II Kings 19:16
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Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
Jerusalem's great distress we read of in the foregoing chapter, and left it besieged, insulted, threatened, terrified, and just ready to be swallowed up by the Assyrian army. But in this chapter we have an account of its glorious deliverance, not by sword or bow, but by prayer and prophecy, and by the hand of an angel. I. Hezekiah, in great concern, sent to the prophet Isaiah, to desire his prayers (Kg2 19:1-5) and received from him an answer of peace (Kg2 19:6, Kg2 19:7). II. Sennacherib sent a letter to Hezekiah to fright him into a surrender (Kg2 19:8-13). III. Hezekiah thereupon, by a very solemn prayer, recommended his case to God, the righteous Judge, and begged help from him (Kg2 19:14-19). IV. God, by Isaiah, sent him a very comfortable message, assuring him of deliverance (Kg2 19:20-34). V. The army of the Assyrians was all cut off by an angel and Sennacherib himself slain by his own sons (Kg2 19:35-37). And so God glorified himself and saved his people.
Open source ↗19:16-19 Sennacherib’s successes were irrelevant because—unlike the gods of these nations, who were not gods at all—Yahweh was the living God.
Open source ↗Cross-references
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Now, my God, may Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.
Incline Your ear to me; come quickly to my rescue. Be my rock of refuge, the stronghold of my deliverance.
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.
Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all 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.”
Incline Your ear, O my God, and hear; open Your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears Your name. For we are not presenting our petitions before You because of our righteous acts, but because of Your great compassion.
May Your eyes be open toward this temple night and day, toward the place of which You said, ‘My Name shall be there,’ so that You may hear the prayer that Your servant prays toward this place.
He valued disgrace for Christ above the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his reward.
Pay back into the laps of our neighbors sevenfold the reproach they hurled at You, O Lord.
Perhaps 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.”