Isaiah 37:14

“And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it, &c.] Or booksf713, in which the above things were written; and everyone of these he read, as Kimchi interprets it; though the Targum is, “he took the letters from the hand of the messengers, and read one of them;” that is, as Kimchi’s father explains it, in which was the blasphemy against God; this he read over carefully to himself, observed the contents of it, and then did with it as follows: and Hezekiah went up unto the house of God; the temple, the outward court of it, further than that he could not go: and spread it before the Lord; not to read it, as he had done, or to acquaint him with the contents of it,…”

“spread--unrolled the scroll of writing. God "knows our necessities before we ask Him," but He delights in our unfolding them to Him with filial confidence (Ch2 20:3, Ch2 20:11-13).”

“And Hezekiah received the letter - Hebrew, ‘Letters’ (plural). It is not mentioned in the account of the embassy Isaiah 37:9, that a letter was sent, but it is not probable that all embassage would be sent to a monarch without a written document. Went up into the house of the Lord - The temple Isaiah 37:1. And spread it before the Lord - Perhaps unrolled the document there, and spread it out; or perhaps it means simply that he spread out the contents of the letter, that is, made mention of it in his prayer. Hezekiah had no other resource. He was a man of God; and in his trouble he looked to God for aid. He, therefore, before he formed any plan, went up to the temple, and laid his case before…”

“37:14-20 When he received Sennacherib’s boastful threat, Hezekiah returned to the Temple and prayed for rescue. His prayer stands in contrast to Ahaz’s response to danger decades earlier (see ch 7).”

“received: Kg2 19:14 and Hezekiah went: Isa 37:1; Kg1 8:28-30, Kg1 8:38, Kg1 9:3; 2Chr. 6:20-42; Psa 27:5, Psa 62:1-3, Psa 74:10, Psa 76:1-3; Psa 123:1-4, Psa 143:6; Joe 2:17-20 Isaiah 37:15”

“This intimidating message, which declared the God of Israel to be utterly powerless, was conveyed by the messengers of Sennacherib in the form of a latter. "And Hizkiyahu took the letter out of the hand of the messengers, and read it (K. read them), and went up to the house of Jehovah; and Hizkiyahu spread it before Jehovah." Sephârı̄m (the sheets) is equivalent to the letter (not a letter in duplo), like literae (cf., grammata). ויּקראהוּ (changed by K. into m- ') is construed according to the singular idea. Thenius regards this spreading out of the letter as a naivetי; and Gesenius even goes so far as to speak of the praying machines of the Buddhists. But it was simply prayer without…”