1013 verses about Seeking

As Yahweh your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom where my lord has not sent to seek you. When they said, ‘He is not here,’ he took an oath of the kingdom and nation, that they didn’t find you.

So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees.

He said to his servant, “Go up now, and look toward the sea.” He went up, and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” He said, “Go again” seven times.

He came to a cave there, and camped there; and behold, Yahweh’s word came to him, and he said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before Yahweh.” Behold, Yahweh passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Yahweh; but Yahweh was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake; but Yahweh was not in the earthquake.

After the earthquake a fire passed; but Yahweh was not in the fire. After the fire, there was a still small voice.

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle, went out, and stood in the entrance of the cave. Behold, a voice came to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for Yahweh’s word.”

But Jehoshaphat said, “Isn’t there here a prophet of Yahweh, that we may inquire of him?”

He said, “You have asked a hard thing. If you see me when I am taken from you, it will be so for you; but if not, it will not be so.”

They said to him, “See now, there are with your servants fifty strong men. Please let them go and seek your master. Perhaps Yahweh’s Spirit has taken him up, and put him on some mountain, or into some valley.” He said, “Don’t send them.”

When they urged him until he was ashamed, he said, “Send them.” Therefore they sent fifty men; and they searched for three days, but didn’t find him.

He said, “Which way shall we go up?” He answered, “The way of the wilderness of Edom.”

But Jehoshaphat said, “Isn’t there a prophet of Yahweh here, that we may inquire of Yahweh by him?” One of the king of Israel’s servants answered, “Elisha the son of Shaphat, who poured water on the hands of Elijah, is here.”

Jehoshaphat said, “Yahweh’s word is with him.” So the king of Israel and Jehoshaphat and the king of Edom went down to him.

One day he came there, and he went to the room and lay there.

He said, “Why would you want go to him today? It is not a new moon or a Sabbath.” She said, “It’s alright.”

So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariots, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

At the end of seven years, the woman returned from the land of the Philistines. Then she went out to beg the king for her house and for her land.

The king said to Hazael, “Take a present in your hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of Yahweh by him, saying, ‘Will I recover from this sickness?’”

When king Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into Yahweh’s house.

He sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz.

So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.

Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. Then Hezekiah went up to Yahweh’s house, and spread it before Yahweh.

Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to Yahweh, saying,

So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah, went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum the son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe (now she lived in Jerusalem in the second quarter); and they talked with her.

They went to the entrance of Gedor, even to the east side of the valley, to seek pasture for their flocks.

and didn’t inquire of Yahweh. Therefore he killed him, and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse.

Also, let us again bring the ark of our God back to us; for we didn’t seek it in the days of Saul.”

When the Philistines heard that David was anointed king over all Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went out against them.

For because you didn’t carry it at first, Yahweh our God broke out in anger against us, because we didn’t seek him according to the ordinance.”

Glory in his holy name. Let the heart of those who seek Yahweh rejoice.

Seek Yahweh and his strength. Seek his face forever more.

Now set your heart and your soul to follow Yahweh your God. Arise therefore, and build the sanctuary of Yahweh God, to bring the ark of Yahweh’s covenant and the holy vessels of God into the house that is to be built for Yahweh’s name.”

Now therefore, in the sight of all Israel, Yahweh’s assembly, and in the audience of our God, observe and seek out all the commandments of Yahweh your God; that you may possess this good land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children after you forever.

You, Solomon my son, know the God of your father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind; for Yahweh searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.

Moreover the bronze altar that Bezalel the son of Uri, the son of Hur, had made was there before Yahweh’s tabernacle; and Solomon and the assembly were seeking counsel there.

That night, God appeared to Solomon and said to him, “Ask for what you want me to give you.”

God said to Solomon, “Because this was in your heart, and you have not asked riches, wealth, honor, or the life of those who hate you, nor yet have you asked for long life; but have asked for wisdom and knowledge for yourself, that you may judge my people, over whom I have made you king,

if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their captivity, where they have carried them captive, and pray toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, and the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name;

if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to test Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great caravan, including camels that bore spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones. When she had come to Solomon, she talked with him about all that was in her heart.

Solomon answered all her questions. There wasn’t anything hidden from Solomon which he didn’t tell her.

All the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

He said to them, “Come again to me after three days.” So the people departed.

So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king asked, saying, “Come to me again the third day.”

After them, out of all the tribes of Israel, those who set their hearts to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

He did that which was evil, because he didn’t set his heart to seek Yahweh.

and commanded Judah to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, and to obey his law and command.

For he said to Judah, “Let us build these cities, and make walls around them, with towers, gates, and bars. The land is yet before us, because we have sought Yahweh our God. We have sought him, and he has given us rest on every side.” So they built and prospered.

and he went out to meet Asa, and said to him, “Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin! Yahweh is with you, while you are with him; and if you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you.

But when in their distress they turned to Yahweh, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them.

He gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who lived with them out of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon; for they came to him out of Israel in abundance when they saw that Yahweh his God was with him.

They entered into the covenant to seek Yahweh, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and with all their soul;

and that whoever would not seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, should be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.

All Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart, and sought him with their whole desire; and he was found by them. Then Yahweh gave them rest all around.

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa was diseased in his feet. His disease was exceedingly great: yet in his disease he didn’t seek Yahweh, but just the physicians.

Yahweh was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and didn’t seek the Baals,

but sought to the God of his father, and walked in his commandments, and not in the ways of Israel.

Jehoshaphat said to the king of Israel, “Please inquire first for Yahweh’s word.”

But Jehoshaphat said, “Isn’t there here a prophet of Yahweh besides, that we may inquire of him?”

Nevertheless there are good things found in you, in that you have put away the Asheroth out of the land, and have set your heart to seek God.”

Jehoshaphat lived at Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back to Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek to Yahweh. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

Judah gathered themselves together to seek help from Yahweh. They came out of all the cities of Judah to seek Yahweh.

Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in Yahweh’s house, before the new court;

Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that comes against us. We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

He sought Ahaziah, and they caught him (now he was hiding in Samaria), and they brought him to Jehu, and killed him; and they buried him, for they said, “He is the son of Jehoshaphat, who sought Yahweh with all his heart.” The house of Ahaziah had no power to hold the kingdom.

He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the vision of God; and as long as he sought Yahweh, God made him prosper.

So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before Yahweh his God.

Then Hezekiah the king arose early, gathered the princes of the city, and went up to Yahweh’s house.

Nevertheless some men of Asher and Manasseh and of Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem.

who sets his heart to seek God, Yahweh, the God of his fathers, even if they aren’t clean according to the purification of the sanctuary.”

In every work that he began in the service of God’s house, in the law, and in the commandments, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart, and prospered.

Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, prayed because of this, and cried to heaven.

When he was in distress, he begged Yahweh his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers.

He prayed to him; and he was entreated by him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that Yahweh was God.

For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet young, he began to seek after the God of David his father; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem from the high places, the Asherah poles, the engraved images, and the molten images.

they came near to Zerubbabel, and to the heads of fathers’ households, and said to them, “Let us build with you; for we seek your God, as you do; and we have been sacrificing to him since the days of Esar Haddon king of Assyria, who brought us up here.”

Now therefore, if it seems good to the king, let a search be made in the king’s treasure house, which is there at Babylon, whether it is so, that a decree was made of Cyrus the king to build this house of God at Jerusalem; and let the king send his pleasure to us concerning this matter.”

The children of Israel who had returned out of the captivity, and all who had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the nations of the land, to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, ate,

For Ezra had set his heart to seek Yahweh’s law, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.

I gathered them together to the river that runs to Ahava; and there we encamped three days: and I looked around at the people the priests, and found there were none of the sons of Levi.

Then I proclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from him a straight way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our possessions.

For I was ashamed to ask of the king a band of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the way, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is on all those who seek him, for good; but his power and his wrath is against all those who forsake him.”

So we fasted and begged our God for this: and he granted our request.

Hanani, one of my brothers, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them about the Jews who had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

When I heard these words, I sat down and wept, and mourned several days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, that you would send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may build it.”

Mordecai walked every day in front of the court of the women’s house, to find out how Esther was doing, and what would become of her.

Then Esther answered and said, “My petition and my request is this.

If I have found favor in the sight of the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my petition and to perform my request, let the king and Haman come to the banquet that I will prepare for them, and I will do tomorrow as the king has said.”

Then Esther the queen answered, “If I have found favor in your sight, O king, and if it pleases the king, let my life be given me at my petition, and my people at my request.

Who long for death, but it doesn’t come; and dig for it more than for hidden treasures,

“Call now; is there any who will answer you? To which of the holy ones will you turn?

“But as for me, I would seek God. I would commit my cause to God,

“Teach me, and I will hold my peace. Cause me to understand wherein I have erred.

Why do you not pardon my disobedience, and take away my iniquity? For now shall I lie down in the dust. You will seek me diligently, but I shall not be.”

If you want to seek God diligently, make your supplication to the Almighty.

Behold, he goes by me, and I don’t see him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive him.