2 Kings 19:1-7·~1 min

Isaiah’s Message of Deliverance

Hezekiah mourns before the LORD and sends humbled officials to Isaiah, describing Judah’s extremity and asking prayer for the surviving remnant under Assyria’s contempt.

O¹n hearing this report, King Hezekiah tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and entered the house of the LORD. ²And he sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the scribe, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz ³to tell him, “This is what Hezekiah says: Today is a day of distress, rebuke, and disgrace; for children have come to the point of birth, but there is no strength to deliver them. ⁴Perhaps the LORD your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to defy the living God, and He will rebuke him for the words that the LORD your God has heard. Therefore lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives.”

Isaiah sends back the LORD’s answer: Hezekiah must not fear Assyria’s words, because the king will be diverted, sent home, and there meet his end.

⁵So the servants of King Hezekiah went to Isaiah, ⁶who replied, “Tell your master that this is what the LORD says: ‘Do not be afraid of the words you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. ⁷Behold, I will put a spirit in him so that he will hear a rumor and return to his own land, where I will cause him to fall by the sword.’”

Section summaryHezekiah receives the Assyrian threat as a national humiliation and turns at once toward the LORD’s house and the LORD’s prophet. Isaiah answers with calm assurance: the blasphemy has been heard, and the king of Assyria will be turned back and brought down.

Role in the chapterThis opening section sets the chapter’s pattern of response. Judah’s crisis is placed before God, and the first answer establishes that the real issue is not Assyria’s strength but its defiance of the living God.