What Does Isaiah 37:4 Mean?
Perhaps the LORD your God will hear and respond to the words of Rabshakeh, whom the king of Assyria, his master, has sent to taunt the living God, and will reprove the words which the LORD your God has heard. So lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.
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
It may be the LORD thy God will hear 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 is left.THE KEY
The prayer does not inform God of the taunt; it asks him to answer what he has already heard and carries the remnant into that hearing.
THE MEANING
When contempt is loud, the living God is not unaware of its words. Those who remain are still named in prayer. The verse holds these together: God’s hearing is already real, and intercession still has a place.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that prayer must first make God aware of the threat. The LORD has heard already; prayer is for his answer and for the remnant’s sake.
THE ROOT
יִשְׁמַע
yishmaʿ
GROWS FROM
שמע
sh-m-ʿ
hear, listen, heed
“will hear and respond” in this verse is yishmaʿ. The verse uses this root for both the hoped-for hearing and what the LORD has already heard. The root can carry hearing that attends and responds, so the prayer asks for an answer to words already received.
ALSO GROWS
shemaʿ: hear and respond
שְׁמַע
This familiar form shows how hearing can include a response, not mere reception.
hishmiaʿ: make heard, proclaim
הִשְׁמִיעַ
The taunt is sent to make itself heard; the verse repeats that the LORD has heard it.
תְּפִלָּה
tefillah
GROWS FROM
פלל
p-l-l
intervene, interpose; in a reflexive form, pray
The word for prayer belongs to the language of intervention. Lifted for the remnant, it places their need before God as a plea for action.
ALSO GROWS
hitpallel: pray, intercede
הִתְפַּלֵּל
This verb form makes the intercessory shape of the requested prayer explicit.
mitpallel: one praying, one interceding
מִתְפַּלֵּל
The root’s branch names a person who stands in prayer for another, as the verse asks here.
הַשְּׁאֵרִית
ha-she'erit
GROWS FROM
שאר
sh-ʾ-r
remain, be left over
“remnant” in this verse is ha-she'erit. The word points to those still remaining after a threat has put the whole at risk. They are not an abstraction: the prayer keeps the lives still present in view.
ALSO GROWS
she'ar: remainder, rest
שְׁאָר
This form shares the root’s sense of what remains after something has been taken away.
nish'ar: remains, is left
נִשְׁאַר
The verb describes the condition of those the prayer names: they are still here.
THE PATTERN
God hears cries in distress, and those who remain are still held in view through apparent loss.
The aligned cry out, and the LORD hears, and snatches them out of all their narrow places.LORD, you have heard and responded to the craving of the bowed ones; you will make their heart firm, and you will bend your ear.So also now, in this present season, there is a remnant left behind, picked out by favor.THE THREAD
Bend your ear, O LORD, and hear and respond. Open your eyes, O LORD, and see. Respond to all the words of Sennacherib, who has sent to taunt the living God.The same root, שָׁמַע (shamaʿ, hear and respond), appears again as the prayer asks the LORD to hear the threat. The repeated request opens this verse further: it asks for God’s response to words the verse already says he has heard.
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