So we fasted and entreated our God for this, and He answered our prayer.
Parallel translations
- WEB So we fasted and begged our God for this: and he granted our request.
- KJV So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us.
- BSB So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and He granted our request.
- NASB So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He listened to our pleading.
- NLT So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
They fasted and prayed for safety, and God granted their request. God answers the humble, believing prayers of His people.
Overview
After fasting and entreating God for a safe journey, Ezra records simply that 'he granted our request.' The brief statement testifies to God's faithfulness in responding to earnest, dependent prayer. It encourages believers that God hears and acts when His people humble themselves and call on Him (James 4:10).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Jer 29:12–13You shall call on me, and you shall go and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
- Matt 7:7–8“Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.
- 2 Chr 33:12–13When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.
- Ezra 8:31Then we departed from the river Ahava on the twelfth day of the first month, to go to Jerusalem. The hand of our God was on us, and he delivered us from the hand of the enemy and the bandit by the way.
- Deut 4:29But from there you shall seek Yahweh your God, and you shall find him, when you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
- 1 Chr 5:20They were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all who were with them; for they cried to God in the battle, and he was answered them, because they put their trust in him.
- Esth 4:16“Go, gather together all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day. I and my maidens will also fast the same way. Then I will go in to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
- Isa 19:22Yahweh will strike Egypt, striking and healing. They will return to Yahweh, and he will be entreated by them, and will heal them.
- Dan 9:3I set my face to the Lord God, to seek by prayer and petitions, with fasting and sackcloth and ashes.
- Neh 9:1Now in the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, with sackcloth, and dirt on them.
- Ps 66:18–20If I cherished sin in my heart, the Lord wouldn’t have listened.
- Luke 2:37and she had been a widow for about eighty-four years), who didn’t depart from the temple, worshiping with fastings and petitions night and day.
- Jer 50:4–5“In those days, and in that time,” says Yahweh, “the children of Israel will come, they and the children of Judah together; they will go on their way weeping, and will seek Yahweh their God.
- Jer 33:3‘Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you don’t know.’
- Acts 10:30Cornelius said, “Four days ago, I was fasting until this hour, and at the ninth hour, I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The return from exile and the rebuilt altar keep alive the hope of a greater restoration — the true return from our deeper exile of sin accomplished by Christ.
How Ezra 8:23 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.