Kings II 19:1

1 And they brought Joab word, saying, Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Abessalom.

Kings II 19:1 Meaning and Commentary

2 Kings 19:1

And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it
The report of Rabshakeh's speech, recorded in the preceding chapter,

that he rent his clothes, and covered himself with sackcloth;
rent his clothes because of the blasphemy in the speech; and he put on sackcloth, in token of mourning, for the calamities he feared were coming on him and his people: and he went into the house of the Lord; the temple, to pray unto him. The message he sent to Isaiah, with his answer, and the threatening letter of the king of Assyria, Hezekiah's prayer upon it, and the encouraging answer he had from the Lord, with the account of the destruction of the Assyrian army, and the death of Sennacherib, are the same "verbatim" as in ( Isaiah 37:1 ) throughout; and therefore the reader is referred thither for the exposition of them; only would add what Rauwolff ^F20 observes, that still to this day (1575) there are two great holes to be seen, wherein they flung the dead bodies (of the Assyrian army), one whereof is close by the road towards Bethlehem, the other towards the right hand against old Bethel.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 Travels, par. 3. ch. 22. p. 317.

Kings II 19:1 In-Context

1 And they brought Joab word, saying, Behold, the king weeps and mourns for Abessalom.

2 And the victory was turned that day into mourning to all the people, for the people heard say that day, The king grieves after his son.

3 And the people stole away that day to go into the city, as people steal away when they are ashamed as they flee in the battle.

4 And the king hid his face: and the king cried with a loud voice, My son Abessalom! Abessalom my son!

5 And Joab went in to the king, into the house, and said, Thou hast this day shamed the faces of all thy servants that have delivered thee this day, and the lives of thy sons and of thy daughters, and the lives of thy wives, and of thy concubines,