So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
And the servants of king Hezekiah come in unto Isaiah,
And the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
2 Kings — Two kingdoms on parallel but diverging arcs. Elisha's ministry; Samaria falls to Assyria in 722 BC; Jerusalem falls to Babylon in 586 BC. Prophets interpose; kings refuse; the exile comes — and closes on a whisper of covenant hope.
Voices2
Note, When the church's enemies are very daring and threatening it is the wisdom and duty of the church's friends to apply to God, appeal to him, and leave their cause with him. He sent to the prophet Isaiah, by honourable messengers, in token of the great respect he had for him, to desire his prayers,
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
The pride and blasphemy of the king are punished by the destruction of his army. All these lives are sacrificed to God's glory and Zion's safety. The prophet shows that therefore God suffered this vast rendezvous to be made, that they might be gathered as sheaves into the floor, Mic. iv.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710puritan
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread — the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The verses this one reaches2
who replied, “Tell your master that this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me.
Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One.
