to call out to (i.e. properly · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
near
קָרֽוֹבka.Rov
H7138
near (in place · adjective, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 29:12-14 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Psalms 145:18 The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth.
Isaiah 45:19 I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteous…
Psalms 32:6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall n…
Psalms 14:2 The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.
Isaiah 65:24 And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.
Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Isaiah 55:6–end
We have here a further account of that covenant of grace which is made with us in Jesus Christ, both what is required and what is promised in the covenant, and of those considerations that are sufficient abundantly to confirm our believing compliance with and reliance on that covenant. This gracious discovery of God's good-will to the children of men is not to be confined either to the Jew or to the Gentile, to the Old Testament or to the New, much less to the captives in Babylon. No, both the precepts and the promises are here given to all, to every one that thirsts after happiness, Isa 55:1. And who does not? Hear this, and live.
I. Here is a gracious offer made of pardon, and peace, and a…
The condition and limit in the obtaining of the spiritual benefits (Isa 55:1-3): (1) Seek the Lord. (2) Seek Him while He is to be found (Isa 65:1; Psa 32:6; Mat 25:1-13; Joh 7:34; Joh 8:21; Co2 6:2; Heb 2:3; Heb 3:13, Heb 3:15).
call--casting yourselves wholly on His mercy (Rom 10:13). Stronger than "seek"; so "near" is more positive than "while He may be found" (Rom 10:8-9).
near--propitious (Psa 34:18; Psa 145:18).
Adam Clarke on Isaiah 55:6
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found - Rab. David Kimchi gives the true sense of this passage: "Seek ye the Lord, because he may be found: call upon him, because he is near. Repent before ye die, for after death there is no conversion of the soul."
John Gill on Isaiah 55:6
Seek ye the Lord while he may be found,.... The Lord is to be sought unto at all times, whenever the people of God meet together, especially on sabbath days, and while the external ministry of the word lasts, and life itself; so the Targum,
"seek the fear of the Lord, while ye are alive.''
Kimchi compares it with Ecclesiastes 9:10. The Jewish writers, as Aben Ezra and others, generally interpret it before the sealing of the decree, or before the decree is gone forth. It may be understood of place, as well as time, and be rendered, "seek the Lord in the place where he may be found" (l); God is to be found, as Aben Ezra observes, in all places, and at all times; under the Old Testament there…
The Church Fathers
He says, "When you who seek have found, when you have called and have found pardon, flee the former road of ungodliness and immorality and show God your face, not your back. For he will grant you mercy and give you forgiveness of sins."
How then am I to seek for you, Lord? When I seek for you, my God, my quest is for the happy life. I will seek you that "my soul may live," for my body derives life from my soul, and my soul derives life from you.… Is not the happy life that which all desire, which indeed no one fails to desire?
Seek him while he can be found, while you are in the body, while there is a place for repentance, and seek him not only in place, but in faith. However, how God is to be sought is more fully explained in another place: "Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who seeks refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing." … It is not enough to seek the Lord, and while it is the time of penance, to find and invoke Him when He is near, unless the wicked person has abandoned their former ways and the old thoughts by which they had turned away from the Lord. For then we will return to the Lord, who will have mercy on us, and to the most merciful Father, who is abundant in mercies and ready to forgive, when we have abandoned our former thoughts and ways, so that we may deserve to hear afterwards: "Blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Prayer — Is converse with God; the intercourse of the soul with God, not in contemplation or meditation, but in direct address to him. Prayer may be oral or mental, occasional or constant, ejaculatory or…
Access To God · The wicked commanded to seek — The wicked commanded to seek
Desire · SPIRITUAL — SPIRITUAL
Prayer · Commanded — Commanded
Procrastination · To be avoided in: Seeking God — To be avoided in: Seeking God
Salvation · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO
Seekers · 5:8;8:5,6; — 5:8;8:5,6;
Seeking God · Commanded — Commanded
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Seek ye Jehovah. After having spoken of the good success of the gospel among the Gentiles, who formerly were strangers to the kingdom of God, he urges the Jews to be ashamed of loitering while others run; for since they were the first who were called, it is shameful that they should be last. This exhortation, therefore, relates strictly to the Jews, to whom the example of the Gentiles is held out in order to excite their jealousy; in the same manner as the Lord hath foretold that "he would provoke the Jews to jealousy by a foolish nation." (Deuteronomy 32:21)
While he is found. "The time of finding" is here used not exactly in the same sense as in Psalm 32:6, [85] but as the time when God o…
So gracious is the offer which Jehovah now makes to His people, so great are the promises that He makes to it, viz., the regal glory of David, and the government of the world by virtue of the religion of Jehovah. Hence the exhortation is addressed to it in Isa 55:6 and Isa 55:7 : "Seek ye Jehovah while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return to Jehovah, and He will have compassion upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." They are to seek to press into the fellowship of Jehovah (dârash with the radical meaning terere, to acquire experimental knowledge or confidential acquaint…
The prophet calls for a response while the time is right.
55:6 while you can find him: When God graciously extends an invitation to salvation, people must respond (65:1; Jer 29:13-14; Hos 5:6; 10:12). Those who do not seek him at such times risk never having the opportunity again.
Rashi on Isaiah 55:6
when He is found Before the verdict is promulgated, when He still says to you, “Seek Me.”
