And why do you not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, ¹  and you will seek me diligently, ²  but I will be gone.”

Like ¹  wild donkeys in the desert they ²  go out to their labor, ³  seeking diligently for food; the wasteland provides ⁴  food for them and for their children.

“Yes, God is great – beyond our knowledge! ¹  The number of his years is unsearchable.

My heart tells me to pray to you, ¹  and I do pray to you, O Lord. ² 

What I have continually sought, I have not found; I have found only ¹  one upright ²  man among a thousand, but I have not found one upright woman among all of them.

This alone have I discovered: God made humankind upright, but they have sought many evil schemes.

I ¹  look for ²  you during the night, my spirit within me seeks you at dawn, for when your judgments come upon the earth, those who live in the world learn about justice. ³ 

When you will look for your opponents, ¹  you will not find them; your enemies ²  will be reduced to absolutely nothing.

The oppressed and the poor look for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched from thirst. I, the Lord, will respond to their prayers; ¹  I, the God of Israel, will not abandon them.

People of Jerusalem, ¹  go up to Lebanon and cry out in mourning. Go to the land of Bashan and cry out loudly. Cry out in mourning from the mountains of Moab. ²  For your allies ³  have all been defeated.

“I looked for a man from among them who would repair the wall and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ¹ 

Then I will return again to my lair until they have suffered their punishment. ¹  Then they will seek me; ²  in their distress they will earnestly seek me.

The arrogance of Israel testifies against him, yet they refuse to return to the Lord their God! In spite of all this they refuse to seek him!

The next morning ¹  Jesus ²  departed and went to a deserted place. Yet ³  the crowds were seeking him, and they came to him and tried to keep him from leaving them.

“So ¹  I tell you: Ask, ²  and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door ³  will be opened for you.

What did he mean by saying, ¹  ‘You will look for me ²  but will not find me, and where I am you cannot come’?”

Then Jesus ¹  said to them again, ²  “I am going away, and you will look for me ³  but will die in your sin. ⁴  Where I am going you cannot come.”

They probed ¹  into what person or time ²  the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating when he testified beforehand about the sufferings appointed for Christ ³  and his subsequent glory. ⁴ 

And he must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.

Indeed, ask about the distant past, starting from the day God created humankind ¹  on the earth, and ask ²  from one end of heaven to the other, whether there has ever been such a great thing as this, or even a rumor of it.