“And it came to pass, when king Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord.”
Hezekiah tears his clothes and covers himself with sackcloth, expressing his distress and engaging in the ritual postures of lamentation and repentance. The oracle shows that the king's response to the Assyrian threat is not military but spiritual: the adoption of ritual forms associated with turning to God in crisis. The wearing of sackcloth represents the king's identification with the people's distress and his submission to God's judgment.
COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS
Publish a note on this verse
0/2000
No notes on this verse yet. Be the first to write one!