2 Kings 19:1-7--Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah

2 Kings 19:1-7
English Standard Version

Isaiah Reassures Hezekiah
19 As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD. 2 And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. 3 They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the LORD your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.” 5 When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, 6 Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. 7 Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

---

Isaiah is a priest, not just a prophet, so he's allowed to go into the "house of the LORD" (the Holy Place).  We see him there in the book of Isaiah as well as he had his vision of the LORD high and lifted up while he was ministering in the Holy Place (this may have meant that Isaiah was even the High Priest at the time as it was the job of the High Priest to tend to the lamps in the Holy Place and to offer the incense on the Golden Altar of Incense that stood in front of the veil between the Holy Place and the Most Holy Place).

When Hezekiah heard of what happened, he tore his clothes as well (just like his officials had) tp show that he and the whole nation with him were in a state of mourning.  Clothes were not easy to replace back then and were a commodity that they traded in (you'll see many times in the Bible where someone offered to pay someone in changes of new clothes and linen garments--the king's robes were even more expensive than the normal man's clothes because they were usually made of dyed cloth that was hard to come by--blues, purples, and reds, and sometimes even with gold woven into the fabric--that made them worth much more).  However, the king did rent his robes to show the state of his heart and the state of the nation.  They were torn apart and in mourning.

The king sent his same officials he had sent to hear the prophet to Isaiah the priest (probably the High Priest at the time) who was ministering in the Temple, but was also a prophet of the LORD.  This is the message that the king sends to Isaiah (vs 3-4):

“Thus says Hezekiah, This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the LORD your God heard all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.”

When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, he was ready for them with a message from the LORD (vs. 6-7):

​“Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have reviled me. Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”

The LORD is going to take care of the king of Assyria without and more bribes or the need for alliances with the king of Egypt or anyone else.  The LORD will put a spirit of fear in him that will cause him to believe a rumor and head home where he will believe he is safe from danger, but it is there that the sword will find him and he will be put to death in his own land.  The words of this prophecy will be fulfilled throughout the rest of this chapter.  King Hezekiah need not fear the words of the prophet of the king of Assyria because the LORD is the one who knew the true future of both Judah and Assyria, and he would send one angel to do what the king of Assyria bragged that the combined power of Judah and Egypt could not do.  We'll get to that over the next couple of days.