Isaiah 37:1

Jerusalem’s Deliverance Foretold

1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD.

Isaiah 37:1 in Other Translations

KJV

1 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.

ESV

1 As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD.

NLT

1 When King Hezekiah heard their report, he tore his clothes and put on burlap and went into the Temple of the LORD .

MSG

1 When King Hezekiah heard the report, he also tore his clothes and dressed in rough, penitential burlap gunnysacks, and went into the sanctuary of God.

CSB

1 When King Hezekiah heard [their report], he tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and went to the house of the Lord.

Isaiah 37:1 Meaning and Commentary

Isaiah 37:1

And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it
The report that his ministers made to him of the blasphemies and threatenings of Rabshakeh, the general of the Assyrian army: that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth;
the one because of the blasphemies he heard; the other cause of the destruction he and his people were threatened with: and went into the house of the Lord;
the temple, to pray to him there: he could have prayed in his own house, but he chose rather to go to the house of God, not so much on account of the holiness of the place, but because there the Lord promised, and was used to hear the prayers of his people, 1Ki 8:29,30
as also because it was more public, and would be known to the people, and set them an example to follow him in. Trouble should not keep persons from, but bring them to, the house of God; here the Lord is to be inquired of, here he is to be found; and from hence he sends deliverance and salvation to his people. Nothing is more proper than prayer in times of affliction; it is no ways unbecoming nor lessening the greatest king on earth to lay aside his royal robes, to humble himself before God, in a time of distress, and pray unto him. Hezekiah does not sit down to consider Rabshakeh's speech, to take it in pieces, and give an answer to it, but he applies unto God.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Isaiah 37:1 In-Context

1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and went into the temple of the LORD.

2 He sent Eliakim the palace administrator, Shebna the secretary, and the leading priests, all wearing sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz.

3 They told him, “This is what Hezekiah says: This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the moment of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.

4 It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the field commander, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to ridicule the living God, and that he will rebuke him for the words the LORD your God has heard. Therefore pray for the remnant that still survives.”

5 When King Hezekiah’s officials came to Isaiah,