Incline thy ear … and hear; open thy eyes … and see: The idiomatic expression Incline thy ear is simply a way of saying “Listen” (so New Living Translation) and is synonymous with the verb hear that follows. In the same way open thy eyes conveys essentially the same meaning as see. In some languages the repetition of this similar meaning may be considered awkward and each of these pairs will be reduced to a single verb. Good News Translation reverses the order of seeing and hearing and also translates these ideas once each instead of imitating the repetition of the Hebrew text, which actually has the idea of hearing a third time.

The words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God is literally “the words of Sennacherib who sent him to mock the living God.” The pronoun “him” refers to the Rabshakeh, Sennacherib’s official. Nouvelle Bible Segond, therefore, says “the words of Sennacherib, who has sent his commander of the supply corps in order to insult the living God.” It makes little difference in meaning whether Revised Standard Version or Nouvelle Bible Segond is followed, since in either case the sense is that the message sent by Sennacherib was intended to mock God.

For Sennacherib see 2 Kgs 18.13.

For the verb mock, see the comments at verse 4.

Unlike verse 4, the phrase the living God is a part of a direct quotation in which God is addressed directly, so it will be more natural in many languages to say something like “you, the living God.”

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 2. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .