What Does Isaiah 37:14 Mean?
And Hezekiah took the scroll from the hand of the messengers, and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.
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
And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD.THE KEY
A threat becomes prayer when it is laid fully open before God, before any answer is given.
THE MEANING
A threatening message can be brought into the LORD’s presence exactly as it is. Its force does not have to be softened or answered first; its words are exposed before God in full.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that you must resolve or soften a threat before bringing it before God.
THE ROOT
וַיִּפְרְשֵׂהוּ
wayyiphrəsehu
GROWS FROM
פרשׂ
to spread out, stretch forth
The same Hebrew verb describes this letter spread out and hands stretched toward God. The verse makes prayer an act of opening: the threat is no longer kept folded away, but made visible before the one addressed.
ALSO GROWS
efros: I will spread out
אֶפְרֹשׂ
In Exodus 9:29, Moses uses this verb for spreading his hands toward the LORD, linking an opened object with an opened posture.
perashti: I stretched forth
פֵּרַשְׂתִּי
Psalm 143:6 uses this form for stretching out hands toward God, echoing the letter laid open in this verse.
וַיִּקְרָאֵהוּ
wayyiqra'ehu
GROWS FROM
קרא
to call, proclaim, or read
“read it” in this verse is wayyiqra'ehu. The verb translated “read” also carries the sense of calling or proclaiming. The written threat is brought into words and then laid openly before God; it does not remain only a private message held in the mind.
ALSO GROWS
qara: called, named, proclaimed
קָרָא
In Genesis 1:5, God “called” the light Day and the darkness Night; the same verb family can name or voice what is before you.
miqra: convocation, assembly; also a reading
מִקְרָא
Leviticus 23:2 uses this noun for a sacred assembly, showing how a calling can gather people around a spoken word.
THE PATTERN
What threatens or weighs on a person is made explicit before God before its answer is known.
I pour out my murmuring before him; I set forth my narrow place before him.And now, LORD, look upon their threats, and give your servants to speak your word with all boldness.throwing all your divided care upon him, for you matter to him.THE THREAD
I spread my hands to you; my living soul thirsts for you as a parched land. Selah.The verb translated “stretch forth” comes from the same Hebrew root, פרשׂ (paras, “spread out”), as “spread it” in Isaiah. The letter opened before God and the hands extended toward God share one motion: what is held is brought into the open.
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