Isaiah’s Message of Deliverance
On hearing the Assyrian threats, Hezekiah tears his clothes, clothes himself in sackcloth, and goes into the house of the LORD, while his officials and leading priests go in mourning to Isaiah. Hezekiah names the moment as one of childbirth without strength to deliver and asks for prayer on behalf of the remnant, and Isaiah responds that the LORD is not intimidated by the blasphemies of Assyria: He will send a spirit on the king so that a rumor turns him homeward and a sword ends him there.
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 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.” 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.’”