“So when you spread out your hands [in prayer, pleading for My help], I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you offer many prayers, I will not be listening. Your hands are full of blood!

And in that day you will say, “Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name [in prayer]. Make His deeds known among the peoples [of the earth]; Proclaim [to them] that His name is exalted!”

O Lord, they sought You in distress; They managed only a prayerful whisper When Your discipline was upon them.

It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh [the commander], whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to taunt and defy the living God, and will avenge the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore, offer a prayer for the remnant [of His people] that is left.’”

Hezekiah’s Prayer in the Temple

Then Hezekiah took the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it, and he went up to the house of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.

“Go and say to Hezekiah, ‘For the Lord, the God of David your father says this, “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; listen carefully, I will add fifteen years to your life.

“I have stirred up and put into action one from the north [the king of Persia, Cyrus the Great], and he has come; From the rising of the sun he will call on My Name [in prayer]. And he will trample on [the Babylonian] officials as on mortar, Even as a potter treads clay.”

The Shortcomings of Israel

“Yet you have not called on Me [in prayer and worship], O Jacob; But you have grown weary of Me, O Israel.

All these I will bring to My holy mountain And make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; For My house will be called a house of prayer for all the peoples.”

And give Him no rest [from your prayers] until He establishes Jerusalem And makes her a praise on the earth.

Prayer for Mercy and Help

Oh, that You would tear open the heavens and come down, That the mountains might quake at Your presence—