It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”
Parallel Translations
-
It may be Yahweh your God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master has sent to defy the living God, and will rebuke the words which Yahweh your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’ ”
-
It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left.
-
It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke the words which the LORD thy God hath heard; wherefore make prayer for the remnant that is left.'
Cross-references (22)
Passages linked to 2 Kings 19:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Samuel 16:12 It may be that Yahweh will look on the wrong done to me, and that Yahweh will repay me good for the cursing of me today.”
- Joshua 14:12 Now therefore give me this hill country, of which Yahweh spoke in that day; for you heard in that day how the Anakim were there, and great and fortified cities. It may be that Yahweh will be with me, and I shall drive them out, as Yahweh said.”
- Ezekiel 36:37 “ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “For this, moreover, I will be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them: I will increase them with men like a flock.
- Romans 9:27 Isaiah cries concerning Israel, “If the number of the children of Israel are as the sand of the sea, it is the remnant who will be saved;
- James 5:16-17 Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it didn’t rain on the earth for three years and six months.
- Genesis 22:14 Abraham called the name of that place “Yahweh Will Provide”. As it is said to this day, “On Yahweh’s mountain, it will be provided.”
- Deuteronomy 32:36 For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone; that there is no one remaining, shut up or left at large.
- 1 Samuel 14:6 Jonathan said to the young man who bore his armor, “Come! Let’s go over to the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that Yahweh will work for us; for there is no restraint on Yahweh to save by many or by few.”
- 1 Samuel 17:45 Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin; but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of Armies, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
- 2 Kings 17:5-6 Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and on the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
- 2 Kings 18:13 Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah, and took them.
- 2 Kings 18:17-35 The king of Assyria sent Tartan and Rabsaris and Rabshakeh from Lachish to king Hezekiah with a great army to Jerusalem. They went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they came and stood by the conduit of the upper pool, which is in the highway of the fuller’s field. When they had called to the king, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebnah the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder came out to them. Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘The great king, the king of Assyria, says, “What confidence is this in which you trust? You say (but they are but vain words), ‘There is counsel and strength for war.’ Now on whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? Now, behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt. If a man leans on it, it will go into his hand, and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust on him. But if you tell me, ‘We trust in Yahweh our God;’ isn’t that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?’ Now therefore, please give pledges to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master’s servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? Have I now come up without Yahweh against this place to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.’ ” ’ ” Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebnah, and Joah, said to Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in the Syrian language, for we understand it. Don’t speak with us in the Jews’ language, in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” But Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you, to speak these words? Hasn’t he sent me to the men who sit on the wall, to eat their own dung, and to drink their own urine with you?” Then Rabshakeh stood, and cried with a loud voice in the Jews’ language, and spoke, saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. The king says, ‘Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you out of his hand. Don’t let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, “Yahweh will surely deliver us, and this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” Don’t listen to Hezekiah.’ For the king of Assyria says, ‘Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and everyone of you eat from his own vine, and everyone from his own fig tree, and everyone drink water from his own cistern; until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive trees and of honey, that you may live, and not die. Don’t listen to Hezekiah, when he persuades you, saying, “Yahweh will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations ever delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? Who are they among all the gods of the countries, that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’ ”
- 2 Kings 19:22 Whom have you defied and blasphemed? Against whom have you exalted your voice and lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel!
- 2 Chronicles 28:5-6 Therefore Yahweh his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria. They struck him, and carried away from him a great multitude of captives, and brought them to Damascus. He was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with a great slaughter. For Pekah the son of Remaliah killed in Judah one hundred twenty thousand in one day, all of them valiant men, because they had forsaken Yahweh, the God of their fathers.
- 2 Chronicles 32:20 Hezekiah the king and Isaiah the prophet the son of Amoz, prayed because of this, and cried to heaven.
- Psalms 50:15 Call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
- Psalms 50:21 You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.
- Psalms 74:18 Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name.
- Isaiah 1:9 Unless Yahweh of Armies had left to us a very small remnant, we would have been as Sodom. We would have been like Gomorrah.
- Isaiah 8:7-8 now therefore, behold, the Lord brings upon them the mighty flood waters of the River: the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will come up over all its channels, and go over all its banks. It will sweep onward into Judah. It will overflow and pass through. It will reach even to the neck. The stretching out of its wings will fill the width of your land, Immanuel.
- Isaiah 10:6 I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me I will give him a command to take the plunder and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
- Jeremiah 33:3 ‘Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great and difficult things, which you don’t know.’
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Meaning, for Jerusalem which only remained of all the…
Meaning, for Jerusalem which only remained of all the cities of Judah.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Ki 19:4 It may be the LORD thy God…
2Ki 19:4 It may be the LORD thy God will hear all the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God; and will reprove the words which the LORD thy God hath heard: wherefore lift up [thy] prayer for the remnant that are left.
Ver. 4. It may be.] We nothing doubt of it, but are well assured he will, for he is a jealous God, and thou canst do much with him. Be pleased to improve thine interest for us in this exigence.
Read full note →
Wherefore lift up thy prayer.] Pray to thine utmost; strive and strain, tug hard, and bestir thee all that may be. Prayer is a laborious exercise: and as a man that would be good at lifting must set his sides and shoulders to work, he must also often use himself to lifting; so here. This gets a dexterity, a handiness to the work.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain It may be; he speaks doubtfully, because he knew…
It may be; he speaks doubtfully, because he knew not whether God would not deliver them all up into the Assyrian’s hand, as he and his people deserved. But sometimes this is not a word of doubt, but of good hope; as Num 22:33; Jos 14:12.
The Lord thy God, to whom thou art dear and precious. He saith not our God, because he seemed to have forsaken and rejected them; and they by their designs had forfeited all their interest in him.
Read full note →
Will hear, i.e. will show by his actions that he hath heard them with just indignation.
Will reprove the words, or rather, will reprove him (an ellipsis of the pronoun, which is frequent in the Hebrew tongue) for the words, as the Syria, and Arabic, and Chaldee render it.
Lift up thy prayer for the remnant: this he mentions as an argument to stir up Isaiah to pray, and to move God’s compassion towards them; that they were but a small remnant, either of God’s people, of whom ten tribes were now lost; or of the kingdom of Judah, which had been greatly wasted and depopulated in the days of Ahaz, and now lately by this Assyrian, 2Ki 19:13.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain For the remnant - For Judah, which is but…
For the remnant - For Judah, which is but a remnant, now the ten tribes are gone: for Jerusalem, which is but a remnant, now the defensed cities of Judah are taken.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. The remnant that are left] That is,…
Verse 4. The remnant that are left] That is, the Jews; the ten tribes having been already carried away captive by the kings of Assyria.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Ki 19:4. It may be, &c. — He speaks…
2Ki 19:4. It may be, &c. — He speaks doubtfully, because he knew not whether God would not deliver them all up into the hands of the Assyrians, as he knew he and his people deserved. That the Lord thy God — To whom thou art dear and precious, and who will regard thy petitions: will hear all the words of Rab-shakeh — Will show by his actions that he hath heard them with just indignation. Hezekiah does not say our God, because God seemed to have forsaken and rejected them; and they, by their sins, had forfeited all their interest in him. And will reprove the words — Or rather, will reprove him for the words, as the Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee render it. Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant — For Judah, which is but a remnant, now the ten tribes are gone: for Jerusalem, which is but a remnant, now the defenced cities of Judah are taken.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Will hear - i. e., “will show that he…
Will hear - i. e., “will show that he has heard - will notice and punish.”
The living God - See 1Sa 17:26 note.
Read full note →
And will reprove the words - Rather, “will reprove him for the words.”
The remnant - i. e., for the kingdom of Judah, the only remnant of God’s people that was now left, after Galilee and Gilead and Samaria had all been carried away captive.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain It may. Literally, "if perhaps the Lord hear." (Haydock)…
It may. Literally, "if perhaps the Lord hear." (Haydock) --- Found. After such devastation has been made in the country, particularly by carrying away the ten tribes, (Calmet) Ezechias recommends the kingdom to the prayers of the prophet; as we are exhorted to have recourse to the intercession of the saints. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain the living God--"The living God" is a most significant…
the living God--"The living God" is a most significant expression taken in connection with the senseless deities that Rab-shakeh boasted were unable to resist his master's victorious arms.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 4. The remnant that are left — Jerusalem and…
4. The remnant that are left — Jerusalem and its besieged inhabitants. The word rendered left is better rendered found. The thought is, the remnant that are still to be found, those still in existence.
4.
Read full note →
Yet again take root — Literally, add root; that is, strike out new roots, and thereby take firmer hold downward into the soil.
Bear fruit upward — Not only striking its roots deep in the earth, but its upspringing boughs yielding bountiful harvests. The general sense of this verse is, that Judah shall survive and vigorously flourish.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. It may be] The Hebrew word introduces expressions…
4. It may be] The Hebrew word introduces expressions of uncertainty but yet of hope. Cf. Num_23:3 where Balaam says to Balak, ‘Peradventure the Lord will come and meet me’; and Jos_14:12 where Caleb entreats for the possession of Hebron, in hope to drive out the Anakim, ‘If so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out’. Hezekiah is sending to the only source of hope.
and will reprove R.V. [rebuke] the words] The verb is cognate with the noun rendered ‘rebuke’ in the previous verse. The ground on which Hezekiah pleads that God should interpose is not that he and his people have deserved such mercy, but that in what they suffer God’s name and honour are blasphemed.
Read full note →
wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are [R.V. is] left] The cities round about had been for the most part reduced by Sennacherib’s army. The feeble remnant is Jerusalem and its people. For these Hezekiah entreats Isaiah to intercede. The king knew from the experience of his father’s reign how Isaiah had been chosen by God as His messenger. His prayer therefore he thinks will be of much efficacy. As to send to a mighty king by one who has near access to him is the surest way of making a want known, and obtaining relief.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (4) It may be.—The old commentator Clericus well remarks:…
(4) It may be.—The old commentator Clericus well remarks: “Non est dubitantis sed sperantis.”
And will reprove the words.—See Note on 2Ki_19:3. The LXX. and Vulg. read, “and to rebuke with the words which the Lord,” &c, but the Syriac and Targum agree with the Authorised Version as regards the construction.
Read full note →
Lift up.—Heavenwards (2Ch_32:2). Or we might compare the phrase “to lift up the voice” (Gen_27:38), and render, “to utter” (Num_23:7.)
Thy prayer.—A prayer.
The remnant that are left.—The existing (or, present) remnant. Sennacherib had captured most of the strong cities of Judah, and “the daughter of Zion was left as a hut in a vineyard” (Isa_1:8). (Comp. Note on 2Ch_32:1.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain It may be the Lord thy God still "thy…
It may be the Lord thy God still "thy God," at any rate, if he will not condescend to be called ours, since we have so grievously offended him by our many sins and backslidingswill hear all the words of Rabshakeh. "The words of Rabshakeh"; (Isa_37:4) but theexpression here used is more emphatic. Hezekiah hoped that God would "hear" Rabshakeh"s words, would note them, and punish them. Whom the King of Assyria his master hath sent to reproach the living God (For the "reproaches" intended, see 2Ki_18:30-35. For the expression, "the living God," yj see Deu_5:26; Jos_3:10; 1Sa_17:26; Psa_42:2 Psa_84:2; Hos_1:10, etc.) A contrast is intended between the "living" God, and the dead idols whom Rabshakeh has placed on a par with him. And will reprove the words which the Lord thy God hath heard. The "words of Rabshakeh," his contemptuous words concerning Jehovah (2Ki_18:33-35) and his lying words (2Ki_18:25) constituted the new feature in the situation, and, while a ground for "distress," were also a ground for hope: would not God in some signal way vindicate his own honor, and "reprove" them? Wherefore lift up thy prayer for the remnant that are left. Sennacherib, in his former expedition, wherein he took forty-six of the Judaean cities, besides killing vast numbers, had, as he himself tells us ("Eponym Canon," p. 134), carried off into captivity 200, 150 persons. He had also curtailed Hezekiah"s dominions, detaching from them various cities with their territories, and attaching them to Ashdod, Gaza, and Ekron (ibid., p. 135). Thus it was only a "remnant" of the Jewish people that was left in the land. (Isa_1:7-9)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 19:4 Hezekiah was not denying his own relationship to…
19:4 Hezekiah was not denying his own relationship to the Lord by referring to him as your God; rather, he was acknowledging God’s special call upon Isaiah.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.