2 Kings 19 · a question people ask

Why did the LORD save Jerusalem: because Hezekiah prayed, or for David's sake?

In the text

The chapter gives both, in the LORD's own words. To Hezekiah: "You have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, and I have heard you" (19:20). Of the city: "For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake" (19:34). And to the king of Assyria he names what the king had done against him: "Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears" (19:28). "For David's sake" is not new in Kings. Solomon was told that one tribe would be given to his son "for David my servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen" (1 Kings 11:13), and in Jehoram's days "the LORD would not destroy Judah, for David his servant’s sake" (8:19). In the next chapter the LORD says it again, when Hezekiah is sick: "I will defend this city for my own sake, and for my servant David’s sake" (20:6). The chapter doesn't set these reasons against each other. It gives them side by side.

The verses

“Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “The LORD, the God of Israel, says ‘You have prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, and I have heard you.”
2 Kings 19:20 · World English Bible
“Because of your raging against me, and because your arrogance has come up into my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose, and my bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way by which you came.’”
2 Kings 19:28 · World English Bible
“‘For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake.’””
2 Kings 19:34 · World English Bible
“However, I will not tear away all the kingdom; but I will give one tribe to your son, for David my servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.””
1 Kings 11:13 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 2 Kings 19

2 Kings 19: Spread it before the LORD

Sennacherib's words were sent "to defy the living God" (19:16), with the verb David used of Goliath (1 Samuel 17:26). Hezekiah took the letter into the LORD's house and "spread it before the LORD" (19:14) and asked to be saved "that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, LORD, are God alone" (19:19).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions