2 Kings 20:16

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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יְשַׁעְיָ֖הוּ

Yᵉshaʻyâh

H3470

“Isaiah”

Noun, Proper

Appears 39× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at 2 Kings 19:2

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H3467 and H3050

TWOT: None

Isaiah or Jesaiah or Jeshaiah = "Jehovah has saved" - the major prophet, son of Amoz, who prophesied concerning Judah and Jerusalem during the days of kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah; author of the prophetic book by his name; tradition has it that he was sawn asunder in the trunk of a carob tree by king Manasseh and that this is the incident referred to in Heb 11:37 - son of Hananiah, brother of Pelatiah, and grandson of Zerubbabel - a Benjamite - one of the 6 sons of Jeduthun - son of Rehabiah, a descendant of Moses through Gershom, and an ancestor of a Levite treasurer in the time of David - son of Athaliah and chief of the house of Elam who returned with Ezra - a chief of the descendants of Merari who returned with Ezra

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

7: words
7: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

יְשַׁעְיָ֖הוּ Isaiah H3470 occurs in 39 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
4 nouns
1 preposition

Verb forms

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר Qal · Sequential Imperfect
שְׁמַ֖ע Qal · Imperative

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 9 words from the Hebrew and 11 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 7 Hebrew tokens and 8 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to 2 Kings 20:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

1 Kings 22:19 [Micaiah] said, Therefore hear you the word of Yahweh: I saw Yahweh sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left.
2 Kings 7:1 Elisha said, Hear you the word of Yahweh: thus says Yahweh, Tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be [sold] for a shekel, and two measures of barley for a shekel, in the gate of Samaria.
Isaiah 1:10 Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
Amos 7:16 Now therefore listen to the word of Yahweh: 'You say, Don't prophesy against Israel, and don't preach against the house of Isaac.'

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew 2 Kings 20:16 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיֹּ֥אמֶר יְשַׁעְיָ֖הוּ אֶל חִזְקִיָּ֑הוּ שְׁמַ֖ע דְּבַר יְהוָֽה

Isaiah said to Hezekiah, Hear the word of Yahweh.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX 2 Kings 20:16 Septuagint · lemma form

καί εἶπον ησαιας πρός εζεκιας ἀκούω λόγος κύριος

And Esaias said to Ezekias, Hear the word of the Lord:

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וַאֲמַר יְשַׁעְיָהוּ לְחִזְקִיָה קַבֵּל פִּתְגָמָא דַיָי:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on 2 Kings 20:16 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

2Ki 20:16 And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the LORD.

Ver. 16. Hear the word of the Lord.] Divine truths must be spoken, however they be taken.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

2Ki 20:16. Isaiah said, Hear the word of the Lord — Hear what his judgment is of this, and how wide his thoughts are from thy thoughts! Thou wast transported when the messengers of the king of Babylon arrived; to thy eye it appeared the most favourable conjuncture that could have happened to thee; thou madest a parade of all thy riches, and of thy armoury, to induce them to enter into an alliance with thee against the king of Assyria. Thou thoughtest if thou couldest secure their friendship and alliance, thou wouldest be safe; even safer than in putting thy trust in the Lord God of Israel. But hear the word of the Lord; see the foolishness of thy thoughts: This very nation, in whom thou thinkest to find security, is the nation that shall take away all these treasures, and carry away thy sons into captivity.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Pulpit Commentary

And Isaiah said unto Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord. This is a phrase of warning very common in the mouth of the prophets, when they are about to deliver a rebuke or solemn condemnation (1Ki_22:19; 2Ch_18:18; Isa_1:10 Isa_28:14; Jer_7:2 Jer_9:20 Jer_10:1 Jer_19:3, etc.; Eze_15:3-5 Eze_34:9; Amo_3:1, etc.)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

unfoldingWord translationNotes

Door43 World Missions Community

So Isaiah said to Hezekiah

Why Isaiah spoke can be stated clearly. AT: "So, because Isaiah knew Hezekiah had been foolish to show the men all his valuable things, Isaiah said to him" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

the word of Yahweh

"the message of Yahweh"

Look, the days are about to come when

"Listen to me, someday there will come a time when"; "Look" is used to draw attention to what Isaiah is about to tell Hezekiah.

the days

"Days" is synecdoche to refer to an undefined span of time. (See: Synecdoche)

translationWords

son

eunuch

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

2 Kings, in the Historical, opens this verse with 7 words (7 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Yᵉshaʻyâh (“Isaiah”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word Yᵉshaʻyâh carries the sense “Isaiah.” How does it shape the verse?
How does 2 Kings 19:2, which shares the word «Isaiah», read alongside this verse?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
«וַיֹּ֥אמֶר» is a Qal Sequential Imperfect verb. How does that grammatical form shape the action described?
Compare how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse. Where do they agree or differ?

Things to notice

This verse counts 7 Hebrew ↔ 8 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 2 words in this verse.
7 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.