in your name cast out demons, and in your name do many mighty works?’ Then I will tell them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you who work iniquity.’
- Psalms 78:34-36 When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly. They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer. But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.
- Luke 13:25-28 When once the master of the house has risen up, and has shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ then he will answer and tell you, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’ Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.’ He will say, ‘I tell you, I don’t know where you come from. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s Kingdom, and yourselves being thrown outside.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Because they sought not with an affection to God,…
Because they sought not with an affection to God, but for ease of their own grief.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Pro 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but…
Pro 1:28 Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:
Ver. 28. Then shall they call, &c.] This was Saul’s misery; - The Philistines are upon me, and God will not answer me. This was Moab’s curse. {Isa 16:12} This was the case of David’s enemies. {Psa 18:41} A doleful case it is surely, when a man shall lose his prayers, and shall not be a button the better for all his pretended prayers and devotions. "He that turneth away his ear from hearing of the law, even his prayer shall be abominable." {Pro 28:9} If God answer him at all, it is according to the idols of his heart, {Eze 14:3-4} with bitter answers, as in Jdg 10:13-14. Or if better, yet it is but as he answered the Israelites for quails, and afterwards for a king; better have been without. Deus saepe dat iratus quod negat propitius. Giftless gifts God gives sometimes. "He will consume you after that he hath done you good." {Jos 24:20}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Early; or, in the morning, as the word properly…
Early; or, in the morning, as the word properly signifies, and is here rendered by others, as soon as their calamity comes; or rather, with great diligence and fervency, as this phrase commonly signifies.
They shall not find me, because they do not seek me by choice and with sincerity, but only by constraint, and that they may be freed from their miseries.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then shall they call upon me, but I will…
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer,.... As he called them, and they refused to answer to his call, Pro 1:24; so it was just in him to return no answer to them, when they called on him to deliver them from the Romans, and save them from ruin: for this was what they called out for, and what they expected, that the Messiah would come and deliver them; this was what they buoyed themselves up with, and made them so desperate to the last;
they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me; this is the very thing that Christ told the Jews, and much in the same words with these, Joh 7:34; for when he was gone, and they were in distress, then they sought after the Messiah, in the desert, and in the secret chambers, and in this and the other place, where they were told he was; but, alas! they could not find him: the true Messiah, whom they had rejected, was come and gone, and would return no more, until his second coming to judgment; or, however, till he came in his kingdom and power, to their ruin and destruction; of which coming of his the Scriptures often speak.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Early - With diligence and fervency.
Early - With diligence and fervency.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Find me. Because their repentance was false, like that…
Find me. Because their repentance was false, like that of Antiochus, 2 Machabees ix. 13., and Psalm xi. 4. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Now no prayers or most diligent seeking will avail…
Now no prayers or most diligent seeking will avail (Pro 8:17).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 28. Shall seek me early — Rather, earnestly, urgently.…
28. Shall seek me early — Rather, earnestly, urgently. The word primarily means to rise early; but as rising early was an eminent mark of earnestness and diligence in the pursuit of an object, so the sense readily passed over to this.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 28. early] Rather, earnestly, or diligently, R.V. text. The…
28. early] Rather, earnestly, or diligently, R.V. text. The rendering early is due to the doubtful connection (see Bp Perowne on Psa_63:1) of the Heb. word with the dawn (mane consurgent, Vulg.). Here in fact, so far from being early, it is not only late, but too late. It may of course be urged in favour of retaining the received rendering (as R.V. marg.) that the seeking is early as regards the coming of the calamity (comp. Hos_5:15); but the other sense includes this.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (28) Then shall they call upon me.—They did not…
(28) Then shall they call upon me.—They did not call upon Him in an “acceptable time,” in “a day of salvation” (Isa_49:8), while He was “near” (Isa_55:6); so at last the master of the house has “risen up, and shut-to the door” (Luk_13:25), and will not listen to their cries.
They shall seek me early.—As God had done, “daily rising up early,” and sending the prophets unto them (Jer_7:25).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The phase which the address now enters upon continues…
The phase which the address now enters upon continues to the thirty-first verse. The change in this verse from the second to the third person is striking. It implies that Wisdom thinks fools no longer worthy of being addressed personally stultos indignos censunt ulteriori alloquio" (Gejerus and Michaelis). The declaration is the embodiment of the laughter and scorn of ver. 26. The three verbs, "they shall call," "they shall seek," "they shall find," occur in uncommon and emphatic forms in the original. They are some out of the few instances where the future terminations are inserted fully before the pronominal suffix. I will not answer. The distress and anguish consequent upon their calamity and fear lead them to pray, but there will be no answer nor heed given to their cry. They are not heard, because they do not cry rightly nor in the time of grace (Lapide). See the striking parallel to the tenor of this passage in Luk_13:24-28. They shall seek me early; i.e. diligently. The verb rjv (shakhar) is the denominative from the substantive rjv (shakar), "the dawn, morning," and signifies to go out and seek something in the obscurity of the morning twilight (Delitzsch, Zockler), and hence indicates diligence and earnestness in the search. Gesenius gives the same derivation, but connects it with the dawn in the sense of the light breaking forth, and thus, as it were, seeking. (see also Pro_2:2-7 Pro_7:15 Pro_8:17 Hos_5:15)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Then shall they call upon Me, but I will…
Pro_1:28
Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer.
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Sowing disobedience, reaping judgment
One of the marvellous reasonings of the Judge with the criminal is recorded here.
I. God in mercy visits a rebellious generation.
1. The call. It is in the earthquake and in the storm. Day unto day proclaims it, and night unto night. There is no speech or language where it is not heard. The call has come with distinct articulation from the lips of prophets and apostles. It sounds with authority in a human conscience.
2. The hands stretched out. There is a way, and the way is open unto the Father. There is no obstruction, there is no forbidding, there is no upbraiding. Sinners are welcomed with open arms.
3. The counsel. Specially addressed to those who procrastinate.
4. Reproof. If they will not be enticed by the promise of heaven, He will threaten them with the fear of hell. Everlasting love needs a strong, hard instrument wherewith to work out her blessed purposes on an unpliant race. Judgment looming in reserve, serving meantime by its blackness to make the invitation more winning.
II. A rebellious generation neglects or resists the gracious visitation of God. Men have ears and stop them.
III. They shall eat the fruit of their own ways, and be filled with their own devices. Judgment will be an exact answer to disobedience, as fruit answers to seed, or an echo to the sound. (William Arnot, D. D.)
The danger of deferring repentance
There is a good English proverb that He who neglects the occasion, the occasion will neglect him. In previous verses we have a general proclamation (Pro_1:20); a merciful reprehension (Pro_1:22); a gracious exhortation (Pro_1:23); a yearning promise (end Pro_1:23); a gracious threatening. The words of the text are underclapt against all those that procrastinate their repentance and returning home to God. Note the parties themselves that do prolong this day of grace; their earnest and diligent seeking after God; the unseasonableness of the time of their seeking; and the frustration of their hopes. Those that will not hear when He calleth them, God will not hear when they call unto Him. Thus the Lord dealt with His people in Ezekiels days. There is a double day, a white day, and a black day; a day of salvation and a day of damnation. There are three reasons for this point.
1. The law of retaliation.
2. The time of Gods attributes. Both mercy and justice have their season in this life; and when mercy hath acted her part, then cometh justice upon the stage, and acteth her part.
3. It is Gods use to do so in other things, even upon the contempt of temporal blessings, and therefore much more in matters of grace and salvation. Illustrated in the cases of the Israelites, Ishmael, King Saul, Esau. If God so severely punish contempt of temporal blessings, how will He punish contempt of proffers of grace and salvation? He will come with martial law against all those that contemn the gospel (Joh_3:18). God doth commonly give men a day, but no man or angel doth know how long this day lasteth. God gave the angels a day, Cain a day, Nineveh a day, the antediluvian world a day. All we know is that this day is for us now. Now is the day of Christ upon you. What is the meaning of all those Scriptures which show how God doth deliver up men unto the spirit of giddiness, and unto the spirit of slumber? And what means the hardening of mens hearts, and searing of mens consciences, but only to show that the day of grace may end unto a particular man, ten, twenty, nay, forty years before his death. If thou refuse this day, thou refusest all; for what knowest thou but this very day may be thy day? The reason is--
1. Because Gods patience is in His own breast, and who can tell how long it will last?
2. Because Gods patience gives no mark or inkling of it before it ends.
3. Because God reckons up every hour.
4. It is a wonder that the day of grace is not ended already, and that thou art not now in hell. When Christ first comes to the soul, He witnesseth grace and mercy to thee if thou wilt repent and amend; yea, He witnesseth forgiveness of sins, redemption, and salvation, if thou wilt believe; but if not, He will be a swift witness against thee. (William Fenner, B.D.)
Natures warning
This is a sublime dramatic utterance. It is Wisdom that is represented as speaking. By wisdom among the Orientals moral philosophy was understood, or science speaking on the side of morality. Taken in its largest way it is as if nature (in the text) had risen up, and had declared from her own seat, and by her own authority, what was the history of transgression against her fundamental laws. It is the voice of physiology; it is the voice of health, it is the voice of natural law. It is the voice of the poorhouse, the gaol, the gallows, speaking out and telling men what are the ends of those ways which are essentially the violation of Gods laws in nature. We see men violating the fundamental laws of health, strength, character, prosperity, and society, little by little, and because sentence is not speedily executed against evildoers, they are presumptuous, and say, How doth God know? At a later stage, when the fatal work is done, and disease, decay, poverty, the coldness of men, the indifference of society, disgrace, neglect, infamy, suffering, and death come upon them, then they begin to call out in these several states, and condemn everybody but themselves. Then they seek to patch up their broken constitutions. Then they attempt to put on the aspects of honesty. Then they try to regraft themselves upon the tree from which they have been broken off, but largely in vain. They call, but nature will not hear. They plead unto deaf ears.
I. Look at the mildest forms of transgression--those of indolence and self-indulgence. How quietly men spend their lives doing nothing! But when they pass the meridian of life, and begin to go down the farther slope, they find that nobody cares for them. They are in everybodys way. The probabilities are that one who has spent the first part of his life in indolence and self-indulgence will spend the last part of his life in the same way.
II. Look at the same thing as it takes place in regard to a mans reputation. Every man is a character-builder. Every man is building himself up by his purposes, his deeds; and these form his character, and it is his character that stands by him. His reputation is simply the shadow that it casts. What a man is, is his character; and what men think him to be is his reputation. Men sometimes think they are building character when they are only getting reputation. Few are aware of this distinction, and so it comes to pass that many men go steadily downward. They begin to violate the truth. They equivocate. They walk on the perilous edge of insincerity. And, notwithstanding this, they do not perceive any change in themselves. But any man who lacks simplicity very soon gets to be suspected by other people. Men are dishonest in the same way. They are tricky. Such a man goes on from day to day, and at last it is whispered of him, That man is not honest, and presently all the world knows it except himself.
III. Look at the same thing in respect to the sins which a man commits against his own self. Of all wastefulness there is none like that which men commit upon their own persons. There are many ways in which men drain off the vitality of their whole brain and nervous system. Excessive virtuous industry will do it. Passionate self-indulgence will do it. Excessive addiction to stimulating drinks will do it. While there may be exceptional cases, the law for all such is destruction. The laws of nature have only a limit of mercy, but they have a limit of mercy. A man may be overtaken and yet may recover himself. There is a limited amount of atonement in nature. But there must be no presuming on it. The laws of nature are made for the obedient. Society is established for the obedient. It has very limited resources for reforming men. You are safe if you do not go down into vice. Let alone mischief before it be meddled with. Keep clear of all evil. Obedience is safe. Obedience to God in nature; in your own body; in the laws of society; obedience to God everywhere--that is absolutely safe, and nothing else is safe. Sin, however sweet and smooth and safe it may seem, is not safe. It is safe to be right; it is dangerous to be wrong. (H. W. Beecher.)
They shall not find Me.--
Who seek and do not find?
Scripture speaks of men calling upon God, and of His refusing to hear them. And yet our Lord said, Ask, and ye shall receive; seek, and ye shall find. How explain this seeming contradiction? These things are not said of the same persons, or rather of the same characters, at the same time. What if I were to say that now, at this very moment, the words of the text are both applicable to us, and not applicable? The words were at no time in any mans earthly life so true an they will be at the day of judgment. Then they may be true in a greater or less degree; they may be substantially true in the life that now is. Is Christs promise, Seek, and ye shall find, equally true to all of us? Take most of us: suppose cite of us to have reached boyhood with a bad disposition, ready for the first temptation, with habits of good uncultivated. Does God hear his prayers? Or in trying to turn from evil to good have you ever found your resolutions give way, till you fell back again to what you were at the beginning? In that case you sought God and failed to find Him. Or has it ever happened to you to have done a mischief to yourselves which you could not undo? Then you may realise that you may seek some good and be unable to attain. We know what it is that hinders God from hearing us always; because we are not thoroughly one in His Son Christ Jesus. The very feeling of coldness and unwillingness to pray, because we have often prayed in vain, is surely working in us that perfect death which is the full truth of the words of the text. (Thomas Arnold, D. D.)
The misery of late repentance after a wicked life
I. There is a time when wicked men will be overtaken with those miseries that no warning would serve them to prevent by repentance and reformation.
II. They will be one day sensible of their own folly, and cry unto God for mercy and deliverance.
III. But God will not then regard their repentance, nor be moved by their prayers. For understanding--
1. Lay down three things.
(1) All sorts of calamities are meant by the wise man, which are either the natural effects of sin or other punishments of sin inflicted by the Divine justice, and that either in this world or in the world to come.
(2) This proposition is not to be understood as if all wicked men were at last reduced to extreme misery in this life. All that need be said is this, either that they do often suffer those punishments in this life which their wicked doings naturally produce, or that the justice of God doth other ways overtake them in punishments that show the finger of God and a more immediate hand of providence.
(3) If any go on in these practices upon which nature itself and Gods curse besides have seemed to sentence miseries in this life, if some of them should happen to escape here, and live out their days without any great misfortune befalling them at last, yet there is a day coming when they shall not escape. One day they will smart for it. Under proposition II., understand that it is not to be understood universally as if every man reduced to extreme misery would infallibly apply himself to God for mercy, for we know there have been examples to the contrary, e.g., Ahab. This seeking Gods favour does frequently happen, but even they who do so are unhappy in their late repentance, especially those that have had the most warnings and convictions, but would not be reclaimed. Under proposition III., show that this is the most awakening consideration of all, and hath the greatest force to make an effectual impression of the two former upon our minds. But this point requires careful interpretation, and a precise distinction between the miseries that an obstinate course of sin produces in this life and those punishments it will bring in another life.
1. How useless the prayers and repentance of wicked men will be as to the recovery of their happiness in this life! They are usually unprofitable as to those advantages which they have lost by their obstinate and, till now, incurable folly; such as health, plenty, and good name. And they will not procure them that comfort from the principles of religion which relieves good men under their adversities.
2. How unprofitable their importunity in seeking the mercy of God will be as to their escape in the day of judgment! For them who repent not till their turn comes in the other world, it will turn to no account for them; they must hear the irreversible sentence, and suffer the unavoidable effect of it for ever. And all this implies no want of goodness in God. (W. Clagett, D.D.)
Counsel rejected
Better stop now. Some years ago, near Princeton, New Jersey, some young men were skating on a pond around an air-hole, and the ice began to break in. Some of them stopped; but a young man said, I am not afraid! Give us one round more! He swung nearly round, when the ice broke, and not until next day was his lifeless body found. So men go on in sin. They are warned. They expect soon to stop. But they cry, Give us one round more! They start, but with a wild crash break through into bottomless perdition. Do not risk it any longer. Stop now. God save us from the foolhardiness of the one round more! I thank God that I have been permitted to tell you which is the right road and which the wrong road. You must take one or the other. I leave you at the forks; choose for yourselves! (T. De Witt Talmage.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Wisdom continues speaking. (See: Personification)
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Then they will call upon me
"Then those who ignored me will cry out to me for help"
Because they hate knowledge
The abstract noun "knowledge" can be stated as the verb "learn." AT: "Because they refused to learn to be wise" (See: Abstract Nouns)
did not choose the fear of Yahweh
The abstract noun "fear" can be stated as a verb. AT: "did not fear Yahweh" or "did not honor and respect Yahweh" (See: Abstract Nouns)
would not follow my instruction
"would not accept my instruction" or "rejected my advice"
translationWords
call
know
fear
Yahweh
instruct
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 1:28 I will not answer: If a person has…
1:28 I will not answer: If a person has not sought wisdom before calamity strikes, it is often too late to learn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.