Isaiah 37:14

Hezekiah's Prayer in the Temple

14 Then Hezekiah 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.

Isaiah 37:14 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 37:14

And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the
messengers, and read it
Or books F11, 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.
FOOTNOTES:

F11 (Myrpo ta) "libros", V. L.

Isaiah 37:14 In-Context

12 'Did the gods of those nations which my fathers have destroyed deliver them, even Gozan and Haran and Rezeph and the sons of Eden who were in Telassar?
13 'Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, and of Hena and Ivvah?' "
14 Then Hezekiah 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 to the LORD saying,
16 "O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, who is enthroned above the cherubim, You are the God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth.

Footnotes 2

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