'Attention' in the Bible
Lamech said to his wives:Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;wives of Lamech, pay attention to my words.For I killed a man for wounding me,a young man for striking me.
“Go and assemble the elders of Israel and say to them: Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, has appeared to me and said: I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt.
The people believed, and when they heard that the Lord had paid attention to them and that He had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.
Impose heavier work on the men. Then they will be occupied with it and not pay attention to deceptive words.”
He said, “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in His eyes, pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, I will not inflict any illnesses on you that I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am Yahweh who heals you.”
“Pay strict attention to everything I have said to you. You must not invoke the names of other gods; they must not be heard on your lips.
Balaam proclaimed his poem:Balak, get up and listen;son of Zippor, pay attention to what I say!
When you returned, you wept before the Lord, but He didn’t listen to your requests or pay attention to you.
Pay attention, heavens, and I will speak;listen, earth, to the words of my mouth.
He commanded them: “Pay attention. Lie in ambush behind the city, not too far from it, and all of you be ready.
Listen, kings! Pay attention, princes!I will sing to the Lord;I will sing praise to the Lord God of Israel.
She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people’s need by providing them food.
The Lord paid attention to Hannah’s need, and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord.
As she was dying, the women taking care of her said, “Don’t be afraid. You’ve given birth to a son!” But she did not respond or pay attention.
Then Samuel said:Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrificesas much as in obeying the Lord?Look: to obey is better than sacrifice,to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.
My lord should pay no attention to this worthless man Nabal, for he lives up to his name: His name is Nabal, and stupidity is all he knows. I, your servant, didn’t see my lord’s young men whom you sent.
“You must not go!” the people pleaded. “If we have to flee, they will not pay any attention to us. Even if half of us die, they will not pay any attention to us because you are worth 10,000 of us. Therefore, it is better if you support us from the city.”
All afternoon they kept on raving until the offering of the evening sacrifice, but there was no sound; no one answered, no one paid attention.
What is man, that You think so highly of himand pay so much attention to him?
For ask the previous generation,and pay attention to what their fathers discovered,
If I summoned Him and He answered me,I do not believe He would pay attention to what I said.
Pay close attention to my words;let my declaration ring in your ears.
Pay close attention to my words;let this be the consolation you offer.
Would He prosecute me forcefully?No, He will certainly pay attention to me.
From the city, men groan;the mortally wounded cry for help,yet God pays no attention to this crime.
I paid close attention to you.Yet no one proved Job wrong;not one of you refuted his arguments.
But now, Job, pay attention to my speech,and listen to all my words.
Pay attention, Job, and listen to me.Be quiet, and I will speak.
But now, because God’s anger does not punishand He does not pay attention to transgression,
Pay attention to the sound of my cry,my King and my God,for I pray to You.
A Davidic prayer.Lord, hear a just cause;pay attention to my cry;listen to my prayer—from lips free of deceit.
Listen, daughter, pay attention and consider:forget your people and your father’s house,
Pay attention to me and answer me.I am restless and in turmoil with my complaint,
For the choir director: on stringed instruments. Davidic.God, hear my cry;pay attention to my prayer.
Place no trust in oppression,or false hope in robbery.If wealth increases,pay no attention to it.
However, God has listened;He has paid attention to the sound of my prayer.
They say, “The Lord doesn’t see it.The God of Jacob doesn’t pay attention.”
Pay attention, you stupid people!Fools, when will you be wise?
I will pay attention to the way of integrity.When will You come to me?I will live with a heart of integrity in my house.
He will pay attention to the prayer of the destituteand will not despise their prayer.
Let whoever is wise pay attention to these thingsand consider the Lord’s acts of faithful love.
Since I called out and you refused,extended my hand and no one paid attention,
Listen, my sons, to a father’s discipline,and pay attention so that you may gain understanding,
My son, pay attention to my wisdom;listen closely to my understanding
Now, my sons, listen to me,and pay attention to the words of my mouth.
A wicked person listens to malicious talk;a liar pays attention to a destructive tongue.
Listen closely, pay attention to the words of the wise,and apply your mind to my knowledge.
Don’t wear yourself out to get rich;stop giving your attention to it.
Know well the condition of your flock,and pay attention to your herds,
Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king who no longer pays attention to warnings.
Don’t pay attention to everything people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you,
Listen, heavens, and pay attention, earth,for the Lord has spoken:“I have raised children and brought them up,but they have rebelled against Me.
Band together, peoples, and be broken;pay attention, all you distant lands;prepare for war, and be broken;prepare for war, and be broken.
When he sees riders—pairs of horsemen,riders on donkeys,riders on camels—he must pay close attention.”
Listen and hear my voice.Pay attention and hear what I say.
Stand up, you complacent women;listen to me.Pay attention to what I say,you overconfident daughters.
You nations, come here and listen;you peoples, pay attention!Let the earth hear, and all that fills it,the world and all that comes from it.
Who among you will pay attention to this?Let him listen and obey in the future.
So He poured out on Jacob His furious angerand the power of war.It surrounded him with fire, but he did not know it;it burned him, but he paid no attention.
“Do not remember the past events,pay no attention to things of old.
If only you had paid attention to My commands.Then your peace would have been like a river,and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.
Coastlands, listen to me;distant peoples, pay attention.The Lord called me before I was born.He named me while I was in my mother’s womb.
Pay attention to Me, My people,and listen to Me, My nation;for instruction will come from Me,and My justice for a light to the nations.I will bring it about quickly.
Pay attention and come to Me;listen, so that you will live.I will make an everlasting covenant with you,the promises assured to David.
Evil generation,pay attention to the word of the Lord!Have I been a wilderness to Israelor a land of dense darkness?Why do My people claim,“We will go where we want;we will no longer come to You”?
As a well gushes out its water,so she pours out her evil.Violence and destruction resound in her.Sickness and wounds keep coming to My attention.
Who can I speak to and give such a warningthat they will listen?Look, their ear is uncircumcised,so they cannot pay attention.See, the word of the Lord has become contemptible to them—they find no pleasure in it.
Listen, earth!I am about to bring disaster on these people,the fruit of their own plotting,for they have paid no attention to My word.They have rejected My instruction.
Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention but followed their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.
However, they wouldn’t listen to Me or pay attention but became obstinate; they did more evil than their ancestors.
I have paid careful attention.They do not speak what is right.No one regrets his evil,asking, ‘What have I done?’Everyone has stayed his courselike a horse rushing into battle.
Now hear the word of the Lord, you women.Pay attention to the word of His mouth.Teach your daughters a lamentand one another a dirge,
Yet they would not obey or pay attention; each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant, because they had not done what I commanded them to do.”
Listen and pay attention. Do not be proud,for the Lord has spoken.
They wouldn’t listen or pay attention but became obstinate, not listening or accepting discipline.
Then certain ones said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah, for instruction will never be lost from the priest, or counsel from the wise, or an oracle from the prophet. Come, let’s denounce him and pay no attention to all his words.”
Pay attention to me, Lord.Hear what my opponents are saying!
For who has stood in the council of the Lordto see and hear His word?Who has paid attention to His word and obeyed?
The Lord sent all His servants the prophets to you time and time again, but you have not obeyed or even paid attention.
“This is what the Lord of Hosts says:Pay attention! Disaster spreadsfrom nation to nation.A great storm is stirred upfrom the ends of the earth.”
At the end of seven years, each of you must free his Hebrew brother who sold himself to you. He may serve you six years, but then you must send him out free from you. But your ancestors did not obey Me or pay any attention.
Time and time again I have sent you all My servants the prophets, proclaiming: Turn, each one from his evil way of life, and correct your actions. Stop following other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I gave you and your ancestors. But you would not pay attention or obey Me.
Now pay attention: Today I am setting you free from the chains that were on your hands. If it pleases you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will take care of you. But if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, go no farther. Look—the whole land is in front of you. Wherever it seems good and right for you to go, go there.”
But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their evil or stop burning incense to other gods.
It will seem like false divination in the eyes of those who have sworn an oath to the Babylonians, but it will draw attention to their guilt so that they will be captured.
“Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because you have drawn attention to your guilt, exposing your transgressions, so that your sins are revealed in all your actions, since you have done this, you will be captured by them.
It will never again be an object of trust for the house of Israel, drawing attention to their sin of turning to the Egyptians. Then they will know that I am the Lord Yahweh.”
He spoke to me: “Son of man, look with your eyes, listen with your ears, and pay attention to everything I am going to show you, for you have been brought here so that I might show it to you. Report everything you see to the house of Israel.”
The Lord said to me: “Son of man, pay attention; look with your eyes and listen with your ears to everything I tell you about all the statutes and laws of the Lord’s temple. Take careful note of the entrance of the temple along with all the exits of the sanctuary.
So I turned my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and petitions, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.
Just as it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come on us, yet we have not appeased the Lord our God by turning from our iniquities and paying attention to Your truth.
Then he will turn his attention to the coasts and islands and capture many. But a commander will put an end to his taunting; instead, he will turn his taunts against him.
He will turn his attention back to the fortresses of his own land, but he will stumble, fall, and be no more.
Hear this, priests!Pay attention, house of Israel!Listen, royal house!For the judgment applies to youbecause you have been a snare at Mizpahand a net spread out on Tabor.
Listen, all you peoples;pay attention, earth and everyone in it!The Lord God will be a witness against you,the Lord, from His holy temple.
The voice of Yahweh calls out to the city(and it is wise to fear Your name):“Pay attention to the rodand the One who ordained it.
Do not be like your ancestors; the earlier prophets proclaimed to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Turn from your evil ways and your evil deeds. But they did not listen or pay attention to Me”—this is the Lord’s declaration.
But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder; they closed their ears so they could not hear.