Isaiah chapter 12 - 2nd Kings

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“And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me.
2 Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
3 Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the LORD, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.
5 Sing unto the LORD; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth.
6 Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.”

The entire chapter of Isaiah twelve is comprised of six verses. The above words which are not emphasized (either as italics or bold print) would probably occur in every chapter of the Bible. Those that are emphasized may be slightly less common, although even some of them are heavily used. Those that are in bold type above do not occur in the chapters of 2nd Kings. Those that are in italics above are found in the pages of 2nd Kings.

This chapter of Isaiah is an expression of joy. Isaiah speaks of singing songs of praise, and of trusting the LORD. He knows that God has turned away His anger. God is comforting Isaiah. There are really no words here with any negative connotation. God is nurturing and comforting His people. Isaiah invites them to join him in praising the exalted Holy One of Israel. You can read this chapter and sense Isaiah’s emotions and feelings.

There are many verses in the Bible that contain the words that are highlighted in yellow above, not just 2nd Kings. Biblically speaking, these words are quite common. However, though all of the words in yellow can be found in 2nd Kings, several of them occur together in the verses of 2nd Kings. Some of these pairs of words can be found in verses throughout the Bible in many of the other books. Those that are found in 2nd Kings are presented here. Note the sense of despair that the following verses bring to your mind as you read these. The words in yellow are the same words that are in yellow above, but the sense of the following verses is nothing akin to that of Isaiah chapter twelve. Not one of the following verses is uplifting. They are all very negative. There are twenty of them.

“And the sons of the prophets that were at Bethel came forth to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he said, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.” (2nd Kings 2:3)

“And the sons of the prophets that were at Jericho came to Elisha, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day? And he answered, Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.” (2nd Kings 2:5)

“And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.” (2nd Kings 2:24)

“And ye shall smite every fenced city, and every choice city, and shall fell every good tree, and stop all wells of water, and mar every good piece of land with stones.” (2nd Kings 3:19)

“And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.” (2nd Kings 4:8)

“And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there.” (2nd Kings 4:11)

“But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.” (2nd Kings 5:11)

“Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.” (2nd Kings 5:12)

“He slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day.” (2nd Kings 14:7)

“And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger:” (2nd Kings 17:11)

“Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.” (2nd Kings 17:23)

“Thou sayest, (but they are but vain words,) I have counsel and strength for the war. Now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?” (2nd Kings 18:20)

“But if ye say unto me, We trust in the LORD our God: is not that he, whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah hath taken away, and hath said to Judah and Jerusalem, Ye shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem?” (2nd Kings 18:22)

“How then wilt thou turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put thy trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen?”(2 Kings 18:24)

“And they said unto him, Thus saith Hezekiah, This day is a day of trouble, and of rebuke, and blasphemy: for the children are come to the birth, and there is not strength to bring forth.” (2nd Kings 19:3)

“Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.” (2nd Kings 19:22)

‘Because they have done that which was evil in my sight, and have provoked me to anger, since the day their fathers came forth out of Egypt, even unto this day.”
(2nd Kings 21:15)

“And all the houses also of the high places that were in the cities of Samaria, which the kings of Israel had made to provoke the LORD to anger, Josiah took away, and did to them according to all the acts that he had done in Bethel.” (2nd Kings 23:19)

“Notwithstanding the LORD turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath, wherewith his anger was kindled against Judah, because of all the provocations that Manasseh had provoked him withal.” (2nd Kings 23:26)

“And Pharaoh-nechoh made Eliakim the son of Josiah king in the room of Josiah his father, and turned his name to Jehoiakim, and took Jehoahaz away: and he came to Egypt, and died there.” (2nd Kings 23:34)

The above verses that have just one pair of words are like many other verses in the Bible that have the same two words in them. The uniqueness of these is that where the words of Isaiah chapter twelve are positive, theses are ALL negative.

There are some of the above verses where there are THREE words highlighted. For some of these verses, it is because one of the words is the word ‘LORD’. If we eliminate the verses above that include the word ‘LORD’ in order to have three words, and then select the remaining verses that have three words taken from the list for Isaiah chapter twelve other than the word ‘LORD’, we are left with only two verses. 2nd Kings 5:11 has three words in addition to the word ‘LORD’ so it still falls within the selection criteria.

“But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the LORD his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.” (2nd Kings 5:11)

“Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.” (2nd Kings 19:22)

The three words in 2nd Kings 5:11 are ‘call’, ‘name’ and ‘away’. Those three words are found in this verse and nowhere else in the Bible, except Hosea 1:6, so that verse is eliminated as being anything special, but our second verse is the one we are looking for.

There is only one place in the entire Bible where ‘exalted’ and ‘Holy One of Israel’ occur in the same verse, and that verse is the one seen above, 2nd Kings 19:22. The phrase ‘Holy One of Israel’ is found throughout the Bible, but not in combination with the word exalted. The computer tells me that this combination can be found in fourteen different CHAPTERS in the Bible, among them Isaiah chapter twelve, but there is only one place where this combination occurs in one, singular VERSE, and that is 2nd Kings 19:22.

Is it just a coincidence? Is this all just playing games with words, or is there a special reason that the Holy Spirit inspired Isaiah to put those words in his chapter twelve, and Ezra to put those same words in verse twenty-two of 2nd Kings? No. It’s not a coincidence. They were connected on purpose long ago, and they are still connected today for God’s own reasons.