Bible Strands
Isaiah 37:17
Incline Your ear, O LORD, and hear; open Your eyes, O LORD, and see. Listen to all the words that Sennacherib has sent to defy the living God.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — King Hezekiah addresses Yahweh, the God of Israel enthroned above the cherubim, immediately after receiving Sennacherib’s blasphemous letters.
The words — The text uses הַטֵּה (ha.Teh, "incline") and פְּקַח (pe.Kach, "open") to command Yahweh to direct His hearing and sight toward Sennacherib’s defiant words.
The thread — This appeal for divine attention appears in 2 Chronicles 6:40 and Psalms 17:6 as direct prayers, while 1 Peter 3:12 records the settled reality that the Lord’s eyes and ears are fixed on the righteous.
Why it lands — The text commands a king to bring a military threat before the Creator, requiring the reader to acknowledge that human defiance is fully audible and visible to God before He acts.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Incline thine ear, O Lord, and hear; open thine eyes, O Lord, and see: and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent to reproach the living God.
Cross-references
- 2 Chronicles 6:40 Now, my God, may Your eyes be open and Your ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place.
- Psalms 17:6 I call on You, O God, for You will answer me. Incline Your ear to me; hear my words.
- 1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and His ears are inclined to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
- Psalms 10:14 But You have regarded trouble and grief; You see to repay it by Your hand. The victim entrusts himself to You; You are the helper of the fatherless.
- Psalms 74:22 Rise up, O God; defend Your cause! Remember how the fool mocks You all day long.
- Isaiah 37:4 Perhaps the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”
- 2 Samuel 16:12 Perhaps the LORD will see my affliction and repay me with good for the cursing I receive today.”
- Job 36:7 He does not take His eyes off the righteous, but He enthrones them with kings and exalts them forever.
- Psalms 71:2 In Your justice, rescue and deliver me; incline Your ear and save me.
- Psalms 74:10 How long, O God, will the enemy taunt You? Will the foe revile Your name forever?