Incline 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.
Parallel translations
- WEB Turn your ear, Yahweh, and hear. Open your eyes, Yahweh, and behold. Hear all of the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to defy the living God.
- KJV Incline thine ear, O LORD, and hear; open thine eyes, O LORD, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God.
- NKJV Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God.
- NASB Incline Your ear, Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, Lord, and see; and listen to all the words of Sennacherib, who sent them to taunt the living God.
- NLT Bend down, O Lord, and listen! Open your eyes, O Lord, and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words of defiance against the living God.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Hezekiah asks God to hear and see Sennacherib's words defying the living God. He appeals to God's honor as the offended party.
Overview
The king pleads with God to attend to the Assyrian's blasphemy, emphasizing that the insult is against the living God. He makes God's reputation, not merely Judah's safety, the burden of his prayer. True prayer seeks God's glory above personal relief, trusting that the two are joined in his purposes.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- 2 Chr 6:40Now, my God, may Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.
- Ps 17:6I call on You, O God, for You will answer me. Incline Your ear to me; hear my words.
- 1 Pet 3:12For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
- Ps 74:22Rise up, O God; defend Your cause! Remember how the fool mocks You all day long.
- Isa 37:4Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”
- Ps 10:14–15But You have regarded trouble and grief; You see to repay it by Your hand. The victim entrusts himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.
- Dan 9:17–19So now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of Your servant. For Your sake, O Lord, cause Your face to shine upon Your desolate sanctuary.
- Ps 74:10How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?
- Job 36:7He does not take His eyes off the righteous, but He enthrones them with kings and exalts them forever.
- Ps 71:2In Your justice, rescue and deliver me; incline Your ear and save me.
- Ps 89:50–51Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Your servants, which I bear in my heart from so many people—
- Ps 79:12Pay back into the laps of our neighbors sevenfold the reproach they hurled at You, O Lord.
- Ps 130:1–2A song of ascents. Out of the depths I cry to You, O LORD!
- 2 Sam 16:12Perhaps the LORD will see my affliction and repay me with good for the cursing I receive today.”
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Christ at the center
Isaiah sees him most clearly: the virgin's son Immanuel, the child on David's throne, the shoot from Jesse, the light to the nations, and above all the Suffering Servant pierced for our transgressions (ch. 53).
How Isaiah 37:17 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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