Isaiah 38:4
And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying,
BSB
ASV
Then came the word of Jehovah to Isaiah, saying,
KJV
Then came the word of the Lord to Isaiah, saying,
(Verses 4-6) And the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, saying: Go and tell Hezekiah: Thus says the Lord God of David, your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your days, and I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will protect it. The history, which is read consecutively in the volume of Kings, is referred to in a seemingly backwards order, as if it were a prophetic account.
Then came the word of the Lord - In the parallel place in 2Ki 20:4, it is said, ‘And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came unto him.’ That is, the message of God name to Isaiah before he had left Hezekiah; or as soon as he had offered his prayer. This circumstance is omitted by Isaiah on the revision of his narrative which we have before us. But there is no contradiction.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
