Matthew 6:8
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Be not you therefore like to them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Be not you therefore like to them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask him.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Be not therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
So be not like them; because your Father has knowledge of your needs even before you make your requests to him.
Webster's Revision
Therefore be ye not like them: for your Father knoweth what things ye need before ye ask him.
World English Bible
Therefore don't be like them, for your Father knows what things you need, before you ask him.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Be not therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Clarke's Matthew 6:8 Bible Commentary
Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of - Prayer is not designed to inform God, but to give man a sight of his misery; to humble his heart, to excite his desire, to inflame his faith, to animate his hope, to raise his soul from earth to heaven, and to put him in mind that There is his Father, his country, and inheritance.
In the preceding verses we may see three faults, which our Lord commands us to avoid in prayer: -
1st. Hypocrisy. Be not as the hypocrites. Matthew 6:5.
2ndly. Dissipation. Enter into thy closet. Matthew 6:6.
3rdly. Much Speaking, or Unmeaning Repetition, Be not like the heathens. Matthew 6:7.
Wesley's Matthew 6:8 Bible Commentary
6:8 Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of - We do not pray to inform God of our wants. Omniscient as he is, he cannot be informed of any thing which he knew not before: and he is always willing to relieve them. The chief thing wanting is, a fit disposition on our part to receive his grace and blessing. Consequently, one great office of prayer is, to produce such a disposition in us: to exercise our dependence on God; to increase our desire of the things we ask for; to us so sensible of our wants, that we may never cease wrestling till we have prevailed for the blessing.