Hezekiah's Prayer and Isaiah's Assurance
Isaiah 37:14-20
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Isa.37.14 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- ויקח: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,sg
- חזקיהו: NOUN,m,sg,prop
- את: PRT,acc
- הספרים: NOUN,m,pl,def
- מיד: PREP
- המלאכים: NOUN,m,pl,def
- ויקראהו: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- ויעל: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- בית: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- ויפרשהו: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- חזקיהו: NOUN,m,sg,prop
- לפני: PREP
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
Parallels
- 2 Kings 19:14 (verbal): Near-verbatim parallel: Hezekiah takes the letter from the messengers, reads it, goes up to the house of the LORD and spreads it before the LORD.
- 2 Kings 19:15 (verbal): Directly corresponds to the action sequence in Isaiah 37; continues the same narrative of Hezekiah presenting the Assyrian letter to God.
- Isaiah 37:15-20 (structural): Immediate literary continuation in Isaiah: after laying the letter before the LORD Hezekiah offers a prayer — the act of spreading the letter is the structural prompt for his petition.
- 2 Chronicles 32:20-22 (thematic): Chronicles' account of the Sennacherib episode parallels the Isaiah/Kings narrative thematically: Hezekiah's reliance on God in the face of Assyrian threats and God's deliverance, the wider context for presenting the crisis before the LORD.
Alternative generated candidates
- Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it; then he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.
- Hezekiah took the letters from the hands of the messengers and read them; then he went up to the house of the LORD and spread them out before the LORD.
Isa.37.15 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- ויתפלל: VERB,hitpael,imperfect,3,m,sg
- חזקיהו: NOUN,m,sg,prop
- אל: NEG
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- לאמר: INF,qal,infc
Parallels
- 2 Kings 19:15 (quotation): Direct parallel account of Hezekiah’s prayer to Yahweh; the wording and occasion are essentially the same as in Isaiah 37:15.
- 2 Chronicles 32:20-21 (structural): Parallel narrative noting Hezekiah’s prayer and Isaiah’s intercession and God’s deliverance of Jerusalem from the Assyrian threat.
- Isaiah 38:2 (thematic): Another recorded prayer of Hezekiah in a life‑threatening crisis (his illness), showing the theme of the king turning to Yahweh for rescue.
- Psalm 20:1-2 (thematic): A royal prayer for divine help in time of trouble; parallels the petitionary tone and reliance on God found in Hezekiah’s prayer.
Alternative generated candidates
- Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying:
- Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying:
Isa.37.16 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- צבאות: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- אלהי: NOUN,m,sg,cons
- ישראל: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ישב: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,sg
- הכרבים: NOUN,m,pl,def
- אתה: PRON,2,m,sg
- הוא: PRON,3,m,sg
- האלהים: NOUN,m,sg,def
- לבדך: ADV,2,m,sg
- לכל: PREP
- ממלכות: NOUN,f,pl,cs
- הארץ: NOUN,f,sg,def
- אתה: PRON,2,m,sg
- עשית: VERB,qal,perf,2,m,sg
- את: PRT,acc
- השמים: NOUN,m,pl,def
- ואת: CONJ
- הארץ: NOUN,f,sg,def
Parallels
- Psalm 99:1 (verbal): Both texts proclaim the LORD's sovereignty and explicitly state that he 'sits/sitteth between the cherubim,' a shared divine throne imagery.
- Psalm 80:1 (verbal): Addressing God as the one who 'dwells/ sits between the cherubim,' this verse echoes the same cultic throne language found in Isaiah 37:16.
- Nehemiah 9:6 (verbal): Confesses 'you alone are LORD' and attributes creation of heaven and earth to God—closely paralleling Isaiah's 'you are God, you alone... you made the heavens and the earth.'
- Isaiah 45:18 (thematic): Affirms the theme of YHWH as Creator ('he created the heavens and formed the earth'), resonating with Isaiah 37:16's claim about God as maker of heaven and earth.
Alternative generated candidates
- O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim—You are God alone over all the kingdoms of the earth; You made the heavens and the earth.
- O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim—You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth; You made the heavens and the earth.
Isa.37.17 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- הטה: VERB,hiph,impv,2,m,sg
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- אזנך: NOUN,f,sg,abs,2,m,sg
- ושמע: VERB,qal,imp,2,m,sg
- פקח: VERB,qal,impv,2,m,sg
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- עינך: NOUN,f,pl,abs+2ms
- וראה: VERB,qal,imp,2,m,sg
- ושמע: VERB,qal,imp,2,m,sg
- את: PRT,acc
- כל: DET
- דברי: NOUN,m,pl,abs+PRON,1,c,sg
- סנחריב: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- אשר: PRON,rel
- שלח: VERB,qal,perf,3,m,sg
- לחרף: INFN,qal,inf
- אלהים: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- חי: ADJ,m,sg
Parallels
- 2 Kings 19:16 (quotation): Almost verbatim parallel: Hezekiah’s prayer there uses the same petition — 'Incline, O LORD, your ear… open, O LORD, your eyes… hear the words of Sennacherib' — the direct narrative parallel to Isaiah 37:17.
- 2 Chronicles 32:20-21 (structural): Chronicles retells the Assyrian crisis and Hezekiah’s appeal to God, narratively paralleling Isaiah’s account of Sennacherib’s blasphemy and the king’s prayer for God’s intervention.
- Psalm 86:1 (verbal): Uses the same petitionary formula ('Bow down thine ear, O LORD, hear me') — a common prayer idiom that parallels Isaiah’s opening plea for God’s attention.
- Psalm 31:2 (verbal): Another prayer using 'Incline/Ear' language ('Bow down thine ear to me; deliver me speedily'), reflecting the biblical motif of urgently calling on God to hear and act.
Alternative generated candidates
- Incline, O LORD, your ear and hear; open, O LORD, your eyes and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to revile the living God.
- Incline, O LORD, Your ear, and hear; open, O LORD, Your eyes, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to revile the living God.
Isa.37.18 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- אמנם: PART
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- החריבו: VERB,hif,perf,3,m,pl
- מלכי: NOUN,pl,m,cons
- אשור: NOUN,prop,m,sg
- את: PRT,acc
- כל: DET
- הארצות: NOUN,f,pl,def
- ואת: CONJ
- ארצם: NOUN,f,sg,abs+PRON,3,m,pl
Parallels
- 2 Kings 19:17 (quotation): Part of the parallel account of Hezekiah’s prayer in Kings; repeats the same complaint that the kings of Assyria have destroyed all the nations and their lands.
- Isaiah 10:5-7 (thematic): Describes Assyria as the instrument of destruction sent against nations—background for the image of Assyrian kings devastating lands.
- Habakkuk 1:6 (thematic): Speaks of God raising up a violent foreign nation that marches through the earth to seize dwelling places—parallels the theme of an imperial power destroying nations.
- 2 Kings 15:29 (verbal): Records Tiglath‑pileser king of Assyria carrying off territories and peoples, a concrete example of Assyrian conquest and depopulation similar to Isaiah’s claim.
Alternative generated candidates
- Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands.
- Indeed, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands.
Isa.37.19 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- ונתן: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,sg
- את: PRT,acc
- אלהיהם: NOUN,m,pl,abs+3mp
- באש: PREP+NOUN,f,sg,abs
- כי: CONJ
- לא: PART_NEG
- אלהים: NOUN,m,pl,abs
- המה: PRON,3,m,pl
- כי: CONJ
- אם: CONJ
- מעשה: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ידי: NOUN,f,pl,cons
- אדם: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- עץ: NOUN,m,sg,abs
- ואבן: NOUN,f,sg,abs
- ויאבדום: VERB,qal,impf,3,m,pl
Parallels
- Psalm 115:4-8 (verbal): Idols are described as the work of human hands—silver/wood/stone—and incapable of speech or action; their makers/shareholders fare no better, echoing Isaiah’s claim that these 'gods' are man-made and will perish.
- Psalm 135:15-18 (verbal): Similar language about the idols of the nations being silver and gold, made by human hands and impotent, with the makers becoming like them—paralleling Isaiah’s denunciation of man‑made gods.
- Jeremiah 10:3-5 (verbal): Describes chopping a tree and using part for fuel while fashioning an idol from the rest—explicitly connects idols to wood made by human hands and burning, closely mirroring Isaiah’s imagery of burning idols.
- Habakkuk 2:18-19 (thematic): Rhetorical attack on the futility of idols—'What profit is the image when its maker has cast it?' and the taunt against waking a wooden statue—the same theme of idols as powerless human products appears in Isaiah.
- Acts 17:29 (allusion): Paul’s Areopagus speech denies that the divine is like gold, silver, or stone, 'an image formed by art and man’s device,' reflecting the same rejection of man‑made idols as true gods found in Isaiah.
Alternative generated candidates
- They have consigned their gods to the fire, for they were not gods but the work of men’s hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed.
- They have given their gods to the fire, for they are no gods but the work of men's hands—wood and stone—and so they perish.
Isa.37.20 - Details
Original Text
Morphology
- ועתה: CONJ
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- אלהינו: NOUN,m,pl,abs,poss:1,pl
- הושיענו: VERB,hiphil,imp,2,m,sg,obj1pl
- מידו: PREP+PRON,3,m,sg
- וידעו: VERB,qal,wayyiqtol,3,m,pl
- כל: DET
- ממלכות: NOUN,f,pl,cs
- הארץ: NOUN,f,sg,def
- כי: CONJ
- אתה: PRON,2,m,sg
- יהוה: NOUN,prop,m,sg,abs
- לבדך: ADV,2,m,sg
Parallels
- 2 Kings 19:19 (quotation): Direct parallel account of Hezekiah’s prayer; nearly identical wording asking the LORD to save and that all kingdoms know He alone is God.
- 1 Kings 8:60 (verbal): Solomon’s temple-prayer: petitions that all peoples of the earth may know that the LORD is God and there is no other—same intent and similar language.
- 2 Chronicles 6:32-33 (thematic): In Solomon’s dedication prayer he asks that God’s name be known among all peoples and that foreigners learn to fear the LORD—echoes the desire that the nations recognize Yahweh.
- Isaiah 45:5 (allusion): God’s proclamation “I am the LORD, and there is no other” echoes the claim in Isa 37:20 that the nations should know Yahweh alone.
- Psalm 86:10 (verbal): Confessional praise asserting God’s uniqueness (“you alone are God”), resonating with the petition that all kingdoms know the LORD alone.
Alternative generated candidates
- Now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.
- Now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.
Hezekiah took the letters from the hand of the messengers, read them, and went up to the house of the LORD; then Hezekiah spread them out before the LORD.
Hezekiah prayed to the LORD, saying:
O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned between the cherubim—You alone are God; You are ruler over all the kingdoms of the earth; You made the heavens and the earth.
Incline, O LORD, Your ear, and hear; open, O LORD, Your eyes, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib which he has sent to reproach the living God.
Indeed, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands.
They have cast their gods into the fire, for they were no gods but the work of men's hands—wood and stone—and so they were destroyed.
Now, O LORD our God, deliver us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.