Isaiah 37:14

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

⁸When the Rab-shakeh heard that the king of Assyria had left Lachish, he withdrew and found the king fighting against Libnah. ⁹Now Sennacherib had been warned about Tirhakah king of Cush: "He has set out to fight against you." On hearing this, Sennacherib sent messengers to Hezekiah with the order: ¹⁰"Tell Hezekiah king of Judah, 'Do not let your God, in whom you trust, deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be delivered into the hand of the king of Assyria. ¹¹Surely you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all the other countries, devoting them to destruction. Will you then be spared? ¹²Did the gods of the nations my fathers destroyed rescue them-the gods of Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and of the people of Eden in Telassar? ¹³Where are the kings of Hamath, Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah?'" ¹⁴So Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers, read it, and went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.¹⁵And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: ¹⁶"O LORD of Hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You made the heavens and the earth. ¹⁷Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

received: 2 Kings 19:14

and Hezekiah went: Isaiah 37:1, 1 Kings 8:28-30, 1 Kings 8:38, 1 Kings 9:3, 2 Chronicles 6:20-42, Psalms 27:5, Psalms 62:1-3, Psalms 74:10, Psalms 76:1-3, Psalms 123:1-4, Psalms 143:6, Joel 2:17-20

Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 30:6 - David 2 Samuel 7:18 - sat 2 Chronicles 32:17 - He wrote 2 Chronicles 32:20 - Hezekiah Psalms 34:15 - and Psalms 120:1 - my distress Isaiah 37:2 - General Jeremiah 20:12 - for

Cross-References

Genesis 13:18
So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre in Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

Genesis 23:2
She died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went out to mourn and to weep for her.

Genesis 29:6
"Is he well?" Jacob inquired. "Yes," they answered, "and here comes his daughter Rachel with his sheep."

Genesis 35:27
Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had dwelt.

Genesis 37:17
"They have moved on from here," the man answered. "I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.'" So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

Genesis 37:18
Now Joseph's brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him.

Genesis 41:16
"I myself cannot do it," Joseph replied, "but God will give Pharaoh a sound answer."

Numbers 13:22
They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, dwelled. It had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.

Joshua 14:13
Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.

Joshua 14:15
(Hebron used to be called Kiriath-arba, after Arba, the greatest man among the Anakim.) Then the land had rest from war.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it,.... Or books k, in which the above things were written; and everyone of these he read, as Kimchi interprets it; though the Targum is,

"he took the letters from the hand of the messengers, and read one of them;''

that is, as Kimchi's father explains it, in which was the blasphemy against God; this he read over carefully to himself, observed the contents of it, and then did with it as follows:

and Hezekiah went up unto the house of God; the temple, the outward court of it, further than that he could not go:

and spread it before the Lord; not to read it, as he had done, or to acquaint him with the contents of it, which he fully knew; but, as it chiefly regarded him, and affected his honour and glory, he laid it before him, that he might take notice of it, and vindicate himself, and avenge his own cause; he brought it as a proof of what he had to say to him in prayer, and to support him in his allegations, and as a means to quicken himself in the discharge of that duty.

k את ספרים "libros", V. L.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And Hezekiah received the letter - Hebrew, ‘Letters’ (plural). It is not mentioned in the account of the embassy Isaiah 37:9, that a letter was sent, but it is not probable that all embassage would be sent to a monarch without a written document.

Went up into the house of the Lord - The temple Isaiah 37:1.

And spread it before the Lord - Perhaps unrolled the document there, and spread it out; or perhaps it means simply that he spread out the contents of the letter, that is, made mention of it in his prayer. Hezekiah had no other resource. He was a man of God; and in his trouble he looked to God for aid. He, therefore, before he formed any plan, went up to the temple, and laid his case before God. What an example for all monarchs and rulers! And what an example for all the people of God, in times of perplexity!

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Isaiah 37:14. And read it - "And read them"] ויקראם vayikraem. So MS. Bodl. in this place; and so the other copy; instead of ויקראהו vaiyikraehu, "and read IT."

And spread it - "And spread them"] ויפרשהו vaiyiphresehu. הו hu is upon a rasure in a MS., which probably was at first ם mem. The same mistake as in the foregoing note.