Hezekiah Seeks Isaiah’s Counsel

37 As soon as Hezekiah the king^[a] heard this, he tore his clothes, dressed himself in sackcloth, and went into the Lord’s Temple. ² Then he sent Eliakim, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, all wearing sackcloth, to Amoz’s son, the prophet Isaiah. ³ “Here is what Hezekiah says,” they told him. “This day is a day of trouble, rebuke, and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no energy to deliver them. ⁴ Perhaps the Lord your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, sent to mock the living God, and perhaps he will rebuke the words that the Lord your God has heard. So lift up a prayer for the remnant that still survives in this city.”^[b]