What Does 2 Kings 20:2 Mean?
And he turned his face to the wall, and prayed to the LORD, saying,
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying,THE KEY
Hebrew places prayer and judgment on one root, so Hezekiah’s prayer enters the crisis as an act of intervention.
THE MEANING
Your attention can turn before your words begin. Here, Hezekiah turns his face toward a wall while directing his prayer to the LORD; the wall remains in the scene as he speaks.
THE ROOT
וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל
wayyitpallel
GROWS FROM
פלל
p-l-l
To interpose or arbitrate; the root also carries the sense of judging.
“prayed to the LORD” in this verse is wayyitpallel. The Hebrew verb translated “prayed” comes from the same root used for judging or intervening. Prayer here holds more than speech: it carries the sense of entering a matter on someone’s behalf.
ALSO GROWS
tefillah: Prayer
תְּפִלָּה
This noun shares the root of Hezekiah’s verb, linking his act to the Hebrew word for prayer itself.
pelilim: Judges
פְּלִילִים
This related form appears in Exodus 21:22, where a matter is brought before judges; it reveals the root’s connection to intervention and judgment.
THE PATTERN
Prayer takes shape through the body’s direction and posture as well as through words.
Now when Daniel perceived that the writing had been inscribed, he went into his house, and with his windows open in his upper room toward Jerusalem, he knelt on his knees three times in the day, and prayed, and extended his hands in thanks before his God, as he had done from before.Let my prayer be set before you as smoke, and the lifting of my palms as the evening offering.And the tax collector, standing far off, would not so much as lift his eyes toward the heavens, but struck his breast, saying, God, cover me, the one who misses the mark.THE THREAD
Then Phinehas stood up and stepped between, and so the striking was held back.The Hebrew verb translated “prayed” here, וַיִּתְפַּלֵּל (wayyitpallel), and the verb behind “executed judgment,” וַיְפַלֵּל (wayfallel), share the root פלל (p-l-l). That shared root lets prayer appear as intervention within a crisis.
This reading is from Selah Verse.
You can read any verse this way in the app, keep it as a card, and send it on.
A Bible app where you send verses from your keyboard and in Messages, and every verse has a Deep Dive.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us