'Pay Attention' in the Bible
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”?
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.
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.
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.
Pay attention to me, Lord.Hear what my opponents are saying!
“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.”
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.