2 Kings 19:14-24

Hezekiah's Prayer

14 Then ¹Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the LORD and spread it out before the LORD.

15 Hezekiah prayed before the LORD and said, "O LORD, the God of Israel, ²who are enthroned above the cherubim, ³You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

16 "⁴Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; ⁵open Your eyes, O LORD, and see; and listen to the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent ⁶to reproach the living God.

17 "Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have devastated the nations and their lands

18 and have cast their gods into the fire, ⁷for they were not gods but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. So they have destroyed them.

19 "Now, O LORD our God, I pray, deliver us from his hand ⁸that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O ⁹LORD, are God."

God's Answer through Isaiah

20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, 'Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, ¹⁰I have heard you.'

21 "This is the word that the LORD has spoken against him: 'She has despised you and mocked you, ¹¹The virgin daughter of Zion; She ¹²has shaken her head behind you, The daughter of Jerusalem!

22 'Whom have you ¹³reproached and ¹⁴blasphemed? And against whom have you raised your voice, And haughtily lifted up your eyes? Against the ¹⁵Holy One of Israel!

23 '¹⁶Through your messengers you have reproached the Lord, And you have said, "With my many chariots I came up to the heights of the mountains, To the remotest parts of Lebanon; And I cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypresses. And I entered its farthest lodging place, its ¹⁷thickest forest.

24 "I dug wells and drank foreign waters, And with the sole of my feet I ¹⁸dried up All the rivers of Egypt."

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2 Kings 19:14-24 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 2 KINGS 19

This chapter relates that King Hezekiah, on a report made to him of Rabshakeh's speech, sent a message to the prophet Isaiah to pray for him, who returned him a comfortable and encouraging answer, 2Ki 19:1-7 and that upon Rabshakeh's return to the king of Assyria, he sent to Hezekiah a terrifying letter, 2Ki 19:8-13, which Hezekiah spread before the Lord, and prayed unto him to save him and his people out of the hands of the king of Assyria, 2Ki 19:14-19, to which he had a gracious answer sent him by the prophet Isaiah, promising him deliverance from the Assyrian army, 2Ki 19:20-34, which accordingly was destroyed by an angel in one night, and Sennacherib fleeing to Nineveh, was slain by his two sons, 2Ki 19:35-37.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 18

1. Isaiah 37:14
2. Exodus 25:22; Isaiah 37:14
3. 2 Kings 5:15
4. Psalms 31:2; Isaiah 37:17
5. 1 Kings 8:29; 2 Chronicles 6:40
6. 2 Kings 19:4
7. Isaiah 44:9-20; Acts 17:29
8. 1 Kings 8:42, 43
9. 2 Kings 19:15
10. 2 Kings 20:5
11. Jeremiah 14:17; Lamentations 2:13
12. Psalms 109:25; Matthew 27:39
13. 2 Kings 19:4
14. 2 Kings 19:6
15. Isaiah 5:24; Isaiah 30:11-15
16. 2 Kings 18:17
17. 2 Chronicles 26:10; Isaiah 10:18
18. Isaiah 19:6

Footnotes 8

[a]. Lit "letters...read them"
[b]. Lit "Hezekiah spread"
[c]. Lit "seated"
[d]. Lit "on high"
[e]. So with some ancient versions; M.T. "will cut...will enter"
[f]. So with some ancient versions; M.T. "will cut...will enter"
[g]. So with some ancient versions; M.T. "will dry up"
[h]. Lit "the besieged place"